Educational and Professional Background

Hampden Sydney College - BS, 1970
Medical College of Virginia, School of Dentistry - DDS, 1974
Indiana University - MS, 1976

Dr. Christensen graduated from Hampden-Sydney with a major in
Psychology and a strong interest in neurophysiology.  During his first year of dental school his interest turned to the scientific foundations of the profession, particularly Pathology.  Although tempted to become a surgeon, he followed his passion for study of diseases.

Research/Creative Activities

Dr. Christensen's research has been generally concentrated in two areas:  the study of various mucosal diseases and their neoplastic potential and educational outcomes.

Patient Care Activities

Dr. Christensen is the Director of the UCLA Oral Pathology Laboratory.  This laboratory provides tissue diagnosis for clinicians in California and the western states.

Courses taught

During his long career, Dr. Christensen has taught all of the UCLA Oral Pathology Courses at one time or another along with courses and lectures in General Pathology, Oral Medicine, and other disciplines.

Professional memberships and activities:

IADR / AADR
AADS
AAOMP
IAOMP

Recent Publications

Eversole LR, Christensen RE, Sapp JP and Ficarra G.  Nodular
fasciitis and solitary fibrous tumor of the oral regions:  tumors of
fibroblastic heterogeneity.  Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol1999;87:471-6.

Christensen R E. Scientific Literature reviews for the pre-doctoral student: A different and highly popular approach, J Dent Educ 2001; 65 (3)   ABSTRACT.

Christensen R E, Lefever K H.  A student-based model for curriculum evaluation.   J Dent Educ 2001; 65 (3).

Christensen, Russell E. Soft-tissue examination in the dental office. CDA Journal 2001; 29(8) 586-591.

Kim H, Christensen R, Park N, Sapp P, Kang M,  Park N. Elevated expression of h TERT is associated with dysplastic cell transformation during human oral carcinogenesis in situ.  Clinical Cancer Research 7:3079-3086, 2001.

Prolo P, Chiappelli F, Cajulis E, Spackman S Romero H, Carrozzo M, Gandolfo S, Christensen R. sychoneuroimmunology in oral biology and medicine: The model of Oral Lichen Planus. Ann NY Acad  Scien, 2002 966:429-40.

Paolo Prolo, M.D.1,4; Elaina Cajulis1, Marco Carrozzo2, Sergio
Gandolfo2; Russell Christensen1 , Alberto Angeli3; Francesco
Chiappelli, Ph.D.1,4,*; Psychoneuroimmunology in Oral Lichen Planus IADR ABSTRACT 2002 #2524.

Kim HR, Christensen R, Park H, Sapp P, Kang MK, and Park N-H. Telomerase expression is associated with cell transformation in human oral cavity  IADR ABSTRACT 2002 #1600.

Prolo P, Cajulis E, Chiappelli F, Romeo H, Carrozzo M, Gandolfo S, Christensen R, Angeli A.  neuro-immune interactions in Oral Lichen planus Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society, Madison, WI 2002.