Miroslav Tolar

Miroslav Tolar, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Orthodontics and Biomedical Sciences at the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry, University of the Pacific, San Francisco, CA, USA, where he leads the Stem Cells and Regenerative Dentistry Laboratory.

Dr. Tolar received his MD with honors from the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. He completed his PhD at the Institute of Physiology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, in Prague. In addition to the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague. He conducted his research at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York; the Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan; and several research laboratories at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Tolar has several dozen scientific publications and has been featured as an Invited and Keynote speaker at several national and international scientific meetings. His scientific interests are in the culture of human dental stem cells and their use to test dental materials, in biomarkers of tooth movement. Most recently, his research studies have focused on the cellular mechanisms by which folic acid prevents birth defects.

He serves as a mentor to orthodontic residents (25 of whom have already defended their theses), dental students, and young faculty on their research. Recently, several of his mentees were awarded prestigious recognition at scientific meetings (ICPF in Frankfurt – 1st place in Poster presentations; the 2026 AAO Annual Meeting in Orlando – 1st place in the residents’ basic science research award).

For many decades, he has worked closely with his wife, Dr. Marie Tolarova, researching the causes and genetic aspects of clefts and applying this knowledge to cleft prevention. He was a very strong supporter of her milestone cleft-prevention study conducted in the Czech Republic, which demonstrated a significant role for folic acid in preventing cleft recurrence. He cofounded, together with Dr. Tolarova, the Cleft Prevention International Foundation in 2016.

He participated in 15 Rotaplast International cleft medical missions to South America, Asia, and India. and delivered several keynote lectures in international congresses on cleft lip and palate and craniofacial anomalies.