
Chronic pain is a major health problem in the US, affecting 100 million Americans. The long-term goal of the lab is to identify molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie the genesis of chronic pain and, furthermore, to develop novel pain therapeutics that can target these mechanisms. We are interested in the following questions. (1) How do neuroinflammation and activation of glial cells (microglia and astrocytes) regulate pain and spinal cord synaptic plasticity via neuro-glial and neuro-immune interactions? (2) How do secreted miRNAs regulate neuronal signaling and synaptic transmission and pain as novel neuromodulators and pain mediators? (3) How do pro-resolution lipid mediators such as resolvins and protectin control pain via GPCR and arrestin signaling? (4) Do pain and itch share similar mechanisms? (5) How does Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling in primary sensory neurons regulate pain and itch? (6) How can bone marrow stem cells produce long-term pain relief via secreting anti-inflammatory and trophic factors? We employ a multidisciplinary approach that covers in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo electrophysiology, neuronal and glial cell biology, transgenic mice, and behaviors.
Education and Training
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (China), Ph.D. 1990
Associated Faculty Labs
Selected Grants and Awards
- Identification and Validation of a Novel Central Analgesia Circuit
- Neurobiology Training Program
- TRPM8 in eye health and disease
- Control of Astrocyte Development and Astrocyte-Synapse Interactions
- Temporal Patterns of Spinal Cord Stimulation
- Medical Scientist Training Program
- Organization and Function of Cellular Structure
- VIPER: Chronic Pain after Amputation: Inflammatory Mechanisms, Novel Analgesic Pathways and Improved Patient Safety
- Neuroimmune mechanisms governing neuropathic cancer pain pathologies
- Resolution pathway of pain
- Hemichannels, Astrocytic Release, and Neuropathic Pain
- Basic predoctoral training in neuroscience
- Development of novel therapeutics for pain and itch relief
- Treating chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain by targeted silencing of A-fibers
- Functional Characterization of Parabrachial Circuits Processing Noxious Thermal Pain
- Control of Tripartite Synapse Formation by Astrocytic Neuroligins
- Treatment of Neuropathic Pain after SCI with a Catalytic Oxidoreductant
- Neuronal and glial interactions of neuropathic pain
- Resolvins, protectins, and chronic pain resolution
- Resolvin modulation of TRP channel function and evoked hyperexcitability in human sensory neurons
Department Affiliation
- Department of Anesthesiology