Grant: Operating Grant

My laboratory investigates the role of pore proteins in the membrane of nerve cells that detect pain signals. These proteins detect noxious stimuli when a person, for example, burns their hands or hits their finger nail with a hammer. In disease conditions, these proteins become highly sensitive to the stimulus and will activate the nervous system to produce pain sensation for non noxious stimulation (moderate temperature or light touch). Such chronic pain conditions can last for years and affect over 25% of the Canadian population with a strong impact on patient's quality of life. My research program will use unique approaches from molecular studies and behavioral studies in the whole animal to understand how aberrant function of these proteins is regulated in disease conditions.