The Neurobiology of Pain & Opioids
The Scherrer Lab investigates the mechanisms that underlie pain perception and its modulation by opioids. We study the sensory, emotional and cognitive dimensions of pain, and how opioids act in neural circuits to produce pain relief and their deleterious side effects such as tolerance, addiction and respiratory depression. By uncovering the fundamental neurobiological processes by which our nervous system shapes pain experience and responds to opioids, our research enables the development of novel therapeutics to block pain more efficiently, and with reduced side effects, compared to current medications.
To resolve pain and opioid mechanisms comprehensively, at the genetic, molecular, cellular, neural circuit, and whole organism levels, our multidisciplinary research combines molecular and cellular biology, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, opto-/chemo-genetics, in vivo recordings of neural activity and behavioral experiments. The neuroanatomical images above show that we study pain and opioid mechanisms across the entire nervous system, from primary afferent sensory neurons that detect noxious stimuli (left), to the neurons that integrate and transmit pain information in the spinal cord (middle), as well as the brain neurons that generate and control pain emotions (right).
Scherrer Lab News
2023
April – New Graduate Student.
Kayla Richardson, from the UNC-CH Neuroscience curriculum, joins the lab. Kayla will be co-mentored by Greg and Prof. Dan Christoffel (Dept. of Psychology & Neuroscience and UNC Neuroscience Center).
Welcome Kayla!
Kayla Richardson, BS, PhD student
2022
December – New publication in Neuron in collaboration with Prof. Lu Chen’s group at Stanford.
Spinal cord retinoic acid receptor signaling gates mechanical hypersensitivity in neuropathic pain. Cao B, Scherrer G, Chen L. Neuron. 2022 Dec 21;110(24):4108-4124.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.09.027. Epub 2022 Oct 11. PMID: 36223767
July – New Lab Member. Crystal Dezha-Bolteada joins the lab as a UNC PREP (Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program) student.
https://www.med.unc.edu/oge/stad/prep/
Welcome, Crystal!
Crystal Dezha-Bolteada, BS, postbaccalaureate student
June – David wins the Eshelman Institute Rankin Innovator Acceleration Award, supported by Lawson and Gisele Rankin, for developing novel compounds that act in the amygdala to treat pain suffering. The award is given annually to two students or postdocs to pursue entrepreneurial training opportunities.
April – New Graduate Students. Joseph Krzeski and Yuechen Qiu, from the UNC-CH Neuroscience curriculum, join the lab. Welcome Joe and Yuechen!
Joe Krzeski, BS, PhD student
Yuechen Qiu, BS, PhD student
April – New Lab Member. Dr. Takanori Matsubara joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc.
Takanori is awarded a fellowship from the Daiichi Sankyo Foundation of Life Science for his postdoctoral studies in the Scherrer Lab. Congratulations and Welcome, Takanori!
Dr. Takanori Matsubara, PhD
February – Greg receives a Mentoring Award from the Office of Graduate Education.
January – New Publication. Matan Geron and Adrien Tassou write a Preview article “Sympathetic yet painful: Autonomic innervation drives cluster firing of somatosensory neurons” for Neuron on Dr. Xinzhong Dong and colleagues’ article “Synchronized cluster firing, a distinct form of sensory neuron activation, drives spontaneous pain”.
Geron M, Tassou A, Scherrer G. Neuron. 2022 Jan 19;110(2):175-177. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.12.025. PMID: 35051359
2021
November – New Lab Member. Dr. Valerie Michael joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Valerie!
November – New Publication. Nicole Mercer Lindsay and Chong Chen co-author a Review article on “Brain Circuits for Pain and its Treatment” for Science Translational Medicine, in collaboration with Drs. Gadi Gilam and Sean Mackey.
This Special Issue of Science Translational Medicine on Pain includes other Review and Viewpoint articles by Prof. Frank Porreca, Cobi Heijnen, Irene Tracey, and Clifford Woolf. Check it out!
November – New Publication. David Lee and Matan Geron write a News and Views article “A modulator-bound GPCR structure enables allosteric non-opioid analgesia” for Nature Structural and Molecular Biology on Dr. Arthur Christopoulos and colleagues’ article published in Nature “Positive allosteric mechanisms of adenosine A1 receptor-mediated analgesia”.
Lee DF, Geron M, Scherrer G. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2021 Nov;28(11):871-872. doi: 10.1038/s41594-021-00681-8. PMID: 34754105
September – New Lab Member. Dr. Jesse Niehaus joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Jesse!
June - The Scherrer Lab receives funding from the NIH/NIDA to generate, in collaboration with Dr. Hongkui Zeng (Allen Institute for Brain Science) and Dr. Mark Schnitzer (Stanford University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute), an exceptional resource for the opioid research field: a comprehensive accounting of the various brain cell types that express each of the opioid receptors and peptides, as well as the cell-type-specific molecular changes that occur when these brain cells are exposed to opioids: “A comprehensive dissection of cell types, circuits and molecular adaptations during opioid use"
June - The UNC SURE Research Program publishes a spotlight on Sy’Keria Garrison. Well done, Sy’Keria!
Check the UNC SURE Research Program pages @unc_sure_summer on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
April - David Lee passes the Qualifying Doctoral Exam of the BBSP Pharmacology curriculum. Congrats David!
January - The Scherrer Lab is awarded the Brain Research Foundation Scientific Innovations Award.
2020
December – The Scherrer Lab receives the McKnight Award for Study of Brain Disorders.
December – Greg moderates a webinar from the Pain Research Form on the brain’s pain circuits, with talks by Biafra Ahanonu, our former colleague at Stanford, and Jarret Weinrich (Basbaum lab, UCSF).
November – The Scherrer Lab receives funding from the NIH HEAL Initiative (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) to develop novel, non-addictive treatments against chronic pain: “Targeting GPCRs in amygdalar and cortical neural ensembles to treat pain aversion”.
October – In collaboration with the von Zastrow, Manglik and Yackle laboratories (UCSF), the Scherrer Lab receives funding from the NIH/NIDA to create novels tool for visualization and manipulation of opioid receptor signaling in neural circuits: “Precision pharmacology by local control of opioid receptors in neural circuits”
August – New Lab Member. Dr. Adrien Tassou joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Adrien!
August – Dan Berg gives a talk on his transcriptomic studies of cell types in the brain’s pain circuits at the #PAIN2020 WORKSHOP. Very exciting and well received—well done, Dan!
July – Nicole Ochandarena is awarded a predoctoral NIH T32 fellowship from the Neuroscience Predoctoral Training Program. Congrats, Nicole!
This fellowship supports the most promising students of the UNC-CH Neurobiology Curriculum (NBIO), one of the oldest neuroscience graduate training programs in the US, having granted PhDs continuously for 47 years.
July – New Lab Members. We are thrilled to welcome two new graduate students to our team, Nicole Ochandarena (MD-PhD, Neuroscience curriculum) and David Lee (PhD, Pharmacology curriculum)!
July – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). Greg joins UNC’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion CBP Advisory Committee. There is no place for racism in science or society. We will work hard to make our department and university a more diverse, equal and inclusive teaching and research environment.
Inclusion Statement and Resources:
https://www.med.unc.edu/cellbiophysio/diversity-equity-inclusion-resources/
“The Department of Cell Biology & Physiology (CBP) acknowledges the historical and persistent existence of racism, inequity, and exclusion in the sciences, the academic environment, and society at large and we are committed to combating this inequality. We recognize that an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment for faculty, students, postdoctoral/clinical fellows, and staff enriches our university by building creative teams that foster scientific discovery and enhance our teaching mission. As a department, we are passionate about creating and sustaining an inclusive and diverse environment for everyone, are committed to increasing equity and diversity and creating true and evident inclusion, regardless of religion, disability, socioeconomic background, national origin, race, gender identity, age, or sexual orientation.”
May – Nicole Mercer Lindsay is awarded a NIH F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA). Nicole received a perfect score of 10! Congrats, Nicole!
The purpose of the Kirschstein-NRSA postdoctoral fellowship is to enhance the research training of promising postdoctoral candidates who have the potential to become productive, independent investigators in scientific health-related research fields relevant to the missions of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers.
March – New Lab Member. Dr. Matan Geron joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Matan!