A recent focus area is understanding how the nervous system creates and modulates perceptions linked to the activation of very fast-conducting pain-sensing neurons in health and disease. The research group consists of a senior postdoc, a staff scientist, a Ph.D. student, and a research engineer.
The textbook view is that pain signals travel slower than touch in humans. Our research has shown that pain can be signaled just as rapidly through very fast-conducting neurons in the skin, which we’ve termed ultrafast nociceptors (UFNs). We are now focused on studying the UFN system at functional and molecular levels to understand its role in health and disease. Further details can be found in the Projects section.