Why do some people develop chronic pain?
- We are searching for key molecular events that define long-lasting pain. For instance, looking at transcriptional events that remain persistent from the acute to the chronic phase of pain.
- We are also developing new models to mimic genetic/environmental variability to reproduce differential susceptibility to chronic pain in laboratory animals.
- We want to understand if differences in cellular or organismal lipid metabolism are the key to this differential susceptibility.
How do lipids and lipid metabolism affect Pain?
- We want to understand how dysregulated lipid metabolism and accumulation in microglia affect microglial phenotype and immune function.
- We want to know if lipid or lipid metabolites serve as key molecules bridging signaling or neuron-glia communication.
- We want to understand how lipids influence epigenetic and reprogramming events in glia and macrophages.
Understanding Migraine pathophysiology
- Understand the role of AIBP (which coding gene was found to be a susceptibility loci) in migraine pathophysiology.
- Identify the role of lipid dysregulation in macrophages in trigeminal neuron excitability, priming, and sensitization in migraine.
- Develop new animal models of migraine that reflect differential susceptibility.