Javier Lopez Soto

Chronic pain is a major public health priority and there is an acute need for effective and non-addictive treatments; progress toward this goal depends critically on a comprehensive understanding of its underlying molecular mechanisms. My goal is to identify key epigenetic mechanisms that control transcript identity in nociceptors of dorsal root ganglia; nociceptors are neurons that undergo abnormal changes in activity following nerve damage and these changes are associated with the pathophysiology of neuropathic pain.

The focus of my project is to delineate key molecular remodeling events that occur in sensory neurons after nerve damage and that are associated with pathophysiology of neuropathic pain. The long-term goal is to inform development of new therapies to mitigate neuropathic pain. I aim to: �������� 1. Identify aberrant splicing of critical synaptic genes in nociceptors in an animal model of neuropathic pain, and; �������� 2. Determine epigenetic markers that control alternative splicing in nociceptors and are disrupted in neuropathic pain.