The Stucky lab investigates somatosensory and pain mechanisms in 4 major areas:
1) Keratinocyte-Neuron Interactions: Skin keratinocytes are required for normal touch and temperature sensation. We are interested in understanding how these cells encode external stimuli to sensory neurons and how this signaling is altered after tissue injury orin disease states.
2) Sickle Cell Pain: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic blood disorder that is associated with severe acute and chronic pain. Treatments for SCD pain are limited and often ineffective. To find better treatments for SCD pain, we use two humanized mouse models and procure human samples through our close collaboration with Dr. Amanda Brandow, a pediatric hematologist who treats patients with SCD.
3) Fabry Pain: Fabry disease (FD) is the most common lysosomal storage disease and is associated with chronic pain. We created a rat model of FD with our MCW colleague, Dr. Nancy Dahms, and are now using this model to investigate the causes and treatment of FD pain.
4) Translational Modeling and Drug Discovery for Chronic Pain: We are always interested in finding new targets for chronic pain management. In addition to our SCD and FD animal models, we use inducible mouse models of inflammatory, neuropathic, and migraine pain to probe peripheral pain circuits. To increase translatability, we are verifying these findings in human tissues. In addition to collecting patient skin samples, we are also developing human-iPSC-derived sensory neurons from patient cells in collaboration with our MCW colleague Dr. Allison Ebert.
What techniques do we use to investigate all of these exciting areas?
1) Behavioral Assays: A plethora of behavioral assays to evaluate touch and temperature sensitivity including noxious needle, von Frey, texture preference, hot plate, Hargreaves, and many other methods.
2) Electrophysiology: State of the art electrophysiological assays including patch clamp recordings, ex vivo skin-nerve recordings, microelectrode array (MEA) extracellular recordings, and calcium imaging.
3) Molecular Biological Techniques: Quantitative PCR, immunocytochemistry, ELISA, RNAscope, mass spectroscopy, electron microscopy as well as other cellular and molecular biology techniques to dissect signaling mechanisms underlying touch and pain.
We are grateful for generous funding from the National Institutes of Health and Medical College of Wisconsin as follows:
R01 NS040538 R01 NS070711 R37 NS108278, Javits Award Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin
