Team members

Chronic Pain: Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms

Our team explores the mechanisms through which tissue and nerve injury produce changes in the peripheral and central nervous system, resulting in persistent pain.

Chronic pain affects one third of the world population creating tremendous suffering and disability. Its societal cost is more than diabetes, cancer and heart disease combined. Despite these facts, very little is known about how pain becomes chronic. Mounting evidence suggests that loss of spinal inhibition (disinhibition) is one of the most important underlying mechanisms of chronic pain. Our team’s goal is to decipher the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the transition from acute to chronic. To address these questions, we are using a multidisciplinary approach combining mouse genetics, behavioral pharmacology, omics and ex-vivo electrophysiology. In particular, (i) we are studying the role of TAFA4; a C-LTRMs-enriched secreted neurokine in modulation of gating neurons activity, (ii) we address the role of the C-LTMRs themselves in modulation of injury-induced mechanical pain, (iii) we are studying how loss-of-function of a gut-enriched atypical myosin protein (Myo1a) predisposes mice to develop chronic pain in a sexually dimorphic manner. Our team is also getting more and more interested in understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying sex-related differences in chronic pain

Picture highlighting a dense ramification of a single C-LTMR within lamina II inner of dorsal horn spinal cord

Publications

Our last publications

News

of the teams

Team members

They drive our research

Alumni

They contributed to our research
Lucie Pepino
PhD student, seeking a posdoc position in Cambridge UK
Yoo Sungjea
Postdoc now researcher at Neuroservice France
Catarina Santos
PhD student now engineer at Tafalgie Therapeutics
Anissa Jhumka
PhD student now Postdoc at Columbia university, NY USA
Manon Bohic
PhD student now postdoc Rutgers University NJ USA
Serge Alonso
CRCN CNRS (retired)
Marie-Claire Delfini
CRCN CNRS now in Paris
Eduardo Gascon
Postdoc, now CR1 CNRS and PI at the institute of la Timone Marseille
Stéphane Gaillard
Postdoc, now DG of Tafalgie Therapeutics
Svetlana Gorokhova
Postdoc, now Research associate at la Timone Hospital
Mélanie Hocine
AI, now AI CNRS in F. Mann Lab
Annabelle Mantilleri
PhD student, now manager of the operative bloc at Nice Hospital
Laure Lore
PhD student, now Research engineer at Tafalgie Therapeutics
Louise Urien
PhD student, now project manager" at Weill Cornell Medecine NY

Funding bodies

They support our research

Gallery