The Neurobiology of Pain & Opioids

The Scherrer Lab investigates the mechanisms that underlie pain perception and its modulation by opioids. We study the sensory, emotional and cognitive dimensions of pain, and how opioids act in neural circuits to produce pain relief and their deleterious side effects such as tolerance, addiction and respiratory depression. By uncovering the fundamental neurobiological processes by which our nervous system shapes pain experience and responds to opioids, our research enables the development of novel therapeutics to block pain more efficiently, and with reduced side effects, compared to current medications.

To resolve pain and opioid mechanisms comprehensively, at the genetic, molecular, cellular, neural circuit, and whole organism levels, our multidisciplinary research combines molecular and cellular biology, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, opto-/chemo-genetics, in vivo recordings of neural activity and behavioral experiments. The neuroanatomical images above show that we study pain and opioid mechanisms across the entire nervous system, from primary afferent sensory neurons that detect noxious stimuli, to the neurons that integrate and transmit pain information in the spinal cord, as well as the brain neurons that generate and control pain emotions.

 

Scherrer Lab News

 

December 2023

Congratulations to two Scherrer Lab postdocs, Dr. Chong Chen and Dr. Adrien Tassou, for this month’s publication in Scientific Reports!

Read Graph theory analysis reveals an assortative pain network vulnerable to attacks

December 2023

Greg was presented the Chair Award from UNC’s Department of Cell Biology and Physiology (CBP) for recognition of outstanding accomplishments!

Learn more about the incredible work being done at UNC CBP.

November 2023

Yuechen Qiu, now PhD Candidate, passed her qualifying exam! The Scherrer Lab and Hantman Lab (her co-mentoring lab) joined to wish Yuechen (right of center, white sweater) congratulations and celebrate her achievement.

November 2023

New publication in Neuropharmacology

Ochandarena NE, Niehaus JK, Tassou A, Scherrer G. Cell-type specific molecular architecture for mu opioid receptor function in pain and addiction circuits. Neuropharmacology… More

July 2023

Josh Blair returns to the Scherrer Lab as our grants manager.

Welcome back, Josh!

May 2023

Ace Lane joins the Scherrer Lab as the new Lab Manager.

Welcome, Ace!

Jan 2023

Kayla Richardson, PhD student from the UNC-CH Neuroscience curriculum, joins the lab. Kayla will be co-mentored by Greg and Prof. Dan Christoffel (Dept. of Psychology & Neuroscience and UNC Neuroscience Center).

Welcome Kayla!

Dec 2022

New publication in Neuron in collaboration with Prof. Lu Chen’s group at Stanford: Spinal cord retinoic acid receptor signaling gates mechanical hypersensitivity in neuropathic pain. Cao B, Scherrer G, Chen L. Neuron.

July 2022

New Lab Member. Crystal Dezha-Bolteada joins the lab as a UNC PREP (Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program) student.

Learn more about Prep

Welcome, Crystal!

June 2022

David Lee, BS, PhD student, wins the Eshelman Institute Rankin Innovator Acceleration Award, supported by Lawson and Gisele Rankin, for developing novel compounds that act in the amygdala to treat pain suffering. The award is given annually to two students or postdocs to pursue entrepreneurial training opportunities.

See the article

April 2022

New Graduate Students. Joseph Krzeski and Yuechen Qiu, from the UNC-CH Neuroscience curriculum, join the lab. Welcome Joe and Yuechen!

April 2022

New Lab Member. Dr. Takanori Matsubara joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Takanori!

February 2022

Greg receives a Mentoring Award from the Office of Graduate Education.

See the article

Nov 2021

New Lab Member. Dr. Valerie Michael joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Valerie!

Nov 2021

New Publication. Nicole Mercer Lindsay and Chong Chen co-author a Review article on “Brain Circuits for Pain and its Treatment” for Science Translational Medicine, in collaboration with Drs. Gadi Gilam and Sean Mackey. This Special Issue of Science Translational Medicine on Pain includes other Review and Viewpoint articles by Prof. Frank Porreca, Cobi Heijnen, Irene Tracey, and Clifford Woolf.

Jan 2022

New Publication. Matan Geron and Adrien Tassou write a Preview article “Sympathetic yet painful: Autonomic innervation drives cluster firing of somatosensory neurons” for Neuron on Dr. Xinzhong Dong and colleagues’ article “Synchronized cluster firing, a distinct form of sensory neuron activation, drives spontaneous pain”.

Nov 2021

New Publication. David Lee and Matan Geron write a News and Views article “A modulator-bound GPCR structure enables allosteric non-opioid analgesia” for Nature Structural and Molecular Biology on Dr. Arthur Christopoulos and colleagues’ article published in Nature “Positive allosteric mechanisms of adenosine A1 receptor-mediated analgesia”.

Sep 2021

September – New Lab Member. Dr. Jesse Niehaus joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Jesse!

June 2021

The Scherrer Lab receives funding from the NIH/NIDA to generate, in collaboration with Dr. Hongkui Zeng (Allen Institute for Brain Science) and Dr. Mark Schnitzer (Stanford University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute), an exceptional resource for the opioid research field: a comprehensive accounting of the various brain cell types that express each of the opioid receptors and peptides, as well as the cell-type-specific molecular changes that occur when these brain cells are exposed to opioids: “A comprehensive dissection of cell types, circuits and molecular adaptations during opioid use"

Link to article

June 2021

The UNC SURE Research Program publishes a spotlight on Sy’Keria Garrison. Well done, Sy’Keria!

Check the UNC SURE Research Program pages @unc_sure_summer on Twitter, Instagram, FacebookWhatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

April 2021

David Lee passes the Qualifying Doctoral Exam of the BBSP Pharmacology curriculum. Congrats David!

January 2021

The Scherrer Lab is awarded the Brain Research Foundation Scientific Innovations Award.

Link to article

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December 2020

The Scherrer Lab receives the McKnight Award for Study of Brain Disorders.

McKnight article

UNC article

December 2020

Greg moderates a webinar from the Pain Research Form on the brain’s pain circuits, with talks by Biafra Ahanonu, our former colleague at Stanford, and Jarret Weinrich (Basbaum lab, UCSF).

Webinar

HEAL.jpeg

November 2020

The Scherrer Lab receives funding from the NIH HEAL Initiative (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) to develop novel, non-addictive treatments against chronic pain: “Targeting GPCRs in amygdalar and cortical neural ensembles to treat pain aversion”.

heal.nih.gov

October 2020

In collaboration with the von Zastrow, Manglik and Yackle laboratories (UCSF), the Scherrer Lab receives funding from the NIH/NIDA to create novel tools for visualization and manipulation of opioid receptor signaling in neural circuits: “Precision pharmacology by local control of opioid receptors in neural circuits

August 2020

New Lab Member. Dr. Adrien Tassou joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Adrien!

August 2020

Dan Berg gives a talk on his transcriptomic studies of cell types in the brain’s pain circuits at the #PAIN2020 WORKSHOP. Very exciting and well received—well done, Dan!

Gulf Coast Consortia

July 2020

Nicole Ochandarena is awarded a predoctoral NIH T32 fellowship from the Neuroscience Predoctoral Training Program. This fellowship supports the most promising students of the UNC-CH Neurobiology Curriculum (NBIO), one of the oldest neuroscience graduate training programs in the US, having granted PhDs continuously for 47 years. Congrats, Nicole!

July 2020

New Lab Members. We are thrilled to welcome two new graduate students to our team, Nicole Ochandarena (MD-PhD, Neuroscience curriculum) and David Lee (PhD, Pharmacology curriculum)!

July 2020

Greg joins UNC’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion CBP Advisory Committee. There is no place for racism in science or society. We will work hard to make our department and university a more diverse, equal and inclusive teaching and research environment.

Inclusion Statement and Resources

May 2020

Nicole Mercer Lindsay is awarded a NIH F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA). Nicole received a perfect score of 10! Congrats, Nicole! The purpose of the Kirschstein-NRSA postdoctoral fellowship is to enhance the research training of promising postdoctoral candidates who have the potential to become productive, independent investigators in scientific health-related research fields relevant to the missions of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers.

March 2020

March – New Lab Member. Dr. Matan Geron joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Matan!