The Neurobiology of Pain & Opioids
The Scherrer Lab investigates the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie pain perception and opioid analgesia. We study the sensory, emotional and cognitive dimensions of pain, and how opioids act in neural circuits to produce pain relief but also harmful side effects including addiction. Our research uncovers the fundamental neurobiological processes by which our nervous system shapes pain experience and responds to opioids, at the genetic, molecular, cellular, neural circuit, and whole organism levels. Our goal is to build on these basic science discoveries to develop to novel therapeutics to reduce suffering pain more efficiently and with reduced side effects compared to current medications, and to prevent and treat opioid addiction.
Scherrer Lab News
Recent Lab News
DECEMBER 2024
The Scherrer Lab wins the Publication of the Year Award in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology (CBP) for this year’s New publication in Nature by Dr. Chong Chen et al.
Chen, C., Niehaus, J.K., Dinc, F. et al. Neural circuit basis of placebo pain relief. Nature 632, 1092–1100 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07816-z
November 2024
Kang, Hye Jin, Brian E. Krumm, Adrien Tassou, Matan Geron, Jeffrey F. DiBerto, Nicholas J. Kapolka, Ryan H. Gumpper, et al. 2024. “Structure-Guided Design of a Peripherally Restricted Chemogenetic System.” Cell 0 (0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.11.001.
November 2024
2024 Society for Neuroscience Conference (SfN) in Chicago, IL: Dr. Scherrer gave a press conference about recent publications. Poster presentations sessions were given by Dr. Nicole Mercer Lindsay, Dr. Chong Chen, D. David Lee/Dr. Dan Berg, Dr. Adrien Tassou, Dr. Matan Geron, Nicole Ochandarena, and Karen Huang.
SEPTEMBER 2024
David Lee successfully defends his PhD thesis and starts as a post-doc in the lab. Congratulations, Dr. Lee!
AUGUST 2024
Chen, C., Niehaus, J.K., Dinc, F. et al. Neural circuit basis of placebo pain relief. Nature 632, 1092–1100 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07816-z
AUGUST 2024
Dr. Chong Chen wins the 2024 Mentored Research Award from the International Anesthesia Research Society! Read more here.
JULY 2024
Sypek, Elizabeth; Tassou, Adrien; Collins, Hannah; Huang, Karen; McCallum, William M.; Bourdillon, Alexandra T.; Barres, Ben A.; Bohlen, Christopher J.; Scherrer, Grégory,*. Diversity of microglial transcriptional responses during opioid exposure and neuropathic pain. PAIN ():10.1097/j.pain.3275, July 30, 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.3275
JULY 2024
Yuechen Qiu, a PhD candidate, wins the best poster presentation award at the “Biological Insights Derived from Optogenetic Approaches” Gordon Research Conference in Lucca, Italy.
JULY 2024
Several Scherrer Lab members attended The International Narcotics Research Conference (INRC) meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Dan Berg, Dr. Nicole Mercer Lindsay, Dr. Takanori Matsubara, and Nicole Ochandarena all presented posters. Dr. Nicole Mercer Lindsay gave a talk and also won a prize for best poster presentation.
april 2024
Dr. Takanori Matsubara receives a postdoctoral fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
January 2024
Dr. Jesse Niehaus gives a talk and presents a poster on the genetic mechanisms of opioid addiction at the Winter Brain 2024 conference in Breckenridge, CO.
Lab News from 2023 and Earlier
December 2023
Congratulations to two Scherrer Lab postdocs, Dr. Chong Chen and Dr. Adrien Tassou, for their publication in Scientific Reports!
Read Graph theory analysis reveals an assortative pain network vulnerable to attacks
December 2023
Prof. Greg Scherrer was presented the Chair Award from UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology (CBP) for recognition of outstanding accomplishments!
Learn more about the incredible work being done at UNC CBP Department.
November 2023
Yuechen Qiu, now a PhD Candidate, passed her qualifying exam! The Scherrer Lab and Hantman Lab (Yuechen is co-mentored by Prof. Scherrer and Hantman) joined to Yuechen (right of center, white sweater) congratulate her and celebrate her achievement.
May 2023
Dr. Jesse Niehaus received a F32 Fellowship from the National institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)!
November 2023
New publication in Neuropharmacology: Ochandarena NE, Niehaus JK, Tassou A, Scherrer G. Read Cell-type specific molecular architecture for mu opioid receptor function in pain and addiction circuits.
July 2023
Josh Blair returns to the Scherrer Lab as our Grant Manager.
Welcome back, Josh!
May 2023
Ace Lane joins the Scherrer Lab as the new Lab Manager.
Welcome, Ace!
May 2023
Dr. Dan Berg receives the best poster presentation and participation awards at the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on “Amygdala Function in Emotion, Cognition and Disease”.
April 2023
Nicole Ochandarena, Dr. Adrien Tassou, and Dr. Matan Geron each present posters at the United States Association for the Study of Pain (USASP) annual meeting in Durham, NC.
Jan 2023
Kayla Richardson, PhD student from the UNC-CH Neuroscience curriculum, joins the lab. Kayla will be co-mentored by Prof. Greg Scherrer 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 by Cao B, Scherrer G, Chen L.
Dec 2022
New prepublication on bioRxiv: Opioid receptor architecture for the modulation of brainstem functions Hug NF, Mercer Lindsay N, McCallum WM, Bryan J, Huang K, Ochandarena NE, Tassou A, Scherrer G.
August 2022
Dr. Nicole Mercer Lindsay receives a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award from the National Institute on Dental and Craniofacial Research!
August 2022
Nicole Ochandarena receives a F30 fellowship from from the National institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)!
July 2022
New Lab Member. Crystal Dezha-Bolteada joins the lab as a UNC PREP (Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program) student.
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.
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
Prof. Greg Scherrer receives a Mentoring Award from the Office of Graduate Education.
Jan 2022
Dr. Matan Geron, Dr. Adrien Tassou, and Prof. Greg Scherrer write a Preview article for Neuron: “Sympathetic yet painful: Autonomic innervation drives cluster firing of somatosensory neurons” for Neuron on Prof. Xinzhong Dong and colleagues’ article “Synchronized cluster firing, a distinct form of sensory neuron activation, drives spontaneous pain”.
Nov 2021
New Publication in Science Translational Medicine. Dr. Nicole Mercer Lindsay, Dr. Chong Chen, Prof. Greg Scherrer co-author a Review article on “Brain Circuits for Pain and its Treatment” with Dr. Gadi Gilam and Prof Sean Mackey (Stanford). This Special Issue of Science Translational Medicine on Pain includes other Review and Viewpoint articles by Profs. Frank Porreca, Cobi Heijnen, Irene Tracey, and Clifford Woolf.
Nov 2021
New Lab Member. Dr. Valerie Michael joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc.
Welcome, Valerie!
Nov 2021
David Lee, Dr. Matan Geron, and Prof. Greg Scherrer 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
New Lab Member. Dr. Jesse Niehaus joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc.
Welcome, Jesse!
June 2021
The Scherrer Lab receives funding from the from the National institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to generate, in collaboration with Dr. Hongkui Zeng (Allen Institute for Brain Science) and Prof. 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"
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, Facebook.
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.
December 2020
The Scherrer Lab receives the McKnight Award for Study of Brain Disorders.
December 2020
Prof. Greg Scherrer moderates a webinar from the Pain Research Form on the brain’s pain circuits, with talks by Dr. Biafra Ahanonu, our former colleague at Stanford, and Dr. Jarret Weinrich (Basbaum lab, UCSF).
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”.
October 2020
In collaboration with the von Zastrow, Manglik and Yackle laboratories (UCSF), the Scherrer Lab receives funding from the from the National institute on Drug Abuse (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
Dr. 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!
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)!
May 2020
Dr. 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
New Lab Member. Dr. Matan Geron joins the Scherrer Lab as a postdoc.
Welcome, Matan!
2019
The Scherrer Lab moves to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill!