Science AMA Series: This is Dr. Cheryl Stucky and Francie Moehring. We
do research on touch and pain, including the mechanisms underlying the
role of chronic pain in skin diseases, and we’re here today to talk
about it. AMA!
Abstract
Hi Reddit About us: Dr. Cheryl Stucky: Hi! I am a Marvin Wagner Endowed
Professor in the department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy,
and the Neuroscience Doctoral Program Director, at the Medical College
of Wisconsin. I am broadly interested in understanding touch and pain
mechanisms. I have run a research laboratory for about 18 years at the
Medical College of Wisconsin, where we use rodent models to study the
mechanism of pain in diseases such as sickle cell disease, Fabry
disease, arthritis and postsurgical pain. My lab also focuses on
understanding how we sense touch, and we recently found out that our
skin plays a large role in this. Building upon this knowledge, we are
now investigating what role damaged skin plays in chronic pain
conditions. The ultimate goal of our research is to identify new targets
for which topical drugs can be developed in order to treat these pain
conditions and avoid the negative side effects of many current
treatments that are already out there. Francie Moehring: I am the senior
graduate student in Cheryl’s laboratory. Many skin disorders such as
dermatitis and psoriasis share a common hallmark: increased sensitivity
or even pain to touch or normally unpainful stimuli. My project in the
Stucky lab focuses on laying the foundation for understanding
dysfunctional signaling processes during these disorders to potentially
reveal new drug targets for topical treatments that directly target the
site of pain. In order to study these processes, we are trying to
understand how our skin, and the specific cells that form it, can
interact with neurons and nerves within the skin that are typically
involved in sensing mechanical stimuli from the environment. We’re here
to answer questions about a recent paper we published in the journal
eLife
(https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.31684?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=forum&utm_campaign=AMAFeb18;
plain-language summary:
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.31684.002?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=forum&utm_campaign=AMAFeb18)
– where we studied how our skin communicates with the nervous system –
or queries related to our research more broadly. Please note that we are
unable to provide any medical advice, as this goes beyond the scope of
our research. We’ll start answering questions at 1pm EST. AMA!