Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy

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Cheryl L. Stucky, PhD
Associate Professor

Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy
Medical College of Wisconsin
8701 Watertown Plank Road
Milwaukee, WI 53226-0509

Phone: (414) 456-8373
FAX: (414) 456-6517
email: cstucky@mcw.edu

   

Positions Available:
Positions are currently available for PhD students and Postdoctoral Fellows. Please contact Dr. Cheryl Stucky at cstucky@mcw.edu or visit our Postdoctoral Positions web page.

Education:
PhD, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1995
Postdoctoral, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany and Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany

Graduate Programs:
Program in Cell and Developmental Biology
Program in Neuroscience

Research Area: Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying pain

 

Pain is the most common reason people go to a doctor for a problem. Over 57% of all Americans experience chronic pain at some point in life. The types of pain endured include back pain (musculoskeletal), joint pain, migraine headaches, arthritis and inflammatory pain, cancer pain, and neuropathic (direct nerve injury) pain. Pain is initially signaled by specialized sensory neurons in the skin, muscle or joints called "nociceptors" which are activated by painful stimuli. Nociceptors are activated by intense force, noxious heat, extreme cold and chemicals such as acid, histamine or capsaicin, the 'hot' ingredient in chili peppers. After inflammation, injury, trauma or disease, nociceptors respond much more to painful stimuli and this "sensitization" contributes to the intense pain felt after injury. Little is known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which heat, cold and mechanical force are converted into neural signals by sensory neurons. Furthermore, the cellular mechanisms that sensitize nociceptors during specific types of chronic pain are not well understood.

My laboratory uses functional techniques to determine the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie inflammatory pain, nerve injury (neuropathic pain) and muscle pain. We are one of the few labs that uses a highly informative skin-nerve electrophysiological preparation. Action potentials are recorded from the axons of single, modality-identified nociceptors in vitro while a variety of natural stimuli are applied to the receptive field of the neurons. By using this technique to analyze transgenic mice that over-express certain genes or 'knock out' mice that lack these genes, we have already shown that specific neurotrophic factors regulate the survival and function of specific classes of sensory neurons. To address mechanisms that underlie pain at a cellular level, we use whole cell patch clamp recordings to measure action potentials and ion currents in the cell bodies of isolated nociceptors in culture as we stimulate the neurons with heat, cold and a variety of chemical stimuli, including acid and the hot chili pepper ingredient, capsaicin. Recently, we have set up fluorescence microscopy for calcium imaging in sensory neurons and are able to use this high through-put approach to rapidly characterize the response properties of different types of sensory neurons to cold and heat stimuli and numerous pain-inducing chemicals in various models of persistent pain. Furthermore, we are currently examining chronic pain-induced changes in mRNA levels for specific pain receptors and ion channels in sensory neurons by using Real time PCR techniques. The combination of these functional and cellular measures with transgenic mice and pharmacological manipulation of intracellular signal transduction pathways allows us to dissect the cellular and molecular basis of nociception in different types of chronic pain. Our ultimate goal is to uncover novel targets for the development of more specific and effective drugs that alleviate different types of chronic pain that continue to plague more than half of the world's population.

   The Stucky Lab 

(left to right): Marie Barabas, Pat Kerstein, Cheryl Stucky and Daniel Vilceanu

 

Honors and Awards:
  •  
 Bethel College Young Alumni Award for 2004
  •  
 John C. Liebeskind Early Career Scholar Award for 2002 for outstanding accomplishments in pain scholarship
 
Selected Publications:
  •  
 Stomatin and sensory neuron mechanotransduction. J Neurophysiol. 2007 Dec;98(6):3802-8. Epub 2007 Oct 17. PMID: 17942620 [PubMed - in process]
  •  
 Khasabova IA, Stucky CL, Harding-Rose C, Eikmeier L, Beitz AJ, Coicou LG, Hanson AE, Simone DA and Seybold VS: Chemical Interactions between Fibrosarcoma Cancer Cells and Sensory Neurons Contribute to Cancer Pain. J Neurosci 27:10289-98, 2007.
  •  
 Bautista DM, Siemens J, Glazer JM, Tsuruda PR, Basbaum AI, Stucky CL, Jordt SE, Julius D: The menthol receptor TRPM8 is the principal detector of environmental cold. Nature 448:147-8, 2007.
  •  
 Mogil JS, NM Breese, MF Witty, J Ritchie, ML Rainville, A Ase, N Abbadi, CL Stucky and P Seguela: Transgenic expression of a dominant-negative ASIC3 subunit leads to increased sensitivity to mechanical and inflammatory stimuli. J Neurosci 25:9893-9901, 2005.
  •  
 Breese NM, AC George, LE Pauers and CL Stucky: Peripheral inflammation selectively increases TRPV1 function in IB4-positive sensory neurons from adult mouse. Pain 115:37-49, 2005.
  •  
 Stucky CL, KA Medler and DC Molliver: The P2Y agonist UTP activates cutaneous afferent fibers. Pain 109:36-44, 2004.
  •  
 Sluka KA, MP Price, NM Breese, CL Stucky, JA Wemmie and MJ Welsh: Chronic hyperalgesia induced by repeated acid injections in muscle is abolished by the loss of ASIC3, but not ASIC1. Pain 106:229-239, 2003.
  •  
 Dirajlal S, LE Pauers and CL Stucky: Differential response properties of IB4-positive and -negative unmyelinated sensory neurons to protons and capsaicin. J Neurophys 89:513-524, 2003.
  •  
 Zeitz KP, N Guy, AB Malmberg, S Dirajlal, WJ Martin, L Sun, DW Bonhaus, CL Stucky, D Julius and AI Basbaum: The 5-HT3 subtype of serotonin receptor contributes to nociceptive processing via a novel subset of myelinated and unmyelinated nociceptors. J Neurosci 22:1010-1019, 2002.
  •  
 Stucky CL, JB Shin and GR Lewin: Neurotrophin-4: A survival factor for adult sensory neurons. Current Biology 12:1401-1404, 2002.
  •  
 Stucky CL, J Rossi, MS Airaksinen and GR Lewin: GFR alpha2/neurturin signalling regulates noxious heat transduction in isolectin B4-binding mouse sensory neurons. J Physiol 545:43-50, 2002.
  •  
 Stucky CL, MS Gold and X Zhang: Mechanisms of pain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:11845-11846, 2001.
  •  
 Price MP, GR Lewin, SL McIlwrath, C Chen, J Xie, PA Heppenstall, CL Stucky, AG Mannsfeldt, TJ Brennan, HA Drummond, J Qiao, CJ Benson, DE Tarr, RF Hrstka, B Yang, RA Williamson and MJ Welsh: The mammalian Na+ channel BNC1 is required for normal touch sensation. Nature 407:1007-1011, 2000.
  •  
 Stucky CL and GR Lewin: Isolectin B4-positive and negative nociceptors are functionally distinct. J Neurosci 19:6497-6505, 1999.
  •  
 Stucky CL, M Koltzenburg, M Schneider, MG Engle, KM Albers and BM Davis: Overexpression of nerve growth factor in skin selectively affects the survival and functional properties of nociceptors. J Neurosci 19:8509-8516, 1999.
  •  
 Stucky CL, T DeChiara, RM Lindsay, GD Yancopoulos, M Koltzenburg: Neurotrophin 4 is required for the survival of a subclass of hair follicle receptors. J Neurosci 18:7040-7046, 1998.
  •  
 Stucky CL and M Koltzenburg: The low-affinity neurotrophin receptor p75 regulates the function but not the selective survival of specific subpopulations of sensory neurons. J Neurosci 17:4398-4405, 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

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