Home Department: Undeclared
Mentor: Lu Chen (Neurosurgery and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences)

"Investigating Retinoic Acid Signaling in Neuropathic Pain"

Neuropathic pain is a chronic condition arising from peripheral nerve damage with symptoms such as allodynia and hyperalgesia. Current treatments are limited because the cellular mechanisms that turn homeostatic plasticity into chronic pain remain poorly understood. Caden’s project will investigate how synaptic plasticity drives neuropathic pain development through retinoic acid (RA), identified as a significant mediator for homeostatic plasticity and neuropathic pain. Using a sciatic nerve injury model, single-cell qPCR, and confocal imaging, Caden will examine the role of RA signaling on downstream target genes such as BDNF and TrkB in order to elucidate the mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain.