Institute for Translational Neuroscience News and Events

Do you want to join a committee, contact a member of our committees, or have a question on how to be more involved with all things ITN? Check out our line up below-

• Executive Leadership Team:
  • Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D. (chair)
    • Silviya Zustiak, Ph.D. (associate chair)
    • George Grossberg, M.D.
    • Rick Samson, Ph.D.
    • Tony Buschanan, Ph.D.
    • Jafar Kafaie, M.D., Ph.D.
• Research Committee:
  • Susan Farr, Ph.D. (chair)
    • Aubin Moutal, Ph.D. (co-chair)
    • Philippe Mercier, M.D., Ph.D.
    • John Walker, Ph.D.
    • Fenglian Xu, Ph.D.
    • Yuna Ayala, Ph.D.
• Education and Student-Postdoctoral:
  • Mark Knuepfer, Ph.D. (chair)
    • Tim Doyle, Ph.D.
  • Stephanie Michalski, Ph.D. (chair)

Vincenza Cifarelli, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology has been awarded a President Research Fund (PRF) of $50,000.00. The grant titled, "Determining the role of a novel E3 ligase Ube4A in intestinal function and IBD" will allow Cifarelli along with Anutosh Chakraborty, Ph.D., associate professor also in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, to decipher mechanisms by which the Ube4A protein regulates intestinal function and disease. The project will utilize new mouse models and various cutting-edge tools to define novel mechanisms that cause intestinal diseases and may offer new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and colitis.

The Saint Louis University Department of Pharmacology and Physiology seeks highly motivated investigators at the assistant/associate professor level within the tenure track. The search is part of a four-year cluster hiring process to grow pain research. The Department of Pharmacology and Physiology is a vibrant, dynamic, multidisciplinary and highly collaborative department that offers access to excellent core facilities and opportunities to join collaborative centers including the Institute for Translational Neuroscience and Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation, the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, the Vaccine Center and the Liver Center. Members of our community have access to the nationally acclaimed Cortex Innovation Community, to multiple local startup-supporting institutions and to the fast-growing, cutting-edge medical and biotechnology community which operates actively throughout the St. Louis region. Candidates involved in related disciplines with a focus on pain, such as drug discovery, structural biology and chemical biology are strongly encouraged to apply. The requisition number is 2023-07662.

Apply Here

Juliana Navia Pelaez, Ph.D. joined the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, on Feb. 1, 2024, as assistant professor (TT). Navia Pelaez completed her graduate studies in vascular biology at UFMG, Brazil, focusing on cellular responses to oxidized lipids. Subsequently, she pursued postdoctoral training in pain and metabolism at the University of California, San Diego, under the dual mentorship of Tony Yaksh (vice chair for research in anesthesiology and Distinguished Professor in Anesthesiology and Pharmacology) and Yury Miller (M.D., Ph.D.; professor of medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism). As a postdoc, her findings, which revealed increased lipid rafts and intracellular lipid storage in microglia and neurons, contributed to the growing knowledge linking dysregulated lipid metabolism to hypersensitivity and pain states. Now, she is set to lead a new laboratory at SLU in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, dedicated to understanding how lipid metabolism influences pain states and susceptibility to chronic pain. Her research will primarily investigate immuno-metabolic changes and the related transcriptional regulation underlying chronic pain development. Leveraging diverse animal models of chronic pain and advanced omics and biochemistry tools, her lab will explore neuroimmune interactions, cellular reprogramming, and metabolic shifts across various cell types involved in nociceptive pathways, particularly macrophages and microglia. The lab aims to discover early pain biomarkers and uncover new pathways and potential therapeutic targets for treating various chronic pain conditions.

The SLU Research Institute has produced a new video promoting ITN. If this one slipped by you, take some time to check it out and share with your friends, colleagues and social networks.

Saint Louis University pain researcher Dr. Daniela Salvemini joins Fox 2 News to discuss “chemo brain.”