Research Interests

• Basic mechanisms of chronic pain. We study how nerve damage and inflammation change the morphology and physiology of nerve and glial cells. We obtained evidence that such changes contribute to chronic pain, and how reversing them can serve for pain therapy. We use electrophysiology and various imaging techniques (e.g., calcium imaging) to study glia-glia and neuron–glia interactions.

• Gap junctions in sensory and autonomic ganglia.

• The contribut ion of the sympathetic nervous system to pain, with emphasis on satellite glial cells.

• Physiology of the autonomic nervous system in animals and humans.

• The intrinsic nerves of the human digestive tract in health and disease.

• The effects of natural products on the nervous system and on smooth muscle cells.

• Glial cells in the peripheral nervous system.

• Physiology of fat tissue.