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Virginia S. Seybold, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Neuroscience E-mail: vseybold@umn.edu

Research Interests:

Although acute pain is an important adaptive mechanism that alerts an organism to tissue injury and initiates behavior to avoid further injury, chronic pain serves no useful purpose. My research program addresses mechanisms underlying hyperalgesia, the increased sensation of pain that is felt following tissue injury. Mechanisms for hyperalgesia are explored at both ends of sensory neurons: at the peripheral end (for example, in the skin) where the signal of a noxious stimulus is generated, and in the spinal cord, where the first synapse in the pathway for sensation of pain is located. Using activity-dependent fluorescent dyes, we determine whether substances generated by peripheral tissues and by cancer cells act directly on sensory neurons to enhance the response of these neurons to noxious stimuli. Molecular biology and biochemistry are used to study plasticity in expression of receptors, ion channels and enzymes in intracellular signaling pathways in sensory and spinal neurons as mechanisms underlying chronic pain. Conversely, we are interested in how the activity of sensory neurons can be suppressed. Cannabinoid-like compounds are of interest because they are generated by our bodies and may have therapeutic value in inhibiting pain.

Selected Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

Khasabova IA, Khasabov SG, Harding-Rose C, Coicou LG, Seybold BA, Lindberg AE, Steevens CD, Simone DA, Seybold VS. A decrease in anandamide signaling contributes to the maintenance of cutaneous mechanical hyperalgesia in a model of bone cancer pain. J Neurosci . 2008 Oct 29;28(44):11141-52.

Groth RD, Coicou LG, Mermelstein PG, Seybold VS. Neurotrophin activation of NFAT-dependent transcription contributes to the regulation of pro-nociceptive genes. J Neurochem. 2007 Aug;102(4):1162-74.

Khasabova IA, Stucky CL, Harding-Rose C, Eikmeier L, Beitz AJ, Coicou LG, Hanson AE, Simone DA, Seybold VS. Chemical interactions between fibrosarcoma cancer cells and sensory neurons contribute to cancer pain.
J Neurosci. 2007 Sep 19;27(38):10289-98.

Seybold VS, Coicou LG, Groth RD, Mermelstein PG. Substance P initiates NFAT-dependent gene expression in spinal neurons. J. Neurochem. 2006 Apr;97(2):397-407.

Former Graduate Students:

Marc Galeazza (Ph.D. 1994, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Rachel Groth (Ph.D. 2006, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

David Linden (Ph.D. 1999, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Ann Parsons (Ph.D. 1996, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).

Cheryl Stucky (Ph.D. 1995, Neuroscience, University of Minnesota).