Temporomandibular joint pain: a critical role for Trpv4 in the trigeminal ganglion.

Dr. Yong Chen is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the Duke University School of Medicine.  He is also affiliated with Duke Anesthesiology-Center for Translational Pain Medicine (CTPM) and Duke-Pathology.

The Chen lab mainly studies sensory neurobiology of pain and itch, with a focus on TRP ion channels and neural circuits. The main objective of our lab is to identify molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying chronic pain and chronic-disease associated itch, using a combination of animal behavioral, genetic, molecular and cellular, advanced imaging, viral, and optogenetic approaches.  There are three major research areas in the lab: craniofacial pain, arthritis pain and joint function, and systemic-disease associated itch.

The McNulty Lab is working to develop strategies to prevent osteoarthritis and to promote tissue repair and regeneration following joint injury. In order to accomplish this, we are working in three main areas.  1) We are working to understand the pathways that are activated by normal and injurious mechanical loading of cartilage and meniscus and how these mechanotransduction pathways are altered during aging, injury, and tissue degeneration. A greater understanding of alterations in mechanosensitive signaling mechanisms with aging and injury will likely reveal potential targets to promote tissue repair and prevent tissue degeneration and osteoarthritis development. 2) We are developing meniscus tissue engineered constructs that will be utilized to repair and replace meniscus tissue lost due to injury and surgical resection.  3)  We are focusing on the biological and biomechanical changes that occur in the joint following meniscus injury and how these may contribute to osteoarthritis development.   

Feeding behavior and diet are two of the most important factors influencing the evolution of behavior and morphology in humans and nonhuman primates. Variation in such parameters as body size, life history, metabolic rate, and brain size, can all be linked to some extent to the ability of animals to acquire, process, and consume resources. Shifts in feeding behavior and diet also provide the evolutionary context for a variety of morphological changes in the jaws, face, and teeth. This is my area of research - the evolution of craniofacial form in humans and other primates as it relates to feeding behavior and the biomechanical demands of diet. I rely on a variety of primate models and methodological approaches to investigate the mechanisms that influence musculoskeletal form and function, and to link masticatory form and function with performance in living and extinct species. I collaborate extensively with other functional morphologists, experimental biologists, and primatologists and provide research and training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral researchers. In collaboration with Dr. Christopher Vinyard (NEOMED), we have been investigating the functional correlates of gape and muscle force production in primates (funded by the National Science Foundation BCS 0452160, BCS 0833394, BCS 0635649 and the National Skeletal Muscle Research Center R24-HD 050837-01). This work is informing our understanding of how jaw muscles are structured to meet the mechanical demands of diverse diets, how their bony and muscular systems function together, and how mechanical trade-offs are met. With Dr. Callum Ross (University of Chicago), we are currently investigating the scaling of primate feeding systems, integrating kinematic, morphological, and experimental approaches to test biomechanical models of the scaling of chew cycle during in primates (funded by the National Science Foundation BCS 0962677). In a related area of research, I am collaborating with colleagues in the DPT Program and in Pediatrics to investigate the effects of exercise on muscle fiber architecture and performance in a Pompe mouse model (Funded by the National Skeletal Muscle Research Center R24-HD050837).

My lab studies neural circuit basis of sensory perception. 
Specifically we are interested in determining neural circuits underlying (1) active touch sensation including tactile processing stream and motor control of touch sensors on the face; (2) pain sensation including both sensory-discriminative and affective aspects of pain; and (3) general anesthesia including the active pain-suppression process. We use a combination of genetic, viral, electrophysiology, and in vivo imaging (in free-moving animals) techniques to study these questions.