Kevin Tidgewell
University of Kentucky, KY·Pharmacology
Chronic pain affects people worldwide, and many current treatments rely on opioids, which carry serious risks. A promising alternative target is sigma-2, also called transmembrane protein 97 (TMEM97), a protein that helps nerve cells control their calcium levels.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Chemistry
Neuroscience
- Topics
chronic pain
neuropathic pain
inflammatory pain
- Grants
- 2 known grants, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Isolate bioactive compounds from Cameroonian medicinal plants such as Paullinia pinnata by fractionating extracts and testing each fraction for binding to sigma-2/TMEM97, a calcium-regulating protein linked to pain.
- Validate pure plant-derived compounds in further laboratory tests at UT Dallas and the University of Dschang, including their effects on primary sensory neurons that carry pain signals.
- Build an in-silico (computer-based) library of analogs of cyanobacterial natural products, screened for physical properties and predicted binding to sigma-2/TMEM97.
- Synthesize 5–10 lead analogs and evaluate their in vitro effectiveness and drug-like properties to choose the top candidates for non-opioid neuropathic pain treatment.
- Build pain research capacity in Central Africa by training Cameroonian researchers and holding workshops at the University of Dschang.
More about the research
Compounds that activate sigma-2/TMEM97 have reduced nerve-injury and inflammatory pain in mice. Its molecular identity was only described in 2017, so few drugs aimed at it exist. Both of the lab's projects look to nature for starting molecules: one uses medicinal plants from Cameroon, the other uses compounds made by cyanobacteria (photosynthetic bacteria).
Why it matters
People living with chronic neuropathic or inflammatory pain need effective non-opioid treatments. Compounds that act on sigma-2/TMEM97 could become the basis of new pain drugs, and the plant and cyanobacterial molecules studied here may supply the chemical starting points. The Cameroon partnership also aims to improve pain research and clinical capacity in Central Africa, where poor pain outcomes are partly linked to gaps in research and education.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Bin Pan
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX·Neuroscience
Establish whether CaMKII activity in peripheral sensory neurons suppresses pain, testing the hypothesis that reduced CaMKII signaling in dorsal root ganglion neurons maintains chronic pain in preclinical neuropathic and osteoarthritic pain models.
Naoto Hoshi
University of California-Irvine, CA·Pharmacology
Identify potent compounds that stabilize the binding of Kv7 potassium channels to PIP2, a membrane lipid the channel needs, using a newly developed in silico (computer-based) screening process.
Mahmoud Ahmed
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, TX·Pharmacology
Develop new small-molecule inhibitors of the EphB1/2 tyrosine kinases, nerve-signaling enzymes, that are unrelated to tetracyclines, and define the structure–activity features needed for potent inhibition.
The school
University of Kentucky: 34 labs on PI Pages, $528M a year on research, 319 research doctorates a year.
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