William Tracey
Indiana University, IN·Neuroscience
Animals survive by sensing and avoiding things that could damage their tissues, such as harmful heat or crushing force. This sense is called nociception.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Genetics
Biology
- Topics
nociception
nociceptors
pain
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2027
What they work on
- Characterize the function of nociception genes identified through forward genetic screens, focusing on evolutionarily conserved genes not already known to play important roles in sensing tissue-damaging stimuli.
- Define how the distinct branching shapes of multidendritic sensory neurons relate to their roles in nociception, gentle touch and proprioception, the sense of body position.
- Determine how the sets of genes expressed in each morphological type of multidendritic neuron control somatosensory pathways, the routes carrying sensation from the body surface.
- Begin to define the neuronal network underlying nociception behavior in a genetically tractable model organism.
More about the research
It relies on nociceptors, specialized nerve cells that carry molecules for detecting harm and signaling danger. The lab's main focus is nociception, but it has also explored gentle touch and, most recently, proprioception, the sense of body position. Its work has found that each of these senses relies on a particular class of non-ciliated multidendritic sensory neurons, which are nerve cells with highly branched endings. Each class has its own shape and its own pattern of active genes. The overarching goal is to understand nociception at the level of molecules, cells and nerve circuits.
Why it matters
Nociception protects animals across species from injury. By identifying conserved genes not previously linked to nociception and beginning to map the circuits that drive escape behavior, this basic work adds new understanding of how sensory neurons detect harm, which could eventually inform work on pain.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
Indiana University: 21 labs on PI Pages, $897M a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
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