Luca Posa
@dr-lupo.bsky.social
Behavioral neuroscientist 🧠 Postdoc @weillcornell.bsky.social #PharmDPhD #pain #emotion #GPCRs #opioids 🔬 #DiversitySTEM #firstgen. He/him🌈 Traveller
Excited to share that our new paper is now out @cellpress.bsky.social: www.cell.com/iscience/ful... This work explores how keratinocytes and PDGF-B/PDGFRβ signaling contribute to peripheral opioid tolerance, providing new insights into mechanisms that help guide future pain therapeutics.
Keratinocytes and PDGF-B/PDGFRβ signaling modulate peripheral opioid tolerance
Molecular biology; Neuroscience; Pharmacology
cell.com
Wondering about pain and circadian rhythms? SCN→SPZ→PVN→vlPAG circuit maintains daily rhythms in pain sensitivity, but is dampened at night. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Hypothalamic clock governs circadian pain
Chronic pain exhibits circadian rhythms in humans, but the mechanisms underlying such rhythmicity remain unclear. Here, we found daily oscillations in the nociceptive thresholds in a mouse model of ne...
science.org
Excited this paper is out @Cell This work explores the role of MOR and SST interneurons in ketamine’s antidepressant effect and identify synergistic approaches to develop new therapeutics. Big shoutout to @hmunguba.bsky.social who led the project and all the team doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
Mechanism-guided identification of antidepressant G protein-coupled receptor drug targets
Uncovering ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects via somatostatin-expressing interneurons in the prefrontal cortex enables the identification of GPCR drug targets with antidepressant-like responses ...
cell.com
Excited to share our new study on how the brain generates placebo pain relief! We developed a mouse model that recapitulates key features of human placebo analgesia, then used it to identify causal circuitry. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... today.ucsd.edu/story/neurob... 1/n
Neurobiologists Hack Brain Circuits Tied to Placebo Pain Relief
Scientists have identified the brain circuits tied to placebo pain relief. Researchers have known that placebo effects can be a powerful treatment, yet the underlying neurological mechanisms have not ...
today.ucsd.edu
Such a great day at @nyupainresearch.bsky.social gathering with NYC-area Pain Scientists. Excellent science and people. Thank @karapedsgastrodoc.bsky.social @sdavidson.bsky.social for hosting, my buddie organizer @justinburdge.bsky.social and everyone joined and oresebted! See you next year!
Bluesky
idson.bsky.social
NYU Pain Research Center@nyupainresearch.bsky.social · 9mo agoWhat a day! ✨ The 1st NYC Area Pain Research Meet-Up blew us away — amazing energy, brilliant conversations, and an incredible community. Huge thank-you to everyone who attended and to all who helped bring this event to life. Already excited for the next one!
Great structure work about MOR binding states from the Cornelius Gati lab! Congrats to all the authors, particularly Saif Khan. Looking forward!
Structural snapshots capture nucleotide release at the μ-opioid receptor - Nature
Structures of GDP-bound MOR–Gi conformational states combined with pharmacological assays show an inverse correlation between ligand efficacy and GDP affinity, where agonists decrease GDP affinity, pr...
nature.com
Cornelius Gati@gati.bsky.social · 10mo agoExcited to share our latest @nature.com: How does naloxone (Narcan) stop an opioid overdose? We determined the first GDP-bound μ-opioid receptor–G protein structures and found naloxone traps a novel "latent” state, preventing GDP release and G protein activation.💊🧪 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Very cool findings about the connection of touch and mating processes! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A circuit that integrates drive state and social contact to gate mating - Nature
Analyses of consummatory reproductive behaviours in male mice uncover a brain mechanism whereby an internal state can attribute a social quality to a generic touch to initiate purposeful reproductive ...
nature.com
So cool! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼A β-arrestin-2-biased modulator of neurotensin receptor 1 relieves acute and chronic pain by blocking neural sensitization while also reducing opioid abuse risk without affecting motor or cognitive functions www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Arrestin-biased allosteric modulator of neurotensin receptor 1 alleviates acute and chronic pain
SBI-810, an arrestin-biased allosteric modulator of neurotensin receptor 1, can effectively alleviate acute and chronic pain in rodent models via peripheral and central modulation and can also mitigat...
cell.com
Defensive behaviour and dPAG 🐭 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The neural basis of species-specific defensive behaviour in Peromyscus mice - Nature
Visual threat triggers contrasting freeze and escape defensive responses in two species of deer mice as a result of different activation thresholds downstream of the superior colliculus in the do...
nature.com
My first time at #usasp2025. Great science, new and old friends. First talk in a symposium at an international conference. Thank you to my co-speakers @stefpuig.bsky.social and Ream Al-Asani
our NIH HEAL initiative funded biomarkers study now out @jama.com JAMA Neurology open access, open data and code w/ @drsmschabrun.bsky.social jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Predicting Individual Pain Sensitivity Using a Novel Cortical Biomarker Signature
This cohort study analyzes electroencephalography data from healthy participants to analyze and validate a cortical biomarker signature for pain, which comprised the measures sensorimotor peak alpha f...
jamanetwork.com
Excited to present our lab's new work on GPCR antagonism: Contrary to popular belief, we propose that inverse agonists can bind to and act via GPCR:G protein complexes. We show this at KOR, through cellular assays, radioligand binding and cryoEM studies. A thread. 💊 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Excited to share our new preprint here! A photocromic morphinian-azobenzene, efficacy switch and peripherally restricted analgesic. Great collaboration between Levitz, @dirktrauner.bsky.social @gati.bsky.social and Seva Katritch's labs! 👇🏻👇🏻 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
An opioid efficacy switch for reversible optical control of peripheral analgesia
The mu-opioid receptor (MOR) is a major target for the treatment of pain. However, opioids are prone to side effects which limit their effectiveness as analgesics and can lead to opioid use disorders ...
biorxiv.org
Cornelius Gati@gati.bsky.social · 2y agoAn opioid with a literal, light-sensitive 'on/off switch' to avoid fatal side effects? Look no further - Azomorphine-3 (AM3)! The most exciting study I've been part of, thus far. With the labs of Seva Katritch, Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social and Josh Levitz. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
