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Dr. Wendy M. Campana is a neuroscientist and an adjunct professor of anesthesiology at UCSD, with the recent appointment as Chair of department of cell biology and human anatomy at UC Davis (details). Dr. Campana’s research centers on the cellular and molecular biology of peripheral nerve injury and neuropathic pain. She leads an interdisciplinary laboratory investigating how nerve and glial cells respond to injury, focusing on Schwann cells and their low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) and extracellular vesicle in regeneration and pain signaling. Her work transformed understanding of regulates interaction between neurons and glial cells in nerve injury and the development of persistent pain. Dr. Campana has authored over 75 publications in the fields of peripheral nerve biology, spinal cord injury, and neuropathic pain. Her research has been funded by the NIH, Department of Defense, and Veterans Affairs, and she holds patents for therapies targeting nerve regeneration and pain management.
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Dr. Laura Case is a sensory-affective neuroscientist whose research investigates mechanisms of pleasant touch perception and its modulation of pain. Her laboratory combines neuroimaging, pharmacologic methods, and behavioral testing to understand how pleasant touch is perceived and how it modulates pain. Key discoveries from her research program (www.caselaboratory.org) include evidence that affective deep pressure is conveyed by Aβ afferents (unlike the C-tactile affective touch pathway) and utilizes a novel molecular pathway; reduced affective touch perception in Fibromyalgia but preserved touch-pain modulation, with individual differences predicted by depression and trauma history; that oxytocin reduces perception of heat pain. Dr. Case holds an IND to test perceptual effects of subcutaneous oxytocin. Her team determined that use of a weighted blanket improves chronic pain interference, especially for individuals with high trait anxiety, and that social connectedness is linked to lower levels of chronic pain.
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Dr. Andrei Chernov is a molecular biologist and research scientist whose work focuses on mechanisms underlying neuropathies in the peripheral and central nervous systems. His laboratory investigates how trauma or infection triggers chronic nerve degeneration and neuropathic pain, with current projects emphasizing genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors that quantify cellular ATP metabolism in models of acute and chronic neuropathy. He also studies epigenetic clocks as predictive tools for disease outcomes and pain severity, integrating bioengineering, computational analysis, and molecular biology to improve diagnostics and therapies. Chernov’s publication record spans molecular neuroscience, extracellular matrix biology, and epigenetics, with more than 50 publications and over 1,700 citations. He works to translate mechanistic discoveries into therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disease and chronic pain.
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Dr. Brian Head is a neuroscientist and professor of anesthesiology whose work focuses on neuroprotection and synaptic plasticity in neurological disease. His research examines how caveolin proteins and related signaling pathways regulate neuronal function and resilience in disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and spinal cord injury. He develops gene-therapy approaches designed to restore synaptic signaling and functional neuroplasticity in damaged brain and spinal tissues. Dr. Head’s publications span molecular neuroscience, cell biology, and physiology. His contributions have been recognized with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, one of the highest U.S. honors for early-career researchers. He work is supported by the NIH, Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and other agencies, and has been named a VA Research Career Scientist. He aims to move discoveries in gene-based neural repair from experimental models toward clinical application.
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Dr. Erik Kistler is a physician-scientist and professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care as well as director of Intensive Care Research and an attending anesthesiologist at the VA San Diego. His clinical and scientific work focuses on inflammation, shock, and microcirculatory dysfunction, with the overarching goal of translating laboratory discoveries into therapies that improve outcomes for critically ill patients. He maintains an active laboratory program while working clinically in the intensive care unit and operating room, allowing him to move insights bidirectionally between bench and bedside. Dr. Kistler’s research has contributed to identification of a fundamental mechanism of cell injury termed “autodigestion,” in which uncontrolled protease activity drives inflammation, shock, and multi-organ failure. His lab studies proteolysis in vascular dysfunction, sepsis, and trauma, including development of anti-proteolytic treatments for hemorrhagic shock, analysis of proteomic signatures in critically ill patients, and investigation of gut-mediated hemodynamic instability. He has authored dozens of publications spanning critical care medicine, sepsis biology, and intensive care physiology and has been independently funded since early in his faculty career.
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Dr. Chitra Mandyam is a neuroscientist and an adjunct professor of anesthesiology whose research focuses on the relationship between brain structure, function, and complex behaviors related to substance use and cognition. The goal of her laboratory is to understand how neuronal plasticity and blood-brain barrier dysfunction contribute to drug and alcohol pathology. She employs multidisciplinary methods, including genetic, pharmacological, electrophysiological, histochemical, and behavioral approaches, to study addiction-related brain mechanisms and high-level mental functions. Her research has examined neural circuits in regions such as the prefrontal cortex, dorsal striatum, and hippocampus that regulate substance-seeking behavior and dependence. Dr. Mandyam has served as principal investigator on multiple NIH-funded studies addressing topics such as methamphetamine addiction, hippocampal neurogenesis, and cortical gliogenesis in alcohol dependence.
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Dr. Martin Marsala is a neuroscientist and a professor of anesthesiology with expertise in spinal cord injury and neuroregeneration research. His laboratory has developed and characterized animal models of spinal and brain ischemia and trauma, defining key behavioral, electrophysiological, and histopathological changes that occur after neural injury. Dr. Marsala’s research focuses on spinal ischemia-induced paraplegia, trauma-related motor dysfunction, neuropathic pain, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), with an emphasis on developing gene- and cell-based therapies to restore neurological function. He pioneered a novel spinal subpial delivery method that enables potent gene modulation and improved distribution of therapeutic cells within the spinal cord. He has published more than 160 publications and multiple patents and has supported clinical translation, including participation in Phase I trials testing stem-cell grafting for chronic spinal cord injury.
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Dr. Angela Meier is a professor of clinical anesthesiology and intensivist who integrates clinical medicine with high-impact translational laboratory research. Her work focuses on how anesthetics, sedatives, and immune-modulating nanoparticle therapies influence immune responses, both in controlled laboratory models and in infectious conditions such as severe pneumonia and sepsis. She divides her professional time between patient care and scientific investigation, reflecting her commitment to improving outcomes for critically ill patients through mechanistic discovery. Dr. Meier’s clinical interests closely align with her research and include mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), sepsis management, cardiopulmonary resuscitation leadership, and critical care for patients undergoing lung or heart transplantation. She serves as Fellowship Program Director for UC San Diego’s multidisciplinary critical care training program and is an associate professor of clinical anesthesiology.
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Professor Hemal Patel’s expertise is in acaveolin and mitochondrial biology. He has applied this expertise to the study of basic scientific inquiry into cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, aging, diabetes, and cancer. In the past few years, he has worked with clinical groups to apply specific techniques to clinical research. He is funded by grants from the NIH, Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and other agencies, and has been named a VA Research Career Scientist. Dr. Patel serves on editorial boards for scientific journals and reviews grants for major funding bodies including NIH and NASA. He has published more than 140 publications and regularly presents at international conferences. Currently he is leading efforts to accelerate research on meditation, in collaboration with InnerScience Research Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding studies on the biological and physical effects of meditation on the human body. In addition to research, he teaches scientific communication skills in UCSD’s Master of Advanced Studies in Clinical Research program and mentors graduate trainees and thesis committees.
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Dr. Veronica Shubayev is professor and Vice Chair of basic science research in anesthesiology whose research has focused on the study of interaction between the immune and nervous systems during aiming to develop personalized therapeutic and diagnostic platforms in the areas of neuroregeneration and chronic pain. The is credited with leading the discovery of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their substrates, including inflammatory cytokines and myelin proteins, as novel pain mediators. She has contributed to translational approaches targeting inflammation in chronic pain, neuro-regenerative strategies, and nodelivery platforms. Her current research programs center on metalloproteinase inhibitors TIMPs and myelin basic protein (MBP) in activation of adaptive repair and maladaptive pain after nerve injury. Dr. Shubayev has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications cited over 6,000 times and published in leading journals. She has held a position at the VA San Diego for over 20 years and has served on national and international editorial and advisory boards, contributed expertise to major funding agencies, scientific journals and societies, and is dedicated to mentoring trainees across undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and physician-scientist programs.
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Dr. Shanshan Wang is an assistant adjunct professor of anesthesiology whose research focuses on mechanisms of neurodegeneration and neuroprotection. She has contributed to a broad portfolio of studies spanning Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, addiction neurobiology, and neuronal development, including publications demonstrating that caveolin-1 signaling influences axonal growth, synaptic structure, neuronal survival, synaptic integrity, and plasticity. Dr. Wang served as co-senior author on a 2025 study describing a novel gene-therapy strategy designed to preserve cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease models. In animal experiments, the treatment reprogrammed diseased brain cells and preserved hippocampal-dependent memory, suggesting potential to slow or reverse disease progression. Her research has been supported by competitive funding, including a Craig H. Neilsen Foundation fellowship and an NIH KL2 career development award.
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Dr. Tony Yaksh is a leading pain researcher globally recognized for his seminal research into the physiology and pharmacology of spinal pain processing. His groundbreaking discovery in the mid-1970s that opiates exert potent analgesic effects via spinal receptors fundamentally transformed clinical pain management. Yaksh’s team has produced more than 900 publications, reflecting collaborations with over 140 fellows and trainees, spanning a broad range of fundamental mechanisms of nociceptive processing often leading to enabling FDA approval of critical intrathecal therapies and improving spinal drug delivery technologies. In collaboration with UCSD engineers, the Yaksh’t team developed the first chronic pain Cas9-CRISPR gene editing approach, dubbed "pain LATER," to provide opioid-free Long-lasting Analgesia via Targeted in vivo Epigenetic Repression of the sodium channel NaV1.7. His current research is focused on the role of lipid-raft signaling complexes in spinal microglia, immune-mediated mechanisms in chronic pain, viral-induced pain states, and sodium channel regulation in nociceptors. Through both basic and translational research, Yaksh’s program aims to develop disease-modifying strategies for chronic pain, neurodegeneration, and neurological disorders.
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Dr. Fadel Zeidan is a neuroscientist and professor of anesthesiology whose research examines how self-regulatory practices influence health and pain perception. His work focuses on identifying neural mechanisms that link meditation and other behavioral interventions with reductions in pain and improvements in wellbeing. He studies mindfulness meditation and related techniques using behavioral and neurobiological approaches to determine how they alter brain function and pain processing. His research program also investigates how substances such as psilocybin, DMT, and cannabis affect pain-related neural and behavioral pathways. Through clinical trials and experimental studies, Zeidan aims to clarify how psychological and neurobiological factors interact to shape pain experience and therapeutic outcomes. His work contributes to growing scientific interest in integrative and nonpharmacological approaches to pain management and mental health.
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Dr. Alice Zemljic-Harpf’s research focuses on investigating how specific pharmacological treatments can effectively prevent the onset of heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias.The primary objective of Dr. Zemljic-Harpf’s team is to elucidate the cellular mechanisms involved in these cardiovascular conditions and to identify innovative signaling pathways that may facilitate both the prevention and treatment of heart failure. To assess the effects of various drugs on cardiac myocytes, the laboratory employs in vitro systems to explore structural, subcellular, and mitochondrial mechanisms. The findings from these studies are then translated into whole organ physiology using animal models, to move research from the bench to bedside applications. Currently, the Zemljic-Harpf laboratory is examining the heart-specific pharmacological effects of several drug classes, including anti-diabetic SGLT2 inhibitors, cholesterol-lowering statins, non-addictive opioid receptor agonists, and anti-inflammatory formyl peptide receptor agonists. This research holds significant potential for advancing treatment strategies in cardiovascular health.