The biophysics of skin-neuron sensory tactile organs and their sensitivity to mechanical and chemical stress

皮肤、肌肉、关节和内脏器官包裹着专门的感觉神经元，这些神经元检测触摸和运动形式的机械提示。执行大多数（如果不是所有）日常生活基本活动的能力取决于来自这些躯体感觉、本体感觉和内脏感觉神经元的信息。因此，更好地了解它们的功能和对机械和化学应力的敏感性对健康至关重要。该研究项目的重点是负责触觉的皮肤神经元复合组织，并试图破译机械力如何从皮肤表面转化为嵌入的感觉神经元，并转化为电信号，从而产生触觉感知。这项工作结合了简单无脊椎动物（C。elegans nematodes），用于在反馈控制下传递机械刺激的高性能工具（自感杠杆），以及用于通过电生理学和钙成像光学监测组织变形和神经元激活的高性能工具。该研究团队包括生物学家，工程师和物理学家，并将实验工作与理论和模拟相结合。除了通过皮肤神经元复合材料寻求对机械感觉的全面理解外，该研究计划还将解决神经元如何弯曲而不断裂的突出问题。基于初步工作，我们还计划利用我们对触觉及其分子基础的了解，研究与糖尿病（葡萄糖）和化疗（紫杉醇）相关的化学应激源如何影响皮肤神经元复合物的功能和形态。我们寻求获得的知识与所有动物相关，包括依赖皮肤神经元复合材料获得触觉的人类。

Skin, muscle, joints, and internal organs encapsulate specialized sensory neurons that detect mechanical cues in the form of touch and movement. The ability to perform most, if not all of the essential activities of daily living depends on information from these somatosensory, proprioceptive, and visceral sensory neurons. Thus, a better understanding of their function and sensitivity to mechanical and chemical stress is of vital importance for health. This research program focuses on the skin-neuron composite tissues responsible for touch and seeks to decipher how mechanical force is translated from the skin surface to embedded sensory neurons and converted into electrical signals that give rise to tactile perceptions. The work combines genetic dissection in a simple invertebrate (C. elegans nematodes) with electron microscopy, high-performance tools (self-sensing cantilevers) for delivering mechanical stimuli under feedback control and for optically monitoring tissue deformation and neuronal activation with electrophysiology and calcium imaging. The research team includes biologists, engineers and physicists and integrates experimental work with theory and simulation. In addition to seeking a comprehensive understanding of mechanosensation by skin-neuron composites, the research program will also address the outstanding question of how neurons bend without breaking. Based on preliminary work, we also plan to leverage our knowledge of touch sensation and its molecular basis to investigate how chemical stressors linked to diabetes (glucose) and chemotherapy (paclitaxel) affect the function and morphology of skin-neuron composites. The knowledge we seek to acquire is relevant to all animals, including humans that rely on skin-neuron composites for touch sensation.