Zhou-Feng Chen, Ph.D.
Director, Center for the Study of Itch
Professor of Anesthesiology, Psychiatry and Developmental Biology
Director, Center for the Study of Itch
Professor of Anesthesiology, Psychiatry and Developmental Biology
Biography:
Dr. Zhou-Feng Chen received his B.S. degree in virology from Wuhan University in 1983 and his Ph.D. Degree in mouse genetics from University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1994, under the supervision of Prof. Richard Behringer. After completing a postdoctoral training in Prof. David Anderson’s lab at Caltech, he joined the department of Anesthesiology as an assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine in 2000 and became a full professor in 2009. His research focuses on understanding of neural circuits of itch and pain with a wide range of interests including neuronal GPCR signaling in itch, descending and modulation and coding logics of itch and pain. His team identified the first itch-specific receptor Gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) and neural circuits in the spinal cord. These seminal discoveries have opened up an exciting new frontier for deciphering itch circuits and function. Ongoing research program is centered on signaling and synaptic mechanisms of itch transmission from the skin to the brain and crosstalk between itch and pain. Genetic and molecular tools are being developed to mark and isolate itch neurons for molecular, electrophysiological, cellular and circuit analysis. Detailed elucidation of how GRPR and/or GRPR neurons receive, process and relay itch information may shed insights onto potential therapies for chronic itch.
