News

2024

March 2024 -- Dr. Mayank Gautam has had his manuscript accepted to Nature Communications!! Looking forward to seeing your work, Distinct Local and Global Functions of Mouse Aβ Low-Threshold Mechanoreceptors in Mechanical Nociception, published soon.


2023

December 2023 -- Welcome to Caitlin Cronen and Ebenezer Simpson on joining the lab!

September 2023 -- Congrats to Dr. Suna Li on successfully defending her thesis!!

June 2023 — Congrats to grad student Tariq Cannonier for passing his candidacy exam!!


2022

December 2022 — Postdoc Huasheng Yu's paper on Scratch-AID, an automated itch behavior analysis system, is finally out in eLife! Congrats to him, our collaborators, and all of the students who tirelessly annotated behavior videos!

May 2022 — Check out graduate student Suna Cranfill and Dr. Wenqin Luo's latest article in Nature News and Views, discussing a fresh manuscript from the Kuner lab on neuropathic pain!

May 2022 — We're beyond excited to welcome Tariq to the lab as our newest grad student!!

January 2022 — NGG student Tariq Cannonier joins the lab for a rotation this semester. Welcome!

January 2022 — A huge congrats to former research associate Lian Cui for her paper, Glutamate in primary afferents is required for itch transmission, published this month in Neuron!


2021

September 2021 — Congrats to former graduate student Kate Beattie and postdoc Mayank Gautam for their paper, TRPC3 antagonizes pruritus in a mouse contact dermatitis model, published online this month in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology! 

June 2021 — Congratulations to Dr. Kate Beattie, who successfully defended her thesis! We're so proud to see you move on and nab that second Dr. as you complete your medical training!

March 2021 — Welcome to CAMB rotation student, Karen Wei! We're excited to have you!

March 2021 — Check out graduate student Suna Cranfill and Dr. Wenqin Luo's new review on the development of somatosensory neurons, published in CTDB!


2019

September 2019 — A warm welcome to new postdoc Huasheng Yu! His paper, MRGPRX4 is a bile acid receptor for human cholestatic itch, was just published in eLife after a fruitful collaboration with members of the Luo Lab. Congrats to Huasheng, Qinxue, and Omar!

August 2019 — Check out the latest publication from former post-docs Ishmail Abdus-Saboor and Nathan Fried, Development of a mouse pain scale using sub-second behavioral mapping and statistical modeling, published in Cell Reports this month! 

August 2019 — Congrats to graduate student Suna Cranfill on being awarded an NRSA fellowship!

April 2019 — A HUGE congratulations to Dr. Kim Kridsada, who successfully defended her doctoral thesis! We'll miss you!

March 2019 — Congrats to graduate student Kate Beattie on being awarded an NRSA fellowship!

Feb 2019 — Another warm welcome to new postdoc Mayank Gautam!


2018

Sept 2018 — A warm welcome to Qinxue Wu, who will be joining as our new lab manager!

July 2018 — Congrats to postdoc, Nathan T. Fried, for winning a poster award at the 2018 IRACDA teaching and research conference at Emory University for the poster entitled, "A Mouse Pain Scale: Assessment of Pain Sensation in Mice Using Sub-second Behavioral Mapping and Statistical Modeling"!

June 2018 — A BIG congrats to graduate student Kim Kridsada and former postdoc / lab alum Jingwen Niu for their paper «Roof plate-derived radial glial-like cells support developmental growth of rapidly adapting mechanoreceptor ascending axons», which was published in Cell Reports!

May 2018 — Congrats to graduate student Suna Li for passing her prelim exam! Fantastic! Shortly after, Suna was appointed as a Hearst Foundation Fellow by the Neuroscience Graduate Group! Awesome!

May 2018 — CONGRATULATIONS to our amazing PI, Dr. Wenqin Luo, for being awarded tenure!!!

May 2018 — Check out this article highlighting postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor's journey as a scientist! Penn Medicine News Blog

April 2018 — Congrats to Dr. William Olson, who successfully defended his doctoral thesis! We wish you the best in your new postdoc position!

March 2018 — A HUGE congratulations to postdoc Nathan Fried as well, who will be joining the Department of Biology at Rutgers University as an Assistant Professor! We're so proud of you!!

March 2018 — Congrats to Dr. Peter Dong, who successfully defended his doctoral thesis! We'll miss you immensely!

March 2018 — A HUGE congratulations to postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, who has accepted a tenure-track position as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Penn! Good luck, Ishmail—we'll see you around!


2017

November 2017 — Another month, another new graduate student! Suna Li has joined the lab after her rotation last summer! Welcome!

October 2017 — More congrats, this time to graduate student Will Olson, research associate Lian Cui, postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, and undergrad Justin Burdge for their paper «Sparse genetic tracing reveals regionally specific functional organization of mammalian nociceptors», which was accepted for publication in eLife!

October 2017 — Congrats to graduate student Katherine Beattie for passing her prelim exam!

September 2017 — Congrats to graduate student Peter Dong, whose paper «TRPC3 is dispensable for β-alanine triggered acute itch» was accepted for publication in Scientific Reports!

August 2017 — A big congratulations to postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, who was awarded an NIH Pathway to Independence (K99) award!

March 2017 — Congrats to graduate student Kim Kridsada on being awarded an NRSA fellowship! Rad!

March 2017 — Graduate student Katherine Beattie has joined the lab after her rotation! Great news, and yet another warm welcome!

March 2017 — Another warm welcome to new postdoc Theeradej (Paclink) Thaweerattanasinp on joining the lab! Awesome!

January 2017 — A warm welcome to research technician Omar Johnson on joining the lab, and graduate student Kate Beattie, who will be rotating in the lab for the winter!


2016

October 2016 — Congrats to graduate students Peter Dong and Kim Kridsada, who were awarded travel grants for attending the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in November!

September 2016 — A warm welcome to graduate student Kelly Sullivan, who will be rotating in the lab for the fall!

August 2016 — Congrats to recent graduate Michael Fleming, whose paper «A RET-ER81-NRG1 signaling pathway drives the development of Pacinian corpuscles» was accepted for publication in the Journal of Neuroscience! Mike is departing the lab this month for a new job at Novartis—we wish him the best!

July 2016 — A HUGE congratulations to research associate Lian Cui, postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, and graduate students William Olson and Michael Fleming for their paper «Identification of early RET+ deep dorsal spinal cord interneurons in gating pain», which was accepted for publication in Neuron!

June 2016 — Congrats to graduate student Will Olson, who was awarded a Best Poster Award at the 2016 Molecular & Cellular Neurobiology Gordon Research Conference in Hong Kong!

May 2016 — A warm welcome to graduate student Suna Li, who will be rotating in the lab for the summer!

May 2016 — Congrats to postdoc Nathan Fried, who was awarded the 2016 – 2017 JCBS Alumni Thesis Award from Thomas Jefferson University for his doctoral thesis work!

May 2016 — Congratulations to postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, who was awarded a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Collaborative Research Travel Grant! Sweet!

April 2016 — A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Michael Fleming, who successfully defended his doctoral thesis! Mike is the first Ph.D. student to graduate from the lab. You will be missed!

April 2016 — Congratulations to postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor for his paper «An expression refinement process ensures singular odorant receptor gene choice» from his previous lab, published by Current Biology!

March 2016 — Congrats to graduate students Will Olson, Peter Dong, and Mike Fleming for their review «The specification and wiring of mammalian cutaneous low-threshold mechanoreceptors», published by WIREs Developmental Biology!

March 2016 — Congratulations to postdoc Nathan Fried on receiving a Penn-PORT fellowship!


2015

October 2015 — A warm welcome to postdoc Nathan Fried on joining the lab!

September 2015 — Congratulations to postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor on being awarded the 2015 Postdoctoral Enrichment Program (PDEP) for Underrepresented Minority Scientists Award! 

May 2015 — Congrats to graduate student Kim Kridsada for passing her prelim exam! Awesome!

April 2015 — Congrats to graduate student Will Olson on being awarded an NRSA fellowship! Yay!

April 2015 — Congratulations to graduate student Mike Fleming, and former lab members Anna Vysochan and Jingwen Niu for their paper «Cis and trans RET signaling control the survival and central projection growth of rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors», published by eLife!


2014

September 2014 — A warm welcome to postdoc Ishmail Abdus-Saboor and graduate student Kim Kridsada on joining the lab! And congratulations to Ishmail on receiving a Penn-PORT fellowship!

June 2014 — The Simons Foundation has announced that Wenqin Luo has received one of the 2014 Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Awards in the Neurosciences! Congratulations on this prestigious honor!

May 2014 — Congrats to graduate student Peter Dong for passing his prelim exam! Nice!

April 2014 — Congrats to postdoc Jingwen Niu and technician Anna Vysochan for their paper «Dual innervation of neonatal Merkel cells in mouse touch domes», published by PLOS ONE!

April 2014 — Congrats to graduate student Mike Fleming on being awarded an NRSA fellowship! Woohoo!