Marta’s recent international fellowships

2022 and 2023 were full of research-related travel for Pain Lab members.

The two months between mid-April and mid-June Marta spent in sunny Bordeaux, thanks to a French Government SSHN grant for a research stay she received. At Neurocentre Magendie – INSERM, in the group of Prof. Giovanni Marsicano, she conducted research on primary cultures of mouse astrocytes, using a new tool for measuring endocannabinoid secretion – the eCB2.0 sensor. The eCB2.0 sensor was first described by Peking University (Dong et al., 2022). Briefly, it is a CB1 cannabinoid receptor linked to the circular-permutated protein EGFP, which shows a strong fluorescence response at physiological concentrations of endocannabinoids (AEA and 2-AG).

Directly after participating in the IASP World Congress on Pain, Marta headed to Richmond (Virginia, US) to complete a 5-month internship at Virginia Commonwealth University in frames of the Exchange Program to the US funded by the Kosciuszko Foundation. In the group of Prof. Aron Lichtman, Marta performed experiments on two mouse models of chronic pain: chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain and related to osteoarthritis. She investigated the role of DAG lipase-beta (the enzyme responsible for endocannabinoid 2-AG synthesis) in chronic pain development and looked for possible options for chronic pain management.

We hope that these research collaborations will develop into long-term scientific cooperation. We are also waiting for Marta’s results to be published!