Cavalli Lab

The Cavalli Lab

The Cavalli lab is striving to unravel the cellular and molecular mechanisms that orchestrate peripheral nerve repair and use that information to improve healing in central nervous system damage and in severe peripheral nerve injuries.

To uncover how to repair nerves, we study a unique cell type that spans both the peripheral and central nervous systems: sensory neurons of the dorsal root ganglia. Sensory neurons have a single axon that bifurcates within the ganglion; one axon proceeds centrally into the spinal cord and the other proceeds along peripheral nerves. Despite being two parts of the same cell, the peripheral and central axonal branches do not respond identically after injury. The peripheral parts regrow and recover much faster and more completely than the central ones do. Our hope is that by identifying the factors responsible for this discrepancy we will reveal potential new therapies.

While we continue our studies on the intrinsic neuronal mechanism driving these divergent responses to injury, we also focus on the glial cells that wrap the cell soma, known as satellite glial cells. We strive to understand how satellite glial cells contribute to sensory function and dysfunction in health and disease, in both mice and human.

---

---

---