Congratulations to Marsha Ritter Jones, MD, PhD, who was awarded a Mentored Research Training Grant from the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research for her project “The Role of Neuronal-Derived MD-1 in Cutaneous Inflammation.” The $250,000 two year grant will start January 1, 2023.
Impaired healing can lead to chronic wounds that negatively impact quality of life and drive up medical costs. Optimal healing requires neural immune communication at the injury site, but the mechanisms underlying this communication are poorly defined. To develop new perioperative strategies to facilitate robust surgical wound healing, Dr. Ritter Jones is working to determine the functional significance of the molecule myeloid differentiation 1 (MD-1). Previous work by Dr. Ritter Jones and others suggests that MD-1, produced by nonpeptidergic sensory neurons, functions as a regulator of neural-immune communication and has anti-inflammatory effects. Her research group will determine if loss of neuronal MD-1 alters immune cell recruitment and activation and if loss of neuronal MD-1 alters the effect of peripheral nerve block (PNB) on the immune response to injury. Dr. Ritter Jones predicts that knockout of neuronal MD-1 will increase PNB-induced migration. The finding that MD-1 expressed by neurons regulates the immune response to injury is very novel and offers a potential new target to optimize wound repair.