Graduate Student
Hometown: Calcutta, India
High School: La-Martiniere for Boys
Class of 1997
Personal web page: http://homepage.mac.com/rohangandhi
B.A., Biology and Psychology, 2001
Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Advisor – Tom Moye, Ph.D.
Honors Thesis Title: “Effects of a novel melanocortin-4 receptor (MC-4R) antagonist on food intake and body weight.”
Ph.D., Neuroscience (expected May 2006)
University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
Advisor – Doug Wright, Ph.D.
Curriculum Vitae (PDF format)
I am currently beginning my fourth (and, hopefully, final) year as a graduate student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. I work in Dr. Doug Wright’s lab where the main focus is to understand the role of neurotrophins (growth factors) in the development of the peripheral nervous system and in diseased states such as peripheral neuropathies.
There were several reasons why I chose the Wright lab. I was definitely interested in the research being done; equally important, I found the lab to be a welcoming, friendly group – I love the people I work with every day! Another pleasing aspect about the lab was the use of a variety of techniques (systems, behavioral, cellular and molecular) to address questions.
My project has been to study the function of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) in an acid-induced model of chronic muscular pain. While most of our knowledge about nociception (perception of pain) has been obtained from studies on cutaneous pain, the precise mechanisms underlying chronic musculoskeletal pain remain poorly understood. It has been shown that 80% of muscle afferent neurons are responsive to trkC, the receptor for NT-3. Thus, we believe that NT-3 may be protective to the neurons that participate in the processing of muscular pain signals.
We have utilized transgenic (myo/NT-3) mice that over-express NT-3 in skeletal muscle in answering some of our main questions. With this acid model, comparisons between transgenic and wild type littermates indicated that through its actions on muscle afferents, NT-3 reduced the sensitivity of the cutaneous afferents to mechanical stimuli. We have used exogenous NT-3 to treat mice in which pain was induced by acid injection and the same neuroprotective effects were observed. More recently, we have shown that these protective effects are unique to NT-3, require access of NT-3 from the muscle, and appear permanent following the removal of NT-3 treatment. So far, these results suggest that NT-3 is a significant modulator of muscle pain and can suppress events that lead to persistent hyperalgesia induced by insult to muscle afferents.
Currently, experiments are underway to gain a better understanding of the molecular mediators upstream or downstream of NT-3, which play a role in this increased sensitivity to mechanical stimulus.
If you have any specific questions regarding the Neuroscience Program or any questions about life as a graduate student, please feel free to e-mail me ( rgandhi@kumc.edu)
Playing my guitar, kicking anyone’s butt in the squash courts, wasting time surfing the web, chatting with friends, listening to jazz, biking on trails.
www.squash.org
Great site that contains rules of the game, current rankings and other squash news.
www.squashgear.com
In case you are interested in buying some squash gear.
www.digitalcity.com/kansascity
Best site for anything you want to find in Kansas City from restaurants and jazz bars to movie theatres and concerts.
www.neuropsychopharmacology.info/Neuroscience/ Awesome site – everything you always wanted to know about Neuroscience, but were afraid to ask!
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