Lipin Loo successfully passed his Ph.D. examination on Tuesday, January 15, 2013. His thesis title was "Modulation of TRPV1, Nociceptor Sensitization and Induction of Thermal Hyperalgesia by C-Type Natriuretic Peptide". Members of his thesis committee were chair, D.P. Mohapatra from the Department of Pharmacology and Anesthesia; Yuriy Usachev from the Departments of Pharmacology and Anesthesia; Donna Hammond, Departments of Anesthesia and Pharmacology; Christopher Benson, Departments of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology; and Timothy Brennan, Departments of Anesthesia and Pharmacology.

Dr. Loo's research focused on sensory ion channel modulations and nociceptor sensitization by natriuretic peptides. He received his B.A in Biotechnology with Honors from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA and began in the Pharmacology Ph.D. Program at Iowa in 2008.

His plans in the coming months will be to start a postdoctoral position in Dr. DP Mohapatra’s lab where he will be finishing up his work on AKAP5 anchoring and its regulation of TPRv1 sensitization. Beginning in October, 2013 Dr. Loo will begin working in Dr. Mark Zylka’s lab at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill as a Postdoctoral Fellow where he will be studying kinases that regulate pain signaling as well as assessing how genes associated with autism regulate gene expression in neurons, synaptic function and autism like behaviors in animal models.

Congratulations to Dr. Loo!