Assistant Professor - Department of Neuroscience Assistant Professor - Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Assistant Professor - Department of Molecular and Human Genetics Ph.D., UT Southwestern Medical Center, 1998 One Baylor Plaza Baylor College of Medicine Houston TX, 77030 Telephone: 713-798-3418 - Fax: 713-798-3946 Email: lumpkin@bcm.edu

The goal of our research is to determine how touch and pain receptors detect force. Somatosensory neurons innervate the body and are responsible for our perception of touch, pain, and proprioception (the awareness of our limb position that allows coordinated movements such as walking). These senses are essential for survival because they allow an animal to constantly monitor its surroundings so that it can react quickly in a dynamic environment. Their importance to human health is underscored by diseases, such as diabetes and AIDS, that cause the death of somatosensory neurons. Patients with these diseases cannot feel injuries, thus, even minor insults can lead to permanent tissue damage.

Although touch, pain and proprioception are distinct senses, they are all initiated by mechanical stimulation of somatosensory neurons. Furthermore, cells that detect mechanical stimuli are responsible for our senses of hearing and balance, as well as for basic physiological processes such as blood pressure regulation, bladder function and bone mineralization.

Because somatosensory receptors are quite diverse and are scattered throughout the body, studying their mechanisms of mechanotransduction is challenging. As a result, we know almost nothing about how somatosensory neurons detect and respond to mechanical stimulation. As one strategy to overcome these difficulties, my laboratory focuses on mechanoreception in the Merkel cell-neurite complex, a very sensitive type of vertebrate touch receptor that we can identify in living preparations. We use biophysical techniques to directly observe how individual, living touch receptors respond to skin pressure. We also use molecular genetic approaches to identify molecules that allow mechanoreceptor cells to sense force.

top

Haeberle, H., L. A. Bryan, T. J. Vadakkan, M. E. Dickinson and E. A. Lumpkin (2008)  Swelling-activated Ca2+ channels trigger Ca2+ signals in Merkel cells. PLoS One 3(e1750):1-10. 

Piskorowski R. A., H. Haeberle, M. V. Panditrao and E. A. Lumpkin (2008) Voltage-activated Ca2+ channels and Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release shape Ca2+ signaling in Merkel cells. Plügers Arch. Eur. J. Physiol.  2008 Apr 16 [ePub ahead of print].

Lumpkin, E. A., and M. J. Caterina.  (2007) Mechanisms of sensory transduction in the skin. Nature. 445:858-865.

Siemens J., S. Zhou, R. A. Piskorowski, T. Nikai, E. A. Lumpkin, A. I. Basbaum, D. King and D. Julius. (2006)  Novel spider toxins target the capsaicin receptor to produce inflammatory pain.  Nature 444:208-212.

Lumpkin, E. A., and D M. Bautista (2005)  Feeling the pressure in mammalian somatosensation. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 15: 382-388.

Haeberle H., M. Fujiwara, J. Chuang, M. M. Medina, M. Panditrao, S. Bechstedt, J. Howard, and E. A. Lumpkin (2004)  Molecular profiling reveals synaptic release machinery in Merkel cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101: 14503-14508.

Lumpkin, E. A., and A. J. Hudspeth (1998)  Free Ca2+ concentration is tightly regulated in hair-cell stereocilia.  J. Neurosci. 18: 6300-6318.

Lumpkin, E. A., R. E. Marquis and A. J. Hudspeth (1997)  The selectivity of the hair cell’s mechanoelectrical-transduction channel promotes Ca2+ flux at low Ca2+ concentrations.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94: 10997-11002.

Yamoah, E. N., E. A. Lumpkin, R. A. Dumont, P. J. S. Smith, A. J. Hudspeth, and P. G. Gillespie (1998)  Plasma-membrane calcium ATPase extrudes Ca2+ from hair-cell stereocilia.  J. Neurosci. 18: 610-624.

Lumpkin, E. A., and A. J. Hudspeth (1995)  Detection of Ca2+ entry through mechanosensitive channels localizes the site of mechanoelectrical transduction in hair cells.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92: 10297-10301.

top

2007 Kavli Fellow, National Academy of Sciences

2001-present Member, Faculty of 1000 (Neuroscience)

2001-2006  Sandler Family Foundation Fellowship

1999-2000  Postdoctoral fellowship, Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Foundation

1997 Nominata Award for best Ph.D. dissertation, UT Southwestern Medical Center

1992-1997  Predoctoral fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

top

• Kara Marshall (Neuroscience)
• Aislyn Nelson (Neuroscience)
• Scott Wellnitz (Neuroscience)
• Jennifer LaRey (Cell & Molecular Biology)

top

Force-sensitive cells include Merkel cell-neurite complexes (A), hair cells (B) and vascular smooth muscle cells (C).

top