Matilde Cordero-Erausquin

Fellowship 2013

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Matilde Cordero-Erausquin is a CNRS investigator (Chargée de Recherche, Level 1), at the Institute of Cellular and Integrative Neurosciences (INCI, CNRS UPR 3212) in Strasbourg. After completing her studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Matilde Cordero-Erausquin joined Pr. Changeux’s lab at the Pasteur Institute in Paris for her PhD that she defended in 2003. She then moved to Canada to perform a first post-doc with Pr. De Koninck at Laval University (Québec) and a second one with Pr. Ribeiro-da-Silva at McGill University (Montréal). She returned to France in 2007 when she was offered a CNRS position in Strasbourg.
Matilde Cordero-Erausquin has received several international distinctions, including a Women in Neuroscience Award from the Society for Neuroscience and an Early Career Research Grant from the International Association for the Study of Pain. She has extensive expertise on cholinergic systems (PNAS 1999, Nature 1999, TiPS 2000, J.Neurosci. 2003) in particular in the field of spinal pain transmission (PNAS 2001, Pain 2004, J.Comp.Neurol. 2011, Pain 2011, J. Neurosci 2013).

In vivo optogenetic interrogation and manipulation of spinal cholinergic pathways for pain therapy

Post-docs: Dhanasak Dhanasobhon and Maria Carmen Medrano Muňoz

Chronic pain continues to be the single most common cause of disability that impairs the quality of life, accruing enormous socio-economic costs. In the look for novel and alternative therapies, our project focuses on cholinergic analgesia. Endogenous acetylcholine modulates nociceptive transmission in the spinal cord, and is involved in the analgesic effects of clonidine and morphine. We have recently identified its most probable source in the spinal cord of rodents and primates. Our project now aims elucidating the mode of action of this transmitter by studying spinal cholinergic neurons in vivo, in intact preparations and in relevant contextual frameworks. This requires the development of novel fibre-optics technologies that will enable to a) determine the role of specific neuronal pathways and b) test drug action in vivo. Our project will improve our understanding of the spinal nociceptive network. In addition, because clinically relevant analgesics such as morphine, clonidine or atropine involve the release of endogenous acetylcholine at the spinal level, identifying the source and mode of action of this acetylcholine is expected to enable refining existing therapies and developing new ones.