[Home] [Fellows] [2008 Fellows] [2007 Fellows] [Mary Boggs]
Mary Boggs  Research: My research focuses on understanding the
mechanism of pain sensation in bone.  How pain is transmitted
when disease or injury occurs in bone, especially in patients
with cancer that has metastasized to bone, is not well
understood and thus the pain is not well treated.  A better
understanding of this mechanism will aid in targeting
therapeutics to better treat patients with pain induced by bone
cancer.  I hypothesize that the mechanism of pain sensation is
through cell-to-cell communication between the most abundant
cell type of bone cell and sensory neurons that innervate bone. 
In order to study this communication, I prepare surfaces that
are patterned with two types of extracellular matrix proteins
using a technique called micro-contact printing.  This allows me
to culture both cell types together to better study their
interactions.  Further studies focus on manipulating bone cells
on the patterned surfaces and monitoring fo