Members of the Center for Neurobiology of Stress fall into one or more of the following categories: (1) investigators at UCLA, VAGLAHS, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, or other campus who are principal or co-principal investigators with peer-reviewed, competitive funding for research in neurovisceral sciences, gastrointestinal disorders, urological disorders, and stress neurobiology, and stress-immune system interactions, particularly related to sex-based differences and whose research directly impacts the goals of the Center; (2) division chiefs in gastroenterology, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, and psychiatry; (3) directors or co-directors of programs or cores, or individuals who have relevant roles within the Center and (4) clinicians who have made significant contributions to the main subject matters of the Center.
If you are interested in becoming a member, please contact Million Mulugeta, DVM, PhD at mmuluget@ucla.edu.
Members are listed in alphabetical order.
S
David Shapiro, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA
David Shapiro is a psychologist with special interests and research experience in psyhophysiology and health psychology. He directs the Psychophysiology Laboratory in the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. He was appointed Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in the School of Medicine in 1974 and has also been a member of the Department of Psychology in Arts and Sciences,and he became Professor Emeritus in 1994. From 1953 to 1974 he was on the faculty of Harvard University in the Departments of Psychology and Social Relations and in Psychiatry. His publications include basic research and clinical applications of biofeedback and self-regulation, social and emotional processes affecting cardiovascular regulation and risk for hypertension, psychological factors in smoking. and the psychological benefits of yoga. He has served as Editor of the journal Psychophysiology and on the editoral board of other journals. His research has been honored by the Society for Psychophysiological Research, Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Society of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeeback.
Kalyanam Shivkumar, MD, PhD
Director, UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center; Professor, Department of Medicine Radiology, UCLA
Dr. Shivkumar received his medical degree from the University of Madras, India in 1991 and his PhD from UCLA in 2000. He completed his cardiology fellowship training at the University of California, Los Angeles, and upon completion of his training joined the faculty at University of Iowa, where he also served as the Associate Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology.
In 2002, he was recruited back to UCLA to direct the newly created UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His field of specialization is interventional cardiac electrophysiology and he heads a group at UCLA that is involved in developing innovative techniques for the non-pharmacological management of cardiac arrhythmias.
He is currently Professor of Medicine and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Radiology at UCLA.
Dr. Shivkumar is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in the subspecialties of Cardiovascular Disease and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology.
He holds memberships in several professional organizations, including the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology and the Heart Rhythm Society.
Igor Spigelman, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Oral Biology and Medicine, UCLA
Dr. Igor Spigelman joined the faculty at the UCLA School of Dentistry in 1991. He contributes to teaching in the dental school curriculum and in graduate school courses including the interdepartmental Neuroscience Graduate Program. His research on the mechanisms of chronic pain and alcohol addiction resulted in numerous publications and two patents.
Catia Sternini, MD
Professor, Department of Medicine Digestive Diseases/Gastroenterology, Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
The “Brain in the Gut” and Taste Receptors
My research program is concerned with the neuronal circuits that control gastrointestinal motility and the mechanisms that govern receptor-mediated responses in the enteric nervous system, the “brain in the gut”, and with chemosensing in the gastrointestinal tract. Currently, the main lines of my research include: (1) trafficking and signaling of G protein-coupled receptors induced by physiological and pathophysiological events with an emphasis on µ opioid receptor, the target of opioid analgesics used for pain control, which mediates opioid bowel syndrome and tolerance, and (2) role of taste signaling molecules in the regulation of gastrointestinal functions and feeding behavior. My group was the first to demonstrate that opioids differing in their ability to induce tolerance also differ in their efficiency to induce µOR trafficking, a process that regulates receptor signaling and function. The findings of ligand-selective and stimulation-dependent µOR internalization in enteric neurons are of importance for understanding the mechanisms underlying intracellular adaptations induced by prolonged activation of µORs, which hamper the use of opioids as analgesics. Furthermore, we have shown that µOR activation exerts a protective effect on acute intestinal inflammation through cytokine and NF-KB modulation. Another focus of my research is on the role of taste signaling molecules as chemosensory receptors in the gut mucosa, which are likely to modulate gut function and food intake through the release of signaling molecules by enteroendocrine cells, with emphasis on bitter taste receptors, a putative side of defense from potentially toxic substances, drugs and pathogens. The recent discovery that taste receptors for sweet and bitter are expressed throughout the body and not only in the tongue has given rise to the concept of a broader role for these receptors beyond “taste”. My lab has shown that taste signaling molecules are expressed by distinct populations of mucosal cells, including enteroendocrine cells, which synthesize peptides affecting motility, secretion, satiety and hunger, and that bitter taste receptors are regulated by feeding and different diets, suggesting they participate in the functional detection of intraluminal content and they serve as regulators of diet-induced responses by detecting changes in the microbiota.