We are delighted to announce that Joel Selkrig (Institute for Medical Microbiology, Medical Faculty) and Gaia Tavosanis (Chair of Developmental Biology, Biology Faculty) have secured a competitive ERS Seed Fund grant from RWTH Aachen University for their collaborative project, “Micro-Pain: Mechanisms of Microbe-Dependent Pain Perception.” The call was within the scope of a specific Thematic call for ‘Bioinspired Sensory Systems’. This award supports the early-stage development of innovative, interdisciplinary research bridging microbiology and neuroscience, enabling the team to pursue bold new questions in sensory biology.
The Micro-Pain project aims to uncover how specific gut bacteria and their molecular products influence the perception of pain, a critical but underexplored aspect of host-microbe interactions. Despite substantial progress in understanding the gut-brain axis, the precise molecular mechanisms by which microbes modulate pain sensitivity remain poorly understood. By leveraging the genetically tractable Drosophila melanogaster model, which hosts a simple microbiome dominated by just a few bacterial species, this project will systematically test the impact of a vast array of individual bacterial strains and species on nociceptive responses—insights that would be almost impossible to obtain using mammalian models.
To execute this ambitious research, the team will combine microbiological techniques: semi-automated bacterial species isolation and identification, germ-free fly rearing and microbial genetic manipulation, with advanced behavioral assays to measure thermal pain responses. This includes developing a heat plate assay to quantify Drosophila larvae’s sensitivity to noxious stimuli. Specific bacterial strains isolated from flies—and beyond—will be introduced to these models to identify those that modulate pain perception. The findings will lay the foundation for genome-wide bacterial screens, opening new avenues for understanding the molecular dialogue between gut microbes and sensory neurons.
This ERS Seed Fund grant enables the integration of complementary expertise in microbiology and Drosophila sensory neuroscience, fostering an interdisciplinary research environment at RWTH Aachen. The project not only enhances local research capacities but also aims to generate insights that could ultimately inform innovative therapeutic strategies for pain management. By bridging fundamental microbiology with sensory neuroscience, Micro-Pain embodies the collaborative and forward-thinking spirit of RWTH’s research community.
Grant start date 01.05.2025
