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Michael Jerry Caterina, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Interests: TRP channel function in thermosensation, pain and inflammation
Dr. Michael J. Caterina is a professor of neurosurgery, biological chemistry and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is a sensory neurobiologist with a focus on the molecular basis of pain and temperature sensation.
Dr. Caterina and his colleagues discovered the first heat-gated ion channel—the capsaicin receptor TRPV1—and demonstrated that this protein is critical for the detection of painfully hot temperatures and for the augmented sensitivity to heat pain that follows tissue inflammation.
He is the inaugural director of the Neurosurgery Pain Research Institute and serves as the co-director of the biological chemistry graduate program at Johns Hopkins.
Current topics of interest in his lab at Johns Hopkins include: the respective contributions of different TRP channels to pain sensation, thermosensation, and thermoregulation; the roles of temperature-gated TRP channels in nonneuronal cells such as skin keratinocytes; and a novel form of activity-dependent plasticity in TRP channel signaling.
Dr. Caterina earned his bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University and subsequently the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He completed a fellowship in cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Caterina joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1999.
Dr. Caterina is one of the founding members of the Center for Sensory Biology. He leads the Johns Hopkins Medicine Brain Sciences Institute's Pain Working Group, which brings together investigators from multiple disciplines to enhance their understanding of pain mechanisms. His work has been recognized with a number of national and international awards, including the Patrick Wall Young Investigator Award from the International Association for the Study of Pain in 2005 and the Donlin M. Long Pain Service Award from the Johns Hopkins Blaustein Pain Research Program in 2013.
TRP channel function in thermosensation, pain, and inflammation
Dr. Caterina's lab studies the biological functions and biophysical characteristics of a group of ion channel proteins of the transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV) family: TRPV1, TRPV2, TRPV3 and TRPV4. These channels share the intriguing feature that they can be activated by warm or painfully hot temperatures, as well as by many nonthermal stimuli. For example, TRPV1, the founding member of this family, can be activated by painful heat (>42°C), by protons, or by pungent chemicals such as capsaicin. This channel is strongly expressed in nociceptive neurons and is essential for normal behavioral responses to noxious heat.
By examining these channels in recombinant and native systems, and taking advantage of knockout mice lacking one or more subtypes, Dr. Caterina and his team are dissecting the biological contributions of these channels to thermosensory and nonthermosensory processes in both neuronal and nonneuronal cells. They are also seeking to more broadly understand the biological and pathophysiological basis of chronic pain.
Frizzled3 is required for the development of multiple axon tracts in the mouse central nervous system. Hua ZL, Jeon S, Caterina MJ, Nathans J. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 May 5. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 24799694
Central terminal sensitization of TRPV1 by descending serotonergic facilitation modulates chronic pain. Kim YS, Chu Y, Han L, Li M, Li Z, Lavinka PC, Sun S, Tang Z, Park K, Caterina MJ, Ren K, Dubner R, Wei F, Dong X. Neuron. 2014 Feb 19;81(4):873-87. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.12.011. Epub 2014 Jan 23. PMID: 24462040
Boosting that tan with a bit of voltage. Caterina MJ. Channels (Austin). 2013 Nov 1;7(6):417. Epub 2013 Oct 2. Review. No abstract available. PMID: 24088950
The incidental pore: CaV1.2 and stem cell activation in quiescent hair follicles. Coulombe PA, Caterina MJ. Genes Dev. 2013 Jun 15;27(12):1315-7. doi: 10.1101/gad.223172.113. PMID: 23788620
Expression and distribution of TRPV2 in rat brain. Nedungadi TP, Dutta M, Bathina CS, Caterina MJ, Cunningham JT. Exp Neurol. 2012 Sep;237(1):223-37. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2012.06.017. Epub 2012 Jun 27. PMID: 22750329
Johns Hopkins University
725 North Wolfe St.
Biophysics 408
Baltimore, MD 21205
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Phone: 410-502-5457
Graduate Program in Biological Chemistry
Hot and Spicy, Part I
Michael Caterina discusses how we sense pain and why chili peppers burn.
Hot and Spicy, Part II
Michael Caterina discusses how we sense pain and why chili peppers burn.
Hot and Spicy, Part III
Michael Caterina discusses how we sense pain and why chili peppers burn.
Hot and Spicy, Part IV
Michael Caterina discusses how we sense pain and why chili peppers burn.
Michael Caterina - The History of the TRP Channel
Johns Hopkins scientist Michael Caterina tells about the history of the TRP channel.
Doorways to Discovery: Neurosurgical Pain Research Institute-To Control, Prevent, and Eliminate Pain
Michael Caterina M.D., Ph.D., and Allan Belzberg, M.D., co-directors of The Neurosurgery Pain Research Institute at Johns Hopkins To control, prevent, and eliminate pain, discuss research initiates underway of neurosurgical-related pain including translational research with DREZ lesions and how nociceptors process pain.
Collaborating to Control, Prevent and Eliminate Pain, Doorways to Discovery (November 2014)
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