Jane Hartung

At Avista, my role has centered around the generation, discovery, and assessment of novel AAV capsids for use in gene therapies for diseases in the CNS and retina.

As a postdoctoral fellow in Michael Gold's laboratory, I characterized the functional properties human sensory neurons using patch clamp electrophysiology, with the aim of developing effective pain therapeutics. My research focused on nicotinic currents, voltage-gated calcium currents, voltage-gated sodium currents (NaV1.7, 1.8, and 1.9), as well as work on the effects of opioid receptors on voltage-gated calcium currents. My research has helped to describe critical functional differences in the density and types of currents/receptors expressed by human sensory neurons compared to sensory neurons from other, more commonly used animal models, such as those from mouse or rat.

Adjunct Lecturer: Brain and Behavior (NRSCI0080) at the University of Pittsburgh

As a graduate student at UNC, I studied the ways in which catecholamine dysregulation could lead to increased nociception. I used a variety of techniques to answer research questions. These included assessing animal behavior, immunohistochemistry, fluorescent microscopy, and biochemistry. While conducting pain and nociception research as a graduate student, I mentored four undergraduate and one graduate student. Through our shared efforts, these students and I worked to publish two different scientific articles. I successfully secured over $150,000 in grant funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) during my tenure as a graduate student. These funds included the Ruth L. Kirschstein Graduate NRSA Institutional Research Training Grants (F31), in which I was scored in the top 5% of grant applicants.