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Lorne Mendell, Ph.D. is a neurobiologist currently employed as a distinguished professor in the department of neurobiology and behavior at Stony Brook University in New York. His research focuses primarily on neurotrophins in neonatal and adult mammals, and on the neuroplasticity of the mammalian spinal cord. Neurotrophins are proteins in a family known as growth factors. These proteins promote the development, functioning, and neuron survival. Neuroplasticity refers to a neuron’s ability to form new neural connections; this allows the brain to learn and memorize and adjust its processes in order to adapt to adverse changes like injury or disease. Dr. Mendell's research interests lie in other areas including pain, nerve wind-up, and specifically the neurotrophin, NT-3. Dr. Mendell is a veteran in the neuroscientist; he has held numerous positions throughout his career. His research has contributed findings to the growing pool of knowledge of axonal development and regeneration of immature and mature neurons. Recently, Dr. Mendell has been a part of the search for novel treatments for spinal cord injuries, and presently Mendell continues to study neurotrophins to determine their effects on neuronal plasticity. Mendell served a term as the President for the Society of Neuroscience during the years 1997-1998.

Life and Education
Lorne Mendell graduated from McGill University in 1961 with a bachelor of science in both Mathematics and Physics. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in neurophysiology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965. Shortly after earning his Ph.D., Mendell became a faculty member at Duke University Medical Center in 1968. He remained at Duke until 1980 when he joined the faculty at Stony Brook University. Since then, Dr. Mendell has held numerous positions in a number of associations and organizations. He has also received many honors and awards throughout his career as a neurobiologist. See Positions Held and Honors & Awards for more information.

Family
Dr. Lorne Mendell is married to Dr. Nancy Mendell, a professor emerita in the department of applied mathematics and statistics at Stony Brook University. Together they have a daughter, Stephanie Mendell. In November 2016, Stephanie Mendell married David Hodgson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Hodgson.

Research focus/expertise

 * Neurotrophins

As mentioned before, neurotrophins help promote the development, functioning, and survival of neurons. Mendell’s research within neurotrophins has focused specifically on nerve growth factors (NGF) and their role that they play within inflammatory pain. Within this, there was also a focus in Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and their sensitizing effect on specific synaptic transmission between nociceptors and their target. In his recent labs, he has been studying the contributions of a third neurotrophin (NT-3) and what the effects are when the synapse that is involved in transmission between stretch receptors and motor neurons is altered.


 * Neuronal Plasticity

Neuronal plasticity is a very important aspect in the normal functioning of the brain. It is what allows the brain to continually adjust in light of new situations. This means that neurons within the brain are changing, especially during childhood when the brain is still developing. Plasticity does occur into adulthood, just on a reduced scale. This property of the brain has been found to be especially helpful after a brain injury, during physiological learning, etc. The magnitude of neuronal plasticity can range from microscopic, affecting only individual neurons, all the way up to macroscopic, where things such as cortical remapping may be observed. The purpose of this is to generate a more effectively functioning brain.

Mendell has focused a lot of his research on neuronal plasticity, specifically within the mammalian spinal cord. He has combined some of his research from NT-3 to help show how neurotrophins can help alter the function of both damaged and undamaged neurons.


 * Pain

Pain is a physical feeling that most of the time harms an individual. This is caused by a damaging stimuli that can vary in intensity. The stimuli sends signals that then travel along neurons so that information can be received by the brain. The nerves that are typically responsible for pain sensation are nociceptors.

A lot of the work Mendell has done with both neurotrophins and neuronal plasticity has some overlap into the realm of pain, and what their roles are in both reducing and relieving pain. For example, Mendell has conducted research which has shown the relationship between nerve growth factors (a type of neurotrophin) and inflammatory pain.


 * Nerve Wind Up

Mendell discovered the property of ‘wind up’ in the spinal cord. ‘Wind Up’ is the property of C-fibres in the peripheral nerves of the spinal cord that when stimulated at repetitious low frequencies there will be a gradual accumulation in the amplitude of response.


 * NT-3

Mendell has been interested in the role neurotrophins play in nervous plasticity since at least the mid 1990s. At the time, neurotrophins were understood to be significant factors in neuronal development and differentiation in the central and peripheral nervous system, however; scientists were still exploring the specific functions of individual neurotrophins. Subsequent findings suggested that neurotrophins have effects on both damaged and undamaged neurons. As such, neurotrophins are a major facet of spinal cord injury research. Dr. Mendell’s research on neurotrophins has evolved synchronously with the understanding of neurotrophins. In more recent times, Dr. Mendell’s research has been focused partly on spinal cord injury and the


 * Nerve Growth Factor and Hyperalgesia

Hyperalgesia, increase of sensitivity to a stimulus, was found by Mendell to be influenced by the introduction of nerve growth factor, NGF. It functions by interactions with sensory nociceptive neurons. Mendell was able to investigate how rodents and mammals sensitivity to thermal and mechanical stimulus was increased through exposure to NGF. NGF was shown by Mendell to also play a role in the development of young mammals. Mature animals, he showed, that NGF had a possible role in the linkage of hyperalgesia and inflammation.

Major works/Contributions
In 1965, Mendell’s doctoral dissertation was published in the academic journal Nature. The dissertation was about how C fibres in the dorsal horn affect the A fibres. He concluded that his evidence did not support the idea that the firing of C fibres had an effect on the presynaptic hyperpolarization of the A fibres of the cats that were experimented on.

In April 2016, Mendell helped to publish a paper that focused on the relationship between a protein called CD2AP and the plasticity of neurons. It is known that the growth of an axon of a neuron helps with both the adaptive and maladaptive plasticity within the nervous system. Therefore, if an axon becomes injured, or cannot function to its best ability, the consequences can be in the form of neurologic disease. The protein CD2AP in this study was looked at in depth, which is responsible for coordinating axon outgrowth. Mendell and his team were able to observe that CD2AP is amplified within dorsal root ganglions (DRGs) during axonal sprouting, but decreases in quantity during axonal regeneration. Based on these findings, it is still undetermined what the exact relationship between the control of the regeneration of previously damaged axons and the additional development of non-damaged axons is.

In another one of his studies, conducted in July of 2011, Mendell et al. looked at the mechanisms involved in the relationship between neuronal growth factors (NGF), which is a neurotrophin, and pain. It is known that specific mutations in NGF or TrkA genes can lead to a decrease in the sensitivity to pain. However, the NGF-TrkA axis, on the other hand, can facilitate the development of many different types of long-term acute and chronic pain. With this, this study was able to conclude that one has to look at how many NGF-responsive (meaning how many are TrkA-positive) nociceptors are actually connected to the tissue where the pain is coming from. This is an important relationship because the amount of innervation widely varies between different types of tissue. Then, once this has been examined, one can more effectively choose which chronic pain state to target. Therefore, if it is able to be applied effectively, choosing therapies that rely on targeting NGF-TrkA signaling may represent a new way to treat different types of chronic pain.

Mendell has also put forth research about the increased possibility of promoting spinal cord repair through a combination of several different treatments. The mechanisms involved in this are due to the additive effects when several different neurotrophins and proteins are combined, including chondroitinase ABC, NT3, and enhanced levels of NR2D. These together allow for either the synthesis or strengthening of spinal circuits, as well as slight recovery of function for those that have been damaged.

Selected Literature for continued reading on Mendell’s Research.

 * https://www.nature.com/articles/206097a0 (Abstract)
 * https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00356.2004?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed (Full Article)
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15383635 (Abstract)
 * https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/classicessays.00025.2005 (Full Article)
 * https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00179.2005?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed (Full Article)
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16430373 (Abstract)
 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014488605003560?via%3Dihub (Abstract)
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17376001 (Abstract)
 * https://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/16/4460 (Full Article)
 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014488607001999?via%3Dihub (Abstract)
 * https://www.nature.com/articles/npre.2008.2165.1 (Abstract)
 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014488609000089?via%3Dihub (Abstract)
 * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2009.06769.x (Abstract)
 * https://www.nature.com/articles/npre.2009.3681.1 (Abstract)
 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306452209020600?via%3Dihub (Abstract)
 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123708809001614?via%3Dihub (Abstract)
 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080450469006720?via%3Dihub (Abstract)
 * https://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/23/7761.full (Full article)
 * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.07392.x  (Abstract)
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955994/ (Full Article)
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3176608/ (Full Article)
 * https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/somatic-spikes-of-sensory-neurons-may-provide-a-better-sorting-criterion-than-the-autonomicsomatic-subdivision/209635567A2510D002E84DAA6FFBE511 (Abstract)
 * https://anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org/article.aspx?articleid=1933906 (Full Article)
 * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2011.07862.x (Full Article)
 * https://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/49/17788 (Full Article)
 * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2011.07950.x (Full Article)
 * https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-642-28753-4_2605 (Abstract)
 * https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00998.2012 (Full Article)
 * https://insights.ovid.com/article/00006396-201402000-00003 (Abstract)
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24668482 (Abstract)
 * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cne.23461 (Abstract)
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046666/ (Full Article)
 * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4664766/ (Full Text)
 * https://www.jneurosci.org/content/36/15/4259 (Full Article)
 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128093245022999?via%3Dihub (Abstract)
 * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128093245031291?via%3Dihub (Abstract)

=== Positions Held === Chair of the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, 1986-2006

Journal of Neurophysiology’s Editor-in-Chief, 1983-1989

On the Editorial Board for the Journal of Neurophysiology, current

On the Editorial Board for the Journal of Neuroscience, 1983-1989

On the Council for the Society for Neuroscience, 1986-1990

President of the Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs, 1991-1992

Treasurer of the Society for Neuroscience, 1996-1997

President of the Society for Neuroscience, 1997-1998

Board of Directors for the Craig Neilsen Foundation, 2009

Chairman for the Spinal Cord Injury Research Board of the State of New York, 2013

Senior Editor for Neuroplasticity for the Oxford University Press Research Encyclopedia in Neuroscience, 2015

=== Honors & Awards === Distinguished Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at Stony Brook University

Selected to serve on the London (UK) Pain Consortium Advisory Board, 2009-2014

Chosen to give the History of Neuroscience plenary lecture (“The Emergence of Contemporary Pain Neuroscience”) during the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, 2012

Selected to be a part of the International Science Advisory Council of Brain Canada, 2014

Named a Fellow for the American Physiological Society Inaugural Class, 2015