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Armen N. Akopian, Ph.D.

Professor

Endodontics

Currently seeking Ph.D. students

Pain is a sex- and age-dependent phenomenon. Many inflammatory and idiopathic chronic pain conditions, such as migraine, fibromyalgia, TMD, rheumatoid arthritis, have 2-6-fold greater prevalence and/or symptom severity in women as compared to men. There has been little-to-no overall improvement in pain management for the elderly. Clinical data indicate that the problems in managing pain in the elderly stem from how standard analgesics act differently in aged individuals, and longer recovery times after trauma and surgery compared to younger patients. 

A main research interest of Dr. Armen Akopian's lab is to understand why standard analgesics has sex- and age-dependent efficiency; and importantly, why chronicity of pain conditions affected by sex and age. Accordingly, our current projects are investigating: 

(1) Roles of pituitary hormones in control of sex-specific mechanisms of pain

(2) Signaling controlling sex-dependent actions (i.e. efficacy, tolerance) of opioids

(3) Meningeal signaling in underlying mechanisms of female-selectivity of migraine 

(4) Alterations of opioid actions and postoperative pain mechanisms in elderlies

Immune-mediated pulmonary diseases are chronic debilitating conditions, affecting millions. Unfortunately, the number of people with these conditions continues to grow. The environment increasingly contributes to this grim picture. Hence, the lab’s second interest is focused on understanding how the nervous system and other lung cells mediate effects of clean diesel technologies on the airways. 

The lab uses a multidisciplinary research approach that includes electrophysiology, behavioral physiology, anatomy, pharmacology, biochemistry and cell biology.