Sensory Systems

Sensory Systems

Sensory Systems: Expression of circadian rhythm proteins with respect to sensory signals.
Sensory Systems: Expression of circadian rhythm proteins with respect to sensory signals.
Sensory system dysfunction is often the most keenly felt result of neural damage or developmental disorder. Sensory system research focuses on peripheral and central processing mechanisms in the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and pain systems.

Pain research being particularly prominent research areas, EMD Millipore has an extensive array of antibodies to many key targets in pain reception, transmission, and modulation. We have also added olfactory and taste receptors to our vast line of sensory receptor antibodies.

Pain

There are two basic forms of physical pain: acute and chronic. Acute pain is a normal response to injury, disease, or inflammation to the tissues. It is immediate and usually short in duration. Moreover, causes of acute pain can usually be diagnosed and treated. In contrast, chronic pain is continuous pain that persists for a more substantial time, usually even after healing. Chronic pain can range from mild to severe and can last weeks, months or years.

The cause of chronic pain is not always evident, although it is often associated with many chronic diseases. The identification of new neuropeptides, receptors, and associated proteins that have significant modulatory actions has greatly increased our understanding of the neural roots of acute and chronic pain. This research into the physiological and biochemical causes of pain is an ever expanding, complex area of sensory research. EMD Millipore is continuously advancing pain research by developing numerous antibodies and other reagents for pain targets.

Homeostatic & Hormone Systems

Sensing the environment and controlling body systems define an organism’s behavior and are intricately tied to neural processes. For example, hypothalamic function maintains homeostasis, stress response, blood pressure, glucose levels and satiety. Recent identification of key neurohormones and receptors has demonstrated a larger role for the CNS in adjusting key body parameters, such as energy expenditure, growth and reproduction. EMD Millipore’s comprehensive set of antibodies, assays, and multiplexing kits target soluble factors, receptors and associated proteins involved in sensory systems and metabolism.

Circadian Rhythm

Current chronobiology research suggests that a multitude of diverse organ systems and tissue types seem to vary their physiology in a cyclical, daily clock-like rhythm. Individual clock mechanisms may be tied to a ‘master clock’ that synchronizes the various rhythms with external cues like light and temperature. The neurobiology underlying this circadian rhythm is under intense study, and includes key hypothalamic players (SCN) and pineal gland, retinal and extraretinal receptor pathways. Recent discovery of encephalopsins, melanopsins, Per and CLOCK gene variants, and intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), suggests a complicated and phylogenetically diverse set of circadian control mechanisms.