blog

We met Tom Finger from the University of Colorado Medical School at the SfN meeting in November last year. Tom’s research focuses on sensory systems, specifically taste, smell and trigeminal sensitivity, and he is a member of our Sensory Systems section.

Sarah Greene, editor-in-chief of F1000, asked Tom to explain the considerable interest at the meeting about microglia – the resident macrophage-like cells of the brain. He explained how these cells constantly survey the brain for changes in neuronal activity, dysfunction, and cell death:

In the video, Tom also describes his own lab’s research on how microglia react when the nerve fibers of the taste system have been damaged. Finding out more about the complex molecular signaling that goes on between neurons and microglia is important because this may lead to modes of controling inflammatory pain responses and chronic pain.

Tom Finger and fellow Faculty Member Sue Kinnamon co-wrote an F1000 Report last year on how taste receptors can be found not just on the tongue but also in other parts of the body, such as the stomach and airways. A version of their report, with some excellent infographics, was published in the Nov/Dec issue of The Scientist.

Read Tom’s latest evaluation of a research paper he describes as a “roadmap for future studies of interactions between taste and oral trigeminal systems in the brainstem.”