Salutation: Dr

Contact Information
Phone: 514-398-2878
Email address: luda.diatchenko@mcgill.ca

Biography:
Luda Diatchenko, MD, PhD earned her MD and PhD in the field of Molecular Biology from the Russian State Medical University. Dr. Diatchenko started her career in industry, she was a Leader of the RNA Expression Group at Clontech, Inc., and subsequently, Director of Gene Discovery at Attagene, Inc. During this time, Dr. Diatchenko was actively involved in the development of several widely used and widely cited molecular tools for the analysis of gene expression and regulation. Dr. Diatchenko’s academic career started at 2000 in the Center for Neurosensory Disorders at the University of North Carolina. Her research since then is focused on determining the cellular and molecular biological mechanisms by which functional genetic variations impact human pain perception and risk of development of chronic pain conditions, enabling new approaches to identify new drug targets, treatment responses to analgesics, and diagnostic. Dr. Diatchenko is a frequent speaker at national and international pain research conferences. Multiple collaborative activities allow the Diatchenko group to take basic genetic findings all the way from human association studies, through molecular and cellular mechanisms, to animal models, and ultimately to human clinical trials.

Dr. Diatchenko holds a joint appointment in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences and Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, which you can read about here.

Selected publications:
Parisien M, Lima LV, Dagostino C, El-Hachem N, Drury GL, Grant AV, Huising J, Verma V, Meloto CB, Silva JR, Dutra GGS, Markova T, Dang H, Tessier PA, Slade GD, Nackley AG, Ghasemlou N, Mogil JS, Allegri M, Diatchenko L. Acute inflammatory response via neutrophil activation protects against the development of chronic pain. Sci Transl Med. 2022 May 11;14(644):eabj9954. Epub 2022 May 11.

Khoury S, Parisien M, Thompson SJ, Vachon-Presseau E, Roy M, Martinsen AE, Winsvold BS; HUNT All-In Pain, Mundal IP, Zwart JA, Kania A, Mogil JS, Diatchenko L.Genome-wide analysis identifies impaired axonogenesis in chronic overlapping pain conditions. Brain. 2022 Apr 29;145(3):1111-1123.

Khoury S, Piltonen MH, Ton AT, Cole T, Samoshkin A, Smith SB, Belfer I, Slade GD, Fillingim RB, Greenspan JD, Ohrbach R, Maixner W, Neely GG, Serohijos AWR, Diatchenko L. A functional substitution in the L-aromatic amino acid decarboxylase enzyme worsens somatic symptoms via a serotonergic pathway. Ann Neurol. 2019 Aug;86(2):168-180.

Smith SB, Parisien M, Bair E, Belfer I, Chabot-Doré AJ, Gris P, Khoury S, Tansley S, Torosyan Y, Zaykin DV, Bernhardt O, de Oliveira Serrano P, Gracely RH, Jain D, Järvelin MR, Kaste LM, Kerr KF, Kocher T, Lähdesmäki R, Laniado N, Laurie CC, Laurie CA, Männikkö M, Meloto CB, Nackley AG, Nelson SC, Pesonen P, Ribeiro-Dasilva MC, Rizzatti-Barbosa CM, Sanders AE, Schwahn C, Sipilä K, Sofer T, Teumer A, Mogil JS, Fillingim RB, Greenspan JD, Ohrbach R, Slade GD, Maixner W, Diatchenko L. Genome-wide association reveals contribution of MRAS to painful temporomandibular disorder in males. Pain. 2019 Mar;160(3):579-591.

Meloto CB, Benavides R, Lichtenwalter RN, Wen X, Tugarinov N, Zorina-Lichtenwalter K, Chabot-Doré AJ, Piltonen MH, Cattaneo S, Verma V, Klares R 3rd, Khoury S, Parisien M, Diatchenko L. Human pain genetics database: a resource dedicated to human pain genetics research. Pain. 2018 Apr;159(4):749-763.

Martin LJ, Smith SB, Khoutorsky A, Magnussen CA, Samoshkin A, Sorge RE, Cho C, Yosefpour N, Sivaselvachandran S, Tohyama S, Cole T, Khuong TM, Mir E, Gibson DG, Wieskopf JS, Sotocinal SG, Austin JS, Meloto CB, Gitt JH, Gkogkas C, Sonenberg N, Greenspan JD, Fillingim RB, Ohrbach R, Slade GD, Knott C, Dubner R, Nackley AG, Ribeiro-da-Silva A, Neely GG, Maixner W, Zaykin DV, Mogil JS, Diatchenko L. Epiregulin and EGFR interactions are involved in pain processing. J Clin Invest. 2017 Sep 1;127(9):3353-3366.

Parisien M, Khoury S, Chabot-Doré AJ, Sotocinal SG, Slade GD, Smith SB, Fillingim RB, Ohrbach R, Greenspan JD, Maixner W, Mogil JS, Belfer I, Diatchenko L. Effect of Human Genetic Variability on Gene Expression in Dorsal Root Ganglia and Association with Pain Phenotypes. Cell Rep. 2017 May 30;19(9):1940-1952.

Diatchenko L, Fillingim RB, Smith SB, Maixner W. The Phenotypic and Genetic Signatures of Common Musculoskeletal Pain Conditions. Nature Rev Rheumatology. 2013 Jun;9(6):340-50.

Shabalina SA, Zaykin DV, Gris P, Ogurtsov AY, Gauthier J, Shibata K, Tchivileva IE, Belfer I, Mishra B, Kiselycznyk C, Wallace MR, Staud R, Spiridonov NA, Max MB, Goldman D, Fillingim RB, Maixner W, Diatchenko L. Expansion of the human mu-opioid receptor gene architecture: novel functional variants. Hum Mol Genet 2009;18(6):1037-51. Epub 2008 Dec 22. PMCID: PMC2649019

Diatchenko L, Nackley AG, Tchivileva I, Shabalina SA, Maixner W. Genetic Architecture of Human Pain Perception: Clinical Implications. Trends Genet 2007;23(12):605-13. Epub 2007 Nov. 26. Review.

Nackley AG, Shabalina SA, Tchivileva IE, Satterfield K, Korchynskyi O, Makarov SS, Maixner W, Diatchenko L. Human catechol-O-methyltransferase haplotypes modulate protein expression by altering mRNA secondary structure. Science. 2006 Dec 22;314(5807):1930-3.