Team

Principal Investigator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assistant Professor of Medicine &  Neurobiology
University of Pittsburgh

Email: jls354@pitt.edu

 

 BA, Boston University, 2006                                                                                                                                           PhD, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 2012                                                                                                           Post-doctoral fellow, University of Pittsburgh, 2013                                                                                                     Research Assistant Professor, 2017                                                                                                                       Assistant Professor, 2019

Dr. Saloman performed undergraduate research in the laboratory of Dr. Jacqueline Liederman studying the effects of context of language on perception. Dr. Saloman received her PhD in Neuroscience during which she studied the interactions of ion channels and GPCRs in the context of orofacial muscle pain. Dr. Saloman was a post-doctoral fellow and research faculty with Dr. Brian Davis at the University of Pittsburgh. The focus of her research is on the role of the nervous system and neuroplasticity in multifactorial pain conditions, that can involve both nerve injury and inflammation. Dr. Saloman’s current research has focuses in neurobiology of pain and cancer, biomarker work, and the development of novel mouse and nonhuman primate models of pancreas disease. She has made important contributions to the field of cancer neuroscience and pancreatitis pain. She utilizes a variety of approaches ranging from in vitro studies of isolated cells and co-cultures to in vivo assays to assess behavior, neuro-immune interactions in the tumor microenvironment, tumor growth and neural circuits. Dr. Saloman is also actively studying mechanisms of pain in non-malignant pain conditions. She has employed novel optogenetic models and behavioral assays, and more recently the study of clinical populations suffering from chronic pain.

Research Staff

Mia Jefferson (she/her)

Cell/Molecular Expert
BAHIYYAH@pitt.edu

Stephanie Fulton (she/her)

Rodent Behavior/Surgery Expert
SAF113@pitt.edu

 

Chris Sullivan (he/him)

Mouse Colony Manager
cjs39@pitt.edu

 

Kim Stello (she/her)

Clinical Research Specialist
corradokm@upmc.edu

Melanie Mays (she/her)

Clinical Research Regulatory Specialist
MEM322@pitt.edu

Trainees

Shilang 'Eason' Xiao (he/him)

Xiangya Visiting Scholar
shilangx@pitt.edu 

Shilang studies medicine at the Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China. His studies focus on the role of NRP1 in regulating pancreas cancer development and cancer pain.

Paulina Cabada Aguirre (she/her)

CNUP Rotation Student
PAC204@pitt.edu

Pau received her Bachelor’s degree in Nanotechnology Engineering and Chemistry Sciences, with a concentration in neuroscience, research and innovation modality from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and High Education in NL, Mexico. 

Undergraduate Researchers

Olivia Babyok (she/her)

PhD Student, Center for Neuroscience (CNUP)
OLB42@pitt.edu 

Olivia received her Bachelor’s degree from Duquesne University where she majored in biomedical sciences. She is currently investigating neural regulation of pancreatitis.  In her free time, Olivia enjoys horology. 

Anisha Sankar (she/her)
Microbiology Major Class ’25

Jesse Kimball (They/them)
Neuroscience Major Class ’24

Former Lab Members

Julien Maliha (Biomedical Masters Student, 2019-2020)
Neeharika Nallapati (Undergraduate Researcher, 2020-2022)
Yifan ‘Paul’ Zhou (Research Technician, 2022)
Metrah Mohammed Nader (Medical Student, 2022-2023)

Phillip Gaertner (Visting Scholar, 2022)

Claudia Sun (IBGP Rotation, 2023)