The Mercer Lindsay Lab dissects how motor circuits and the brain's endogenous opioid system interact across the neuraxis — building the mechanistic foundation for new, non-addictive treatments for chronic pain.
Three topics guide our work
Somatotopic Pain Circuits
How motor cortex → brainstem → thalamic pathways are organized by body-map position to shape descending pain control.
Opioid Receptor Architecture
Mapping μ, δ, κ, and nociceptin receptor expression across brainstem and forebrain circuits.
Neuromodulation & TMS
Engineering miniaturized transcranial magnetic stimulation devices to causally probe pain-relief circuits in mice.
From single synapse to whole-animal behavior
We combine viral circuit tracing, high-density Neuropixels electrophysiology, calcium imaging (two-photon, widefield one-photon, and miniscope), chemogenetic and optogenetic manipulation, in vivo pharmacology, and machine-learning-based behavioral tracking to link molecular mechanism to circuit function to behavior.
This multi-scale toolkit lets us test causal hypotheses — from receptor to reflex — in preclinical models of chronic pain.
Meet the PI: Nicole Mercer Lindsay, PhD
Assistant Professor, Departments of Neurosurgery and Anesthesiology, Weill Cornell Medicine · Director of the Laboratory for Systems Neuroscience in Pain and Movement Circuitry
Dr. Mercer Lindsay's research trajectory has progressed from defining motor cortical output organization (PhD, UC San Diego, with David Kleinfeld), to mapping brainstem opioid receptor architecture (postdoc, Stanford & UNC Chapel Hill, with Grégory Scherrer and Mark Schnitzer), to uncovering causal circuit mechanisms of descending pain control using targeted neuromodulation and large-scale electrophysiology.
Get in touch with Dr. Mercer Linsday at nim4034@med.cornell.edu.