Associate Professor of Pharmacology
Office: (916) 686-7897
Han-Rong.Weng@cnsu.edu
Prior to coming to CNU College of Medicine, Dr. Weng was a faculty member at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Georgia, and Mercer University School of Medicine.
The long-term research goal of Dr. Weng’s lab is to identify therapeutic molecular targets for the development of analgesics to help the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic pain due to the lack of effective and safe analgesics. Specifically, research in Dr. Weng’s lab is focused on identifying molecular signaling pathways used by glial cells to cause aberrant neuronal activation at the spinal cord in animals with pathological pain induced by nerve injury, chemotherapy agents, and inflammation. He is particularly interested in examining glial-neuronal interactions, neuroinflammation, and epigenetic mechanisms in the genesis of pathological pain. Cutting-edge research techniques are used in his lab, including molecular biology, patch clamp electrophysiology, calcium imaging, genetics, immunohistology, cell cultures, and behavior tests. Dr. Weng has published 57 peer-reviewed scientific articles. His research has been supported by NIH RO1 grants.