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Eric Senning

  • Assistant Professor
  • Neuroscience
  • Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Programs
Profile image of Eric Senning
esen@austin.utexas.edu
NHB
4.354
Senning Lab

Biography

Eric Senning completed his B.A. in Biochemistry at the Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO. He then joined the lab of Dr. Andrew Marcus at the University of Oregon to investigate the microscopic fluctuations of mitochondria in cells and energy transfer in fluorescent proteins with Fourier Imaging Correlation Spectroscopy (FICS), a specialized fluorescence technique. After finishing his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Oregon, Eric pursued his interest in dynamics of physiological processes by joining the lab of Dr. Sharona Gordon at the University of Washington as a post-doctoral fellow. His post-doctoral research on the ion channel TRPV1 encompassed single molecule fluorescence, energy transfer, and electrophysiological techniques. In 2017 Eric joined the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin.

Research

The Senning lab focuses on the mechanisms of ion channel regulation in a class of sensory neurons known as nociceptors. The brain receives signals from the peripheral nervous system through the spinal cord. Some of these signals come in through the dorsal horn from DRG nociceptors, which extend processes out to the peripheral tissues, where molecular receptors act to change the excitability of the neuron. Because of its role in pain sensation, our research effort is directed at the function of TRPV1, which is a non-selective ion channel expressed in nociceptors. We consider three aspects of TRPV1 regulation and consequences to nociceptor excitability:

Nociceptors are modulated by a wide variety of sensory inputs. In the case of TRPV1 positive neurons, capsaicinoids, heat, acid and oxidation directly activate gating of TRPV1 to affect the excitability of the nociceptor. The poly-modal activation of TRPV1 beckons the question as to how such a broad set of inputs at near physiological levels can be integrated by the channel to modulate opening and closing.

Tissue inflammation results in the presences of an inflammatory soup that bathes the nociceptor in signaling molecules that influence the function of TRPV1 both directly (for example through acidity) or indirectly through signaling cascades. Both calcium and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) act as second messengers to influence the function of TRPV1, but the contentious issue is to what degree these act directly on the channel versus through indirect mechanisms such as channel phosphorylation.

The pseudo-unipolar character of the DRG nociceptor is evident given its branched axon and absence of any post-synaptic structures. This presents an interesting problem since an organizational polarity is lacking that would place TRPV1 at the periphery of the nociceptor. Our research is directed at identifying a mechanism that recruits TRPV1 to physiologically relevant sites.

Research Areas

  • Neuroscience

Fields of Interest

  • Molecular Biology, Genetics & Genomics
  • Electrophys, Optogenetics & Chemogenetics
  • Optical Imaging
  • Cellular/Molecular/Structure

Publications

    • Benjamin He, Prateeti Varanasi, Nia Barkum, Rose Hudson, Eric N. Senning, "A single residue determines regulation of TRPV1 by phosphoinositides." 2025, bioRxiv, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.15.682641
    • Grace C. Wulffraat, Sanjana Mamathasateesh, Rose Hudson, Benjamin He, Andrés Jara-Oseguera, Eric N. Senning, "Missense variant analysis in the TRPV1 ARD reveals the unexpected functional significance of a methionine." 2025, PLOSOne: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0331224
    • Xiaobing Chen, Alfredo E Cardenas, Rose B Hudson, Ron Elber, Eric N Senning, and Carlos R. Baiz, “Cooperativity of PIP2 and PS lipids modulates PH domain binding.” 2025, Biophys J., DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2025.02.019
    • Taylor M. Mott, Grace C. Wulffraat, Alex J. Eddins, Ryan A. Mehl, Eric N. Senning, “Fluorescence labeling strategies for cell surface expression of TRPV1.” 2024, JGP: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.202313523
    • Duk-Su Koh, Anastasiia Stratiievska, Subhashis Jana, Shauna C. Otto, Teresa M. Swanson, Anthony Nhim, Sara Carlson, Marium Raza, Lígia Araujo Naves, Eric N. Senning, Ryan Mehl, Sharona E. Gordon, "OptoPI3K, genetic code expansion, and click chemistry reveal mechanisms underlying reciprocal regulation between TRPV1 and PI3K," eLife, 2024, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.91012.3.
    • Ziareena A. Al-Mualem, Xiaobing Chen, Azam Shafieenezhad, Eric N. Senning†, Carlos Baiz†, “Binding-Induced Lipid Domains: Peptide-Membrane Interactions with PIP2 and PS” Biophys J 2024, PMID: 38142298. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2023.12.019. († co-corresponding author)
    • Taylor Mott, Jordan Ibarra, Nivitha Kandula, Eric N. Senning, “Mutagenesis studies of TRPV1 subunit interfaces informed by genomic variant analysis.” Biophys J 2023, 122 (2), 322-332. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2022.12.012.
    • Arman Fathizadeh, Eric N. Senning, Ron Elber, “Impact of the protonation state of the phosphatidylinositol 4,5 – Bisphosphate (PIP2) on the binding kinetics and thermodynamics to Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid (TRPV5): A Milestoning study.” J Phys Chem B 125, 9547 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c04052
    • Madeline Sponholtz and Eric N. Senning, “The pleckstrin homology domain of PLCd1 exhibits complex dissociation properties at the inner leaflet of plasma membrane Sheets.” ACS Chem Neurosci 12, 2072 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.1c00248
    • Eric Senning, “With PIPs, you get ZIPs and blips,” J. Gen. Physiology 151, 971 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.201912402
    • Anastasiia Stratiievska, Sara Nelson, Eric N. Senning, Jonathan D. Lautz, Stephen EP Smith, Sharona E. Gordon, “Reciprocal regulation among TRPV1 channels and phosphoinositide 3-kinase in response to nerve growth factor,” eLife 2018;7:e38869; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38869
    • William N. Zagotta, Moshe T. Gordon, Eric N. Senning, Mika Munari, and Sharona E. Gordon, “Measuring distances between TRPV1 and the plasma membrane using a noncanonical amino acid and tmFRET.” J. Gen. Physiology 147, 201 (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.201511531
    • Sharona E. Gordon, Eric N. Senning, Teresa K. Aman, and William N. Zagotta, “Transition metal ion FRET to measure short range distances at the intracellular surface of the plasma membrane.” J. Gen. Physiology 147, 189 (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.201511530
    • Eric N. Senning and Sharona E. Gordon, “Activity and Ca2+ regulate the mobility of TRPV1 channels in the plasma membrane of sensory neurons.” eLife 4, e03819 (2015). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.03819
    • Eric N. Senning, Marcus D. Collins, Anastasiia Stratiievska, Carmen A. Ufret-Vincenty and Sharona E. Gordon, “Regulation of TRPV1 ion channel by phosphoinositide (4,5)-bisphosphate: the role of membrane asymmetry.” J. Biol. Chem. 289, 10999 (2014). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M114.553180
    • Eric Senning and Andrew H. Marcus, “Actin Polymerization Driven Mitochondrial Transport in Mating S. cerevisiae,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 721 (2010).