Gary Jay Brenner, M.D., Ph.D. Director, Pain Medicine Fellowship MGH Pain Center Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care 15 Parkman St., WACC 324 Boston, MA 02144 E-mail: gjbrenner@partners.org TEL: 617-726-9223 FAX: 617-724-3632

Background

Dr. Brenner attended Wesleyan University where he received a B.A. in Biology
with a minor concentration in East Asian Studies in 1982. After college he
worked in Wuhan, China for one year. Upon returning to the United States he
studied at the University of Rochester School of Medicine where he earned
M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. Dr. Brenner completed an internship in Internal
Medicine in Rochester followed by an Anesthesiology residency and Pain
Management fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Brenner
currently sees patients at the MGH Pain Center and is the Director of the
Pain Medicine Fellowship. The research he conducts in the laboratory of
Clifford Woolf, M.D., Ph.D. is focused on the role of spinal cord NMDA
receptor phosphorylation in pain hypersensitivity.

Research Summary

My academic activities are divided between neuroscience research related to pain mechanisms, clinical duties in the MGH Department of Anesthesia pain center, and teaching as related to pain medicine. Although all three activities are of great importance to me personally, the bulk of my effort is devoted to research and to responsibilities related to my position as Director of the MGH Anesthesia Pain Medicine Fellowship.

Pain hypersensitivity in humans is a prominent complication of surgery and trauma, and is commonly associated with inflammatory and neurological diseases. The hypersensitivity associated with chronic pathological pain results from changes in both the peripheral (primary sensory) and central nervous system neurons. The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) has been shown to play an important role in the sensitization of spinal cord dorsal horn neurons associated with pain hypersensitivity; this increase in dorsal horn neuron excitability is known as “central sensitization.” My research focuses on the contribution of changes in NMDA-R phosphorylation state and subcellular trafficking to the development of central sensitization. A second focus is to address the intracellular transduction pathways responsible for altered NMDA-R structure and function. This work is being conducted under the mentorship of Clifford J. Woolf, M.D., Ph.D., an internationally renowned neuroscientist who focuses on neruoplasticity as it relates to pain.

My primary clinical responsibility is in the MGH pain center. The MGH pain center utilizes a multidisciplinary approach. Clinic patients present with a variety of chronic pain complaints, including spine-related and peripheral neuropathic pain. Treatment modalities involve both medical and interventional approaches. My clinical commitment is one day per week in the pain clinic. In addition, I am responsible for caring for pain service inpatients six weekends per year as my call requirement.

Most of my teaching is associated with pain center-related clinical activities. I supervise fellows and residents in the clinic and on rounds. I present one journal club per month to trainees at the clinic and am responsible for scheduling the pain center didactic program. In addition, I regularly present research findings at departmental grand rounds, and have given spoken on pain medicine to medical students at Tufts and to Internal Medicine interns at MGH.

Publications

Original articles

Moynihan, JA, Koota, D, Brenner, GJ, Cohen, N and Ader, R. Repeated intraperitoneal injections of saline attenuate the antibody response to a subsequent intraperitoneal injection of antigen. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 1989;3:90-96.

Moynihan, JA, Brenner, GJ, Koota, D, Breneman, S, Cohen, N and Ader, R. The effects of handling on immune function, spleen cell number, and lymphocyte subpopulations. Life Sciences 1990;46:1937-44.

Brenner, GJ, Cohen, N. Ader, R and Moynihan, JA. Increased pulmonary metastases and natural killer cell activity in mice following handling. Life Sciences 1990;47:1813-19.

Brenner, GJ, Felten, SY, Felten, DL, Cohen, N and Moynihan, JA. Chemical sympathectomy is associated with increased pulmonary metastases. Journal of Neuroimmunology 1992;37:191-202.

Madden, KS, Moynihan, JA, Brenner, GJ, Felten, SY, Felten, DL and Livnat, S. Sympathetic nervous system modulation of the immune system. III. Alterations in T and B cell proliferation and differentiation in vitro following chemical sympathectomy. Journal of Neruoimmunology 1994;49:77-87.

Brenner, GJ, Cohen, N and Moynihan, JA. Similar immune response to nonlethal infection with Herpes Simplex virus-1 in sensitive (BALB/c) and resistant (C57Bl/6) mice. Cellular Immunology 1994;157:510-24.

Brenner, GJ and Moynihan, JA. Stressor-induced alterations in immune response and viral clearance following infection with Herpes Simplex virus-type 1 in BALB/c and C57Bl/6 mice. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 1997;11:9-23.

Ji, RR, Baba, H, Brenner, GJ and Woolf, CJ. Nociceptive specific activation of ERK in spinal neurons contributes to pain hypersensitivity. Nature Neuroscience. 1999;2:1114-9.

Ji, RR, Beford, K., Brenner, G.J., Billet, S and Woolf, CW. ERK activation in the spinal cord mediates gene expression and persistent inflammatory pain. Journal of Neuroscience. 2002;15:478-485.

Proceedings of meetings

Ji, RR, Brenner, GJ, Schmold, R, Baba, H and Woolf, CJ. Phosphorylation of ERK and CREB in nociceptive neurons following noxious stimulation. Proceedings of the 9th World Pain Congress. Progress in Pain Research and Management. 2000;16:191-8.

Reviews and chapters

Moynihan, JA, Brenner, GJ, Ader, R and Cohen, N. The effects of handling adult mice on immunologically-relevant processes. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1990;650:252-67.

Moynihan, JA, Brenner, GJ, Cocke, R, Karp, JD, Breneman, SM, Dopp, JM, Ader, R, Cohen, N, Grota, LJ and Felten, SY. Stress-induced modulation of immune function in mice. In: Kiecolt-Glaser, JK and Glaser, R, editors. Handbook of Human Stress and Immunity. Orlando: Academic Press, Inc; 1994. p. 1-21.

Moynihan, JA, Kruszewska, B, Brenner, GJ and Cohen, N. Neural, endocrine and immune system interactions: relevance for health and disease. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. 1998;438:541-549.

Brenner, GJ. The pain system. In: Ballantyne, J, Fishman, S and Abdi, S, editors. The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Pain Management. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins; 2001. p. 8-13.

Brenner, GJ, Mao, J and Rosow, C. The opioid receptors. In: Antognini, JF and Carstens, E, editors. Contemporary Clinical Neurosciences: Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia. Totowa: Humana Press; in press.

Dissertation

Brenner, GJ. Neural Modulation of Immune Function: Studies of Stress and the Sympathetic Nervous System. Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Rochester (NY): University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; 1995.

Other published material

Brenner, GJ and Barach, PR. Collective bargaining and the resident. ASA Newsletter. 1998;62(4).

Abstracts

Brenner, GJ, Benn, SC, Ji, RR and Woolf, CJ. Pain and phosphorylation of ion channels in primary sensory and dorsal horn neurons. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA. 2001.

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