While this group of colorful neurons was grown in a dish from stem cells, in the body neurons like this are responsible for sensing pain. There is a specialized subset of sensory neurons called ...

We call these sorts of stimuli “noxious” — meaning potentially damaging to the body. The nerve cells (neurons) that detect these stimuli are hence called nociceptors. They have an essential ...

Cell signaling went in both directions: Immune cells acted on nociceptors and vice versa ... endogenous opioids"—opioids made within the body—"but it was unexpected that there was something ...