IR Staff Descriptions

Scientific Director
Interim Intramural Training Director
Ray Dionne, DDS, PhD 

Dr. Dionne received his dental degree from the Georgetown University School of Dentistry, his masters degree in pharmacology from Georgetown University, and his PhD in pharmacology from the Medical College of Virginia.  His professional career includes more than 20 years of private practice and nearly 30 years of clinical research at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Dionne serves as the NINR Scientific Director, supervising and conducting clinical pain and symptom research within the NIH intramural research program.  Dr. Dionne's research focuses on novel therapeutic agents and neurohumoral responses to acute pain and surgical stress, resulting in the publication of over 100 scientific articles and several textbooks.  Significant contributions of his work include the use of pre-emptive analgesia and the pharmacologic basis of pain and anxiety control.  Dr. Dionne is a member of numerous professional organizations and has served as President of the Pharmacology, Therapeutics, and Toxicology Group.

Assistant Clinical Investigator
Natalie A. Rasmussen, PhD, RN

Dr. Rasmussen received a RN Diploma from St. Luke’s School of Nursing in Sioux City, IA, a BSN from Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, IA, a MA from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA, and a PhD from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE. She worked as a nurse on various clinical units including medical-surgical and critical care. She also worked in academia as an Instructor at South Florida Community College and as an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In addition, she conducted research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center as a doctoral student and as an Assistant Professor. Her research focus is on the genetic and circadian variability in pain responses. Dr. Rasmussen is a member of the American Nurses’ Association, International Association for the Study of Pain, International Society of Nurses in Genetics, Midwest Nursing Research Society, and Sigma Theta Tau International.

Assistant Clinical Investigator
Wendy Henderson, PhD, MSN, CRNP
 
Dr. Henderson received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was a Clinical and Translational Science Institute fellow. Her research and clinical interest is in symptomatology in patients with gastrointestinal and liver disorders. The focus of her current research is to better understand the immuno-genetic mechanisms involved in symptom distress related to digestive and liver diseases, specifically the biobehavioral relationships between inflammation and patient symptoms. She is the primary investigator of multiple studies at the NIH including a natural history study to assess Brain-Gut interactions in normal weight and overweight patients with recurrent abdominal pain of unknown origin.  

Dr. Henderson has received five separate research awards for studies in biobehavioral predictors of gastrointestinal/liver diseases. She has been involved in research since 1995 when she worked as a recruitment coordinator for a multi-center clinical trial (Diabetes Prevention Program). Her interest in symptomatology in patients with gastrointestinal and liver disorders stems from her clinical and research experience at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pediatric Gastroenterology Department, where she served as a faculty member, nurse practitioner and research coordinator.

Selected Publications

1.  Henderson WA , Shankar R, Gill JM, Kim KH, Ghany MG, Skanderson M, & Butt AA. Hepatitis C Progressing to Hepatocellular Carcinoma: The HCV Dialysis Patient in Dilemma. Journal of Viral Hepatitis 2010; 17: 59-64.
 
2. Henderson WA , Schlenk EA, Kim KH, Hadigan CM, Martino AC, Sereika SM, & Erlen JA.  Validation of the MOS-HIV as a Measure of Health-Related Quality of Life in Persons Living with HIV and Liver Disease. AIDS Care 2010; 05 Feb: 1-8.  

3. Henderson WA & Hadigan CM. In Reply: Liver Histology Damage in Children with Chronic Hepatitis C. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 2010; 29 (2): 190.  

4. Henderson WA , Taylor TJ, Shankar RS, Gill JM, Kleiner DE, & Youssef NN. Interleukin-6, Mast Cell, and 5-HT Correlation with Abdominal Pain Intensity in a Pediatric Cohort. Gastroenterology 2009; 136 (5) A513.
 
5. Henderson WA , Shankar R,  Feld JJ, & Hadigan CM. Symptomatic and Pathophysiologic Predictors of Hepatitis C Virus Progression in Pediatric Patients. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 2009; 28 (8): 724-727.
 
6. Martino AC, Henderson WA , Rivera E, Liang TJ, Hoofnagle JH, & Ghany MG.  Patient-Related Symptoms in Individuals with Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Treated with Lamivudine and Adefovir or Adefovir Monotherapy.  Hepatology 2009; 50 (4) 528-529A.  

7. Henderson WA , Shankar R, Taylor TJ, Gill JM, Kleiner D, & Youssef NN. Immunohistological Differences of Pediatric GI Mucosa in Patients with and without Inflammation Presenting with Chronic Abdominal Pain. The Quest for Biomarkers.  Gastroenterology 2009; 136 (5) A633.  

8. Gill J, Saligan LN, Henderson WA , & Szanton S. PTSD: Know the warning signs.  The Nurse Practitioner 2009; 34 (7): 30-37.  

9. Henderson WA , Fall-Dickson JM, Schlenk EA, Kim KH, Matthews JT, & Erlen JA. Effects of Liver Disease on the Well-being of Persons Living with HIV.  Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 2008; 19(5): 368-374.  

10. Sabri M, Di Lorenzo C, Henderson WA , Thompson, W, Barksdale, E, & Khan S.  Colon Cleansing with Oral Sodium Phosphate in Adolescents: Dose, Efficacy, Acceptability and Safety. American Journal of Gastroenterology 2008; 103: 1-7.  

11. Henderson WA , Hadigan C, Feld J, & Khan S. Symptomatic and Physiologic Presentations in a Cohort of Pediatric Patients with Hepatitis C. Gastroenterology 2008;134: A789.  

12. Henderson WA , Gill JM, Kim KH, Skanderson M, & Butt AA.  Relationship of Hepatitis C Virus to hepatocellular carcinoma in dialysis patients. Journal of Hepatology 2008; 48: S275.

Staff Scientist
Xiao Min (Amy) Wang, MD, PhD

Xiao Min (Amy) Wang received her MD and PhD from Xi'an Jiaotong University School of Medicine in China. After postdoctoral training at Dr. Mokha's laboratory and research associate training at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, she was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the faculty of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Since joining NINR, her research interest has focused on the study of gene expression profiles and biomarkers related to acute and chronic inflammation, along with inflammation-induced pain using a variety of molecular biological approaches, including microarray and qRT-PCT techniques. One of her work is to detect the different effects of therapeutic intervention of anti-inflammatory drugs on gene/protein expression to predict the biomarkers associated with the therapeutic and adverse effects of tNSAID and selective COX-2 inhibitors in clinical models of inflammation.

Selected Publications

1.  Wang XM, Hamza M, Gordon SM, Wahl SM, Dionne RA. COX Inhibitors Downregulate PDE4D Expression in a Clinical Model of Inflammatory Pain. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2008; In press.

2.  Gordon SM, Chuang BP, Wang XM , Hamza M, Rowan JS, Brahim JS, Dionne RA. Paradoixcal effects of bupivacaine on PGE2 release, cyclooxygenase gene expression and pain in a clinical pain model. Anesth Analg . 2008; 106:321-7.

3. Wang XM , Wu TX, Hamza M, Ramsay ES, Wahl SM, Dionne RA. Rofecoxib modulates multiple gene expression pathways in a clinical model of acute inflammatory pain. Pain . 2007; 128:136-147.

4. Wang XM , Wu TX, Lee YS, Dionne RA. Rofecoxib regulates the expression of genes related to matrix metalloproteinase pathway in humans: implication for the adverse effects of COX-2 inhibitors. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2006; 79(4):303-15.

5. Lee YS, Kim H, Wu TX, Wang XM , Dionne RA. Genetically Mediated Interindividual Variation in Analgesic Responses to COX Inhibitory Drugs. Clin Pharmacol Ther . 2006; 79:407-18.

6. Bausch SB, He SJ, Petrova Y, Wang XM , McNamara JO. Plasticity of both excitatory and inhibitory synapses contributes to increased seizure expression induced by chronic activity blockage in cultured hippocampus. J Neurophysiol. 2006; 96:2151-67.

7. Wang XM , Bausch SB. Effects of distinct classes of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists on seizures, axonal sprouting and neuronal loss in vitro: suppression by NR2B-selective antagonists. Neuropharmacology . 2004; 47:1008-20.

8. Wang XM , Zhang JZ, Baine R, Zhang KM, Flores C, Mokha SS. Effect of antisense knockdown of alpha (2a)- and alpha (2c)-adrenoceptors on the antinociceptive action of clonidine on trigeminal nociception in the rat. Pain . 2002; 98:27-35.

9. Flores FA, Wang XM , Zhang KM, Mokha SS. Orphanin FQ produces gender-specific modulation of trigeminal nociception: Behavioral and electrophysiological observations. Neuroscience . 2001; 105:489-98.

10. Wang XM, Zhang KM, Long LO, Flores C, Mokha SS. Endomorphin-1 and endomorphin-2, endogenous ligands for the mu opioid receptor, modulate exitatory amino acid revoked responses of trigeminal neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 200; 83:3570-74.