About
Michael Tal DMD, MS
Prof. Tal received his DMD degree from the Hebrew University and Hadassah School of Dentistry, Jerusalem in 1975. His post doctorate was done in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where he got his master degree in Oral Biology. Upon his return from UCLA he established a research laboratory at Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology in the School of Medicine and Dentistry in Jerusalem. Later in his career he studied Business Management at the School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The main focus of his research is the mechanisms of chronic neuropathic pain after nerve injury. Pain that results from dysfunction of the pain detection system that may persist even long time after recovery of the tissue damage. Specifically, the mechanisms whereby injury evokes sensory dysfunction and chronic pain. The methods he uses are studies of pathophysiology of injured nerve, particularly, abnormal discharge originating at the site of nerve injury or in the neuronal cells in experimental animal models for neuropathy. In humans the research focuses on the relationship between sensory and motor modalities in the head and facial areas and the effects and mechanisms of different drugs and hypnosis on pain and reflexes in the facial area.
Prof. Tal served as Director of Anatomy at the Jerusalem Medical School, director of the Center for the Study of Pain at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, chairman of the High Ethics Committee for Studies Involving Humans at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, deputy Dean of Teaching and Chairman of the Teaching Committee, secretary and later the chairman of the Israeli Pain Association.
He received the Prof. Chen Award from the Israel Pain Research Association for "his continued contribution to the advancement of pain research in Israel and around the world" 2005.
More than 80 publications in the world's leading journals in the field of pain.
Selected Publications
Jonathan Nissenbaum, Marshall Devor, Ze‘ev Seltzer, Mathias Gebauer, Martin Michaelis, Michael Tal, Ruslan Dorfman, Merav Abitbul-Yarkoni, Yan Lu, Sonia delCanho, Anne Minert, Kaj Fried, Anna-Karin Persson, Hagai Shpigler1, Benjamin Yakir, Anne Pisanté, Ariel Darvasi (2010). Susceptibility to chronic pain following nerve injury is genetically controlled by CACNG2. Genome Research. Sep;20(9):1180-90.
Eran Gabay, Gilly Wolf, Yehuda Shavit, Raz Yirmiya, Michael Tal. (2011). Chronic Blockade of Interleukin-1 (IL-1) Prevents and Attenuates Neuropathic Pain Behavior and Spontaneous Ectopic Neuronal Activity Following Nerve Injury. European J of Pain. 15:3, 242-248.
Adi Nitzan-Luques, Marshall Devor and Michael Tal. (2011) Genotype-selective phenotypic switch in primary afferent neurons contributes to neuropathic pain. Pain 152: 2413-2426.
Matthias Ringkamp, Michael Tal, Timothy V. Hartke, Matthew Wooten, Alvin McKelvy, Brian P Turnquist, Yun Guan, Richard A. Meyer, Srinivasa N.Raja. Local loperamide injection reduces mechanosensitivity of rat cutaneous, nociceptive C- fibers. PLoS ONE 2012;7(7):e42105.
Adi Nitzan-Luques, Marshall Devor and Michael Tal. (2013) Dynamic genotype-selective “phenotypic switching” of CGRP expression contributes to differential neuropathic pain phenotype. Exp. Neurol. 250:194-204.
Marshall Devor and Michael Tal. (2014) Nerve resection for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain. Pain 155: 1053-1054.
Nadav Y. Ziv, Michael Tal, Yehuda Shavit. (2015) The transition from naïve to primed nociceptive state: A novel wind-up protocol in mice. Experimental Neurol.
Tal Michael., Villanueva L. and Devor M. (2015) Anatomy and Neurophysiology of Orofacial Pain
in Orofacial Pain and Headache edts. Y. Sharav and R. Benoliel. Quintanses International.
Gerard Elberg; Sigal Liraz-Zaltsman; Fanny Reichert; Takashi Matozaki; Michael Tal; Shlomo Rotshenker. Deletion of SIRPα (signal regulatory protein-α) promotes phagocytic clearance of myelin-debris in Wallerian degeneration, axon regeneration, and recovery from nerve injury. Journal of Neuroinflamation. 2019 Dec 28;16(1):277.
Web site: http://paincenter.huji.ac.il/tal.htm
