Daniel Baldoni of Glenmoore publishes paper in May 5 edition of Science magazine

2017 Jun 27

Daniel Baldoni of Glenmoore just received his doctor of medicine degree with Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine's Class of 2017, but even as he launches his career as a healer, it won't begin with residency training. Dr. Baldoni, who has long been fascinated by neuro-electrical circuitry and neuro modulation, has taken a position as a research scientist with a medical device company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Dr. Baldoni's research will help develop technologies that alleviate the suffering of people with chronic pain and other neurological conditions.

"This is where everything that I love - electronics, biology and medicine - meets," he said. The neuro modulation research he will conduct may lead to such miracles as helping the blind to see and curing autoimmune diseases. Initially, however, he will focus on chronic pain.

His decision to devote himself to research began with work he did in the laboratory of Mark Wu, MD, PhD, at Johns Hopkins - work that is detailed in a paper published in the May 5 edition of Science, entitled, "Branch-specific plasticity of a bifunctional dopamine circuit encodes protein hunger." In the paper, the researchers discuss identifying a dopamine circuit that when activated, simultaneously promoted protein intake and restricted sugar consumption." In layman's terms, Dr. Baldoni said researchers "basically activated the Atkins diet" in fruit flies, which could point to neuro modulation therapies to address obesity.

Dr. Baldoni also hopes to soon publish a paper he helped author while working with researchers at the Janelia Research Campus of the The Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, Virginia.