Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The treatment of chronic pain is an incredibly important medical issue. Nearly 20% of adults suffer from chronic pain on a daily basis, and unfortunately, most of the treatments available are not effective. Our team is now working on a novel strategy in pain relief called pepducins. Pepducins are small proteins that are designed to interact with receptors in a unique way. Rather than simply fitting into a receptor, like a key into a lock, they imbed themselves in the cell membrane, flip towards the inside of the cell, and interact with the receptor there, modifying the signals that it is sending. Although pepducins have been developed to tackle different diseases, they have not been studied much in the context of pain. This is precisely the aim of our project, and so, our team designed pepducins targeting a receptor involved in pain perception. Our goal is to study pepducin behaviour both on cells and on live animals (rats). This will involve testing for analgesia (pain-relief), but also for unwanted adverse effects such as important drops in blood pressure. All in all, this research is extremely valuable, as it may lead to new and much-needed pain-relievers.