Grant: Foundation Grant

Intractable pain continues to be the single most common cause of disability that impairs quality of life. Unfortunately, current pain treatments rarely achieve complete pain control, and are often associated with disabling side effects. This is concerning, since persistent untreated pain is associated with several brain disorders, including cognitive deficits, anxiety, depression and addiction. New approaches are needed to address this public health issue. To address this medical problem, the objective of my research program is to elucidate how the nervous system processes pain signals and how this is disrupted in chronic pain syndromes. For example, what makes a normal touch be misinterpreted by the brain as signalling pain? To gain these new insights, we design and use advanced light-based technologies to view and control both healthy and diseased brain circuits; develop new tools to analyse data from physiological, cellular and molecular studies, and develop computer-based approaches to model brain functioning to address issues that are not easy to tackle experimentally. This combination of novel approaches has allowed us to identify new therapeutic targets and develop new drugs that have potential to reverse abnormal pain. We will continue to refine our drug discovery strategies so that we can ultimately help bring relief to those suffering from chronic pain.