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National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

Pain Research Center

Research Projects

Major areas of research focus on understanding the pain mechanisms underlying individual differences in the pain experience and treatment responses, advancing novel nonaddictive therapeutics, and developing personalized medicine approaches to optimize health outcomes. By identifying unique pain phenotypic profiles, we will identify novel therapeutic targets and advance the development of personalized therapies for managing pain and improving patient care. Highlighted projects include:

Deep pain phenotyping to understand pain mechanisms

Using tools such as neuroimaging, psychophysics, and patient-reported outcomes, investigators in this area explore how the nervous system processes and perceives pain and how the interaction of biopsychosocial factors influences the perception and expression of pain. This work aims to elucidate mechanisms that explain individual differences in pain sensitivity. These insights could lead to more precise and effective pain management strategies. 

Therapeutic interventions and pain management 

This research area focuses on developing and testing new treatments for pain management, including nonopioid medications and noninvasive methods for targeting specific pain receptors or central networks. The aim is to provide safer, more effective, and targeted therapeutic options for pain relief, with the goal of reducing opioid dependence and enhancing patient outcomes.

  • Associated PIs and ICs:
    • Andrew Mannes, CC-DPM
    • Michael Iadarola, CC-DPM
    • Alexander Chesler, NCCIH, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
    • Thomas Bulea, CC Rehabilitation Medicine Department (RMD)
    • Janice Lee, NIDCR

Disease modeling and personalized pain medicine 

Research focuses on innovative cutting-edge technology, tools, methods, and approaches, e.g., induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, to study pain mechanisms in specific populations and develop individualized treatments. By modeling disease-specific pain responses and investigating chronic pain in unique populations, investigators hope to advance personalized medicine approaches, improving pain management for patients with complex, treatment-resistant pain conditions.