The focus of pain research under the umbrella of the Organized Research
Center on Persistent Pain (ORC) crosses disciplinary boundaries. Faculty
affiliated with the ORC are actively engaged in pain research with approaches,
spanning the laboratory bench to the chairside. Basic science research,
translational approaches, clinical trials, and the management of pain are at the
center of this research and include the following research interests:
Basic Science | Translational Research | Clinical Research
- Sex differences and the neural basis of pain and analgesia
- Visceral pain: sex differences and chronic bowel disease
- Molecular and cell biology of nociceptors and ion channels
- Glutamate receptors and their role in pain and hyperalgesia
- Neonatal pain experience and persistent pain in the adult
- Inflammatory cytokines and persistent pain
- CNS modulation of persistent pain after injury
- Craniomandibular motor function and pain
- Experimental models of craniofacial muscle pain
- Patient-specific attributes that contribute to the pathogeneses of signs and
symptoms associated with pain
- Gustatory and orotacile induced analgesia in newborns
- Imaging the brain in pain
- Evaluation of tricyclic anti-depressant medications for persistent orofacial
pain
- Psychological interventions and psychosocial patient profiles in persistent
TMD pain
- Effect of acupuncture on pain as seen on MRI images
