Pain and Neuroscience

Research

Pain research at McGill is ranked amongst the best in the world based on its critical mass of exceptional pain researchers and on a tradition of outstanding accomplishments in the neurosciences. The legacy of Ron Melzack’s 1965 gate-control theory of pain continues to this day with McGill pain studies researchers publishing in the most influential international journals.

Knowledge translation goals

Our research will: (1) help in understanding the physiological basis of a number of unexplained chronic pain conditions; (2) provide new therapies for chronic and acute pain conditions; (3) provide novel animal models for pain conditions such as neuropathic pain, migraines, complex regional pain syndrome, functional abdominal pain, interstitial cystitis, back pain, fibromyalgia, and vulvodynia; (4) help explain the influence of genetic, environmental, and dietary factors in the development of chronic pain; and (5) understand the influence of psychological factors on pain.

 

Researchers

Luda Diatchenko

  • Pain Genetics
  • Human Molecular Genetics
  • Chronic Pain Conditions

Richard Hovey

  • Qualitative research
  • Patient centred care
  • Chronic illness
  • Medical Education / Communication
photo of Arkhady Khoutorsky

Arkady Khoutorsky

  • Dysregulation of translational control and the development of chronic pain
  • Extracellular matrix (ECM) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the regulation of spinal cord plasticity
  • Dysregulation of integrated stress response (ISR) pathway and pathophysiology of Fragile X syndrome

Emerson Krock

  • Autoantibodies and pain
  • Pain neuroimmunolgy
  • Satellite glia cells
  • Extracellular matrix remodeling
  • Arthritis and pain

Marc-Olivier Martel

  • Acute pain
  • Chronic pain
  • Prescription opioid misuse & addiction
  • Biopsychosocial factors

Carol Meloto

  • Orofacial pain
  • Pain genetics
  • Translational research
  • Randomized clinical trials

Étienne Vachon-Presseau

  • Coming soon

Ana Velly

  • Pain
  • Acute to chronic pain transition
  • Biomarkers
  • Opioids
  • Epidemiology
  • Randomized clinical trials
  • Pharmacoepidemiology
  • Statistical Analysis
Ji Zhang wearing a gray blazer and black turtleneck sweater

Ji Zhang

  • Glial cell biology
  • Nervous system
  • Immune response
  • Pain
  • Behaviour

 

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