Principal Investigators T. J. Price, University of Texas at Dallas, Michele Curatolo, UW CLEAR Center Investigator and P.M. Dougherty, University of Texas at Houston have received notice of award (U19NS130608) from The NIH for a large U19 project for five years. Total award amount: $11,300,920. Additional UW investigator includes Jeffrey Jarvik, director UW CLEAR Center.
Title: Human Nociceptor and Spinal Cord Molecular Signature Center.
Description: The investigators will collect tissues from chronic pain patients who undergo surgery and organ donors. Using thorough phenotyping, single cell and spatial transcriptomic technologies, the project will study how human nociceptors are activated in chronic pain disorders and how nociceptors communicate with spinal cord neurons, with the goal of understanding the pharmacology of projection neurons that send nociceptive signals to the brain. The project will create the scientific foundation that will empower pain researchers around the world to approach the problem of treating pain in a new way, deeply rooted in a fundamental understanding of the first neurons and first synapses in the human pain pathway.