Manager’s note:  The Pain Beat, launched and supported by a generous grant from the MAYDAY Fund, with additional funding from the Rita Allen Foundation, brings together the world’s leading pain investigators with the purpose of sparking dialogue and debate around important ideas in pain research. Guided by Rebecca Seal, scientific director of The Pain Beat and Editor-in-Chief of Pain Research Forum, the podcasts feature open and spirited discussions about the hottest topics in pain and how the field moves forward.  For this episode, Adam Dourson and Lite Yang served as both creators and producers. 

Juliet Mwirigi moderates a lively in person discussion with a diverse panel of preclinical and clinical experts at the USASP meeting in Chicago.  Where are we in understanding and treating migraine?  What  successes have we had and what challenges do we still face?

 

Podcast participants include:

• Andrew Russo, PhD, University of Iowa, US
• Gregory Dussor, PhD, UT Dallas, US
• Hadas Nahman-Averbuch  PhD, University of Washington in Saint Louis, US
• Levi Sowers, PhD, University of Iowa, US
• Yohannes Woldeamanuel, MD, Mayo Clinic, US
• Juliet Mwirigi, PhD, Washington University in Saint Louis, US

PRF thanks Kevin Seal for creating the music.

On this episode of The Pain Beat, Adam Dourson moderates a discussion about the role of the immune system in pain – what we know currently and ideas about how the immune system can be a target for new strategies to treat chronic pain.

Podcast participants include:

• Geffroy Laumet, PhD, Michigan State University, US
• Luda Diachenko, PhD, McGill University, CA
• Thiago Cunha, PhD, University of Sao Paolo, BR
• Temugin Berta, PhD, University of Cincinnati, US
• Adam Dourson, PhD, Washington University in Saint Louis, US

 PRF thanks Lite Yang and Adam Dourson for producing the podcast and Kevin Seal for creating the music.

On this episode of The Pain Beat, Ewan St John Smith hosted fellow scientists and clinicians with expertise in visceral pain, including Federica La Russa - a scientist who also brought the patient perspective. The participants belong to the ADVANTAGE Consortium led by Geoff Woods, University of Cambridge, UK.  The discussion covered psychological and clinical perspectives on the experience of visceral pain and treatment as well as the in latest preclinical research and how visceral pain studies differ from other types of pain. 

Podcast participants include:

• Ewan St. John Smith, PhD, University of Cambridge, UK
• Franziska Denk, PhD, University College London, UK
• Federica La Russa, PhD, Freelance Science Writer
• Andrew Horne, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Amanda Williams, PhD, University College London, UK

This 16th episode of The Pain Beat highlights the work of a vibrant consortium of pain researchers working on a project known as Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures (A2CPS). A2CPS is focused on the identification of biomarkers to predict which patients will transition from acute to chronic pain, and which patients living with chronic pain can improve their quality of life with management (see related PRF news story). The Pain Beat invited several Primary Investigators from A2CPS to talk about the work of the consortium, and how listeners of The Pain Beat can get involved themselves!

Podcast participants include:

• Kathleen Sluka, PT, PhD, FAPTA, A2CPS Principal Investigator; University of Iowa, USA
• John Burns, PhD, A2CPS Principal Investigator; Rush University Medical Center, Illinois, USA
• Chad Brummett, MD, A2CPS Principal Investigator; University of Michigan, USA
• Michael Olivier, PhD, A2CPS Principal Investigator; Wake Forest University, North Carolina, USA.
• Stephani Sutherland, PhD, A2CPS Communications Director; Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, USA (moderator)

This 15th episode of The Pain Beat is the third and final of a three-part series discussing the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – awarded to David Julius, University of California, San Francisco, USA and Ardem Patapoutian, Scripps Research, California, USA – for their work on molecules important for somatosensation (see PRF related interview here, PRF related news story here, part one of this series here, and part two of this series here). In this episode, The Pain Beat spoke with a group of collaborators and former mentees to discuss what the discoveries mean for the somatosensory field, as well as stories and insights about what it was like working with Drs. Julius and Patapoutian during that time.

Podcast participants include:

• Allan Basbaum, PhD, FRS, University of California, San Francisco, USA
• Diana Bautista, PhD, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Alexander Chesler, PhD, National Institutes of Health, Maryland, USA
• Ellen Lumpkin, PhD, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Tayler Sheahan, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, USA (Host)

This 14th episode of The Pain Beat is the second of a three-part series discussing the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – awarded to David Julius, University of California, San Francisco, USA and Ardem Patapoutian, Scripps Research, California, USA – for their work on molecules important for somatosensation (see PRF related interview here, PRF related news story here, and part one of this series here). In this episode, The Pain Beat spoke with Nobel Prize laureate Ardem Patapoutian and Bertrand Coste, Aix-Marseille University, France, to discuss their discovery of mechanically sensitive ion channels – Piezo1 and Piezo2.

Podcast participants include:

• Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, Scripps Research, California, USA
• Bertrand Coste, PhD, Aix-Marseille University, France
• Tayler Sheahan, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, USA (Host)

This 13th episode of The Pain Beat is the first of a three-part series discussing the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – awarded to David Julius, University of California, San Francisco, USA and Ardem Patapoutian, Scripps Research, California, USA – for their work on molecules important for somatosensation (see PRF related interview here, and PRF related news story here). In this episode, The Pain Beat spoke with Nobel Prize laureate David Julius and Michael Caterina, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Maryland, USA, to discuss their discovery of TRPV1. The conversation provides insight regarding their thought processes and problem solving, the enduring challenges of scientific discoveries, and the fun they had along the way.

Podcast participants include:

• David Julius, PhD, University of California, San Francisco, USA
• Michael Caterina, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Maryland, USA
• Tayler Sheahan, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, USA (Host)

The twelfth episode of The Pain Beat is dedicated to Stephen McMahon, PhD, FMedSci (1954-2021). Stephen, affectionately known as “Mac,” was a world class pain researcher, lecturer, and inspiration to many. Our podcast guests pay homage to “Mac” with stories that illustrate his influence on the pain research field, and those in it. He will be remembered not only for his seminal contributions to our understanding of pain, but also for his generous and enthusiastic personal spirit which has left an indelible mark.

Podcast participants include:

• David Bennett, MB, PhD, University of Oxford, UK
• Gary Lewin, PhD, Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
• Irene Tracey, DPhil, University of Oxford, UK
• Franziska Denk, DPhil, King’s College London, UK (Host)

For its eleventh episode, The Pain Beat brought together experts to discuss the biological evolution of nociceptors, their subtypes, and plasticity as part of the Gulf Coast Consortium’s #Pain2021 Webinar Series. These experts study nociceptors across a variety of animal models, including Drosophila, C. elegans, cephalopods, rodents, and humans. The discussion focused on how an evolutionary perspective brings novel insights into the role and function of nociceptors and if, why, and how organisms experience pain.

Podcast participants include:

• Greg Neely, PhD, University of Sydney, Australia
• Edgar T. Walters, PhD, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, USA
• Robyn Crook, PhD, San Francisco State University, California, USA
• Ewan St. John Smith, PhD, University of Cambridge, UK
• Ted Price, PhD, University of Texas at Dallas, USA (Moderator)
• Peter Grace, PhD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA (Host)

For its tenth episode, The Pain Beat brought together guests from a variety of career stages to share their experiences conducting pain and pain-related research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their discussion highlighted unique and shared experiences, how research priorities and strategies shifted in response to the pandemic, as well as ways in which colleagues found and offered support.  

 

Podcast participants include:

• Theanne Griffith, PhD, University of California, Davis, US
• Kelly Smith, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, US
• Kara Marshall, PhD, Baylor University, Texas, US
• Lindsay Ejoh, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania, US
• Tayler Sheahan, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, US (Moderator)