Big new paper from us published yesterday: The synaptic ectokinase VLK triggers the EphB2–NMDAR interaction to drive injury-induced pain www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Led by @hajisciencebaji.bsky.social in my lab and a wonderful collaboration with Matthew Dalva's lab at Tulane

🚨New paper from the NIH PRECISION Human Pain Network! We built a human DRG reference atlas: >500K cells from 126 donors to reveal 22 neuronal & 10 non-neuronal cell types. New insights into human sensory biology! Paper: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Data: humandrg.painseq.com

HL60 cells take on so many fun shapes as they migrate! This #InsightFromImaging data features cells prepared by Leanna and imaged on the @aicjanelia.bsky.social LLSM by @cmhobson.bsky.social

Our team is hard at work preparing for #InsightFromImaging 2025! We can't wait to welcome HHMI #HannaGrayFellows to @hhmijanelia.bsky.social next week for lectures, hands-on labs, and activities focused on designing informative and quantitative bioimaging experiments 🔬

New method development work from our lab that I hope will make it easier for labs to work with peripheral nervous system tissues recovered from organ donors, tissue donors, and fast autopsies: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This work was led by the amazing duo of Joe Lesnak and Mandee Schaub

I agree with this essay and it is why I don’t use AI for much of anything. I have this job because I enjoy thinking.

📢We're #hiring Group Leaders! Apply to lead a lab at Janelia & advance biology using theory, computational modeling & machine learning. 🔹5-year renewable appointment 🔹Pioneer new tools & approaches 🔹Collaborate across disciplines Apply by Nov. 4👉 https://janelia.link/groupleader

BOOM! Cool to see the final form of this great work now published. Deep new insight into human peripheral neuropathy. Congrats @mheming.bsky.social and colleagues on a great study.

This work is finally online as in-press preview! JCI - Cell and molecular profiles in peripheral nerves shift toward inflammatory phenotypes in diabetic peripheral neuropathy www.jci.org/articles/vie...

Do you have any questions about the current understanding and treatment of #migraine? Check out the newest episode of the Pain Beat moderated by @julietmwirigi.bsky.social! bit.ly/3GGjCYu #migraine#podcast #newepisode #PRF

Some really great stuff in our new preprint on sympathetic ganglion in humans - confirmation of what I think many suspected on Nav1.7 expression in human sympathetic neurons.

🌞 nice day for a workshop at #NAPainSchool with @tedpricethepainguy.bsky.social

We finally have an impact factor at Neurobiology of Pain. Thanks to our editorial team: Michael Burton, @annatheneurosci.bsky.social, and Dave Seminowicz; the editorial board; and all our wonderful authors for submitting such great papers over the past several years.

the wonders of GLP1 bump into migraine: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I’m so honored to be selected as both a 2025 McKnight Scholar and 2025 HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. And I couldn’t be prouder to share these honors with awesome @ucdavis.bsky.social colleagues 💙💛💙💛 health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlin...

Loved this interview from the legendary Eve Marder. I agree when she said many papers today are so poorly written that they are unreadable. And our trainees writing is not good because people dont read anymore; not just science reading, but any book in any genre.

If you love satellite glial cells (SGCs) then you have got to read about Ole Ahlgreen's great work, part of which was done while he was a visiting PhD student in our lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

First time we’ve had the honor of the @dallasmorningnews.bsky.social writing about our scientific discoveries, funded by the #NIH www.dallasnews.com/news/2025/05...

people need to internalize, very quickly, that federal research grants are a hypercompetitive contracting process not charity, and that what Uncle Sam gets in return for that money is American dominance in the future

Congrats to the Kolber lab @utdpaincenter.bsky.social and especially Christian Fofie for his terrific work that made this paper come together. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

BOOM! www.nature.com/articles/s41... I think this is a big step forward for the field. Congrats to Lauren Donovan and @vivtawfik-mdphd.bsky.social and the whole Tawfik lab team.

Happening now: NINDS Council public meeting, including presentation of the #HEAL #painresearch recommendations videocast.nih.gov/livew.asp?li...

WOOHOOO!!!

We wrote this Neuroview to get the word out about the extremely exciting and important NIH funded work happening in the pain field and how it has the potential to really change pain treatment in the coming years www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... We did not imagine how rapidly things would be dismantled.

This paper is now published in Nature Communications www.nature.com/articles/s41... Huge congrats to Stephanie Shiers on this magnum opus updating our view of Nageotte's legendary pathology work in the early 1900s.

Bravo, Kara! We desperately need scientists finding creative ways to connect with the public, explaining how science works and why it matters. Take @karalmarshall.bsky.social up on her offer, grab those slides, and find an audience that needs to hear this! #proudmentor

The president is recommending a 40% cut to next year’s NIH budget. This would be disastrous for our nation’s health and economy. Please contact your representatives, especially if they are Republicans, and tell them why this cannot happen. An easy option: 5calls.org

Cool new study from @vabraira.bsky.social lab on tactile hypersensitivity associated with chronic pain. Glad we could collaborate. One cool thing Abraira lab did was use high-speed videography plus the PAWS pain detection system for uncovering pain behaviors. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In Episode 18 of The Pain Beat, Adam Dourson, PhD leads a conversation with experts on the immune system’s role in pain. Explore what we know currently and ideas for new strategies to treat chronic pain. Listen: bit.ly/42C4O42 #PainResearch #IASP #Neuroscience

Yet another study showing beneficial effects of metformin for pain - this time in OA pain. Effects on pain are modest, but better than placebo. Effects on WOMAC scores are more impressive. Also no sex differences observed. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The unexpected elimination of funding for the decades-long research project focused on women's health shocked scientists. They were heartened by the quick restoration of support.

An example of what we in the NIH Intramural program can accomplish. Excited to share our latest paper in close collaboration with Nick Ryba's group. We examined how inflammation transforms representation in somatosensory neurons to cause pain. Lots of surprises here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some good news from NIH - they have restarted the intramural training programs for postbacs and postdocs. www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

🔬 Exciting discovery! We've been curious about the function of unique IBA1+ cell staining we observed around healthy human DRG neurons in the lab (indicated by red arrows). A new paper @cellpress.bsky.social finally provides some answers. Link: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

Linda Porter has been an absolute hero to the pain research community for decades. She worked tirelessly and selflessly to promote a better future for people with chronic pain. Absolutely crazy to cut off her and her office’s important leadership.

This is devastating for pain research. Linda Porter did such an amazing job building a real community from isolated fragments of research scattered across multiple institutes of NIH.

Researchers did not mince words about this purge of senior NIH leadership: “This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history in my 50 years in the business,” says @mtosterholm.bsky.social. These cuts come on Jay Bhattacharya's first day as NIH director.

Expansion of OSMR expression and signaling in the human dorsal root ganglion links OSM to neuropathic pain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.26.645611v1

Asta Arendt-Tranholm, @ish1789.bsky.social and others in our lab and the great team at UW led by @michelecuratolo.bsky.social latest preprint on mechanisms of neck pain in patients undergoing C1/C2 fusion surgery

These are shocking graphs. We are being strangled by our own government. It is notable that the consistent message has been that us researchers are somehow doing a disservice to the American people, sitting on this money getting fat from the largesse. In fact, we are focused on discovery and cures.

BOOM! Human DRG patch-seq with Nav1.8 and Nav1.7 upregulation associated with a history pain in organ donors. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Great stuff from the #PRECISIONPain Center at WashU led by @robgereau.bsky.social

We are seeking to hire a lab tech, this is an HHMI funded position, please share the job posting: hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

among lots of bad news, some amazing rays of light for Diana and her new lab!! Way to go Dr. Tavares-Ferreira!!

🎉 Thrilled to announce that Diana Tavares-Ferreira, PhD, was awarded a grant from the Merkin Peripheral Neuropathy and Nerve Regeneration Center. This grant supports her research into how disruptions in messenger RNA transport within peripheral nerves contribute to nerve degeneration. 🎉

How is the input of the different kinds of primary sensory neurons responding to heat and mechanical stimuli summarized in the spinal cord? Check out our recent study. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our program manager extraordinaire, Ayesha Ahmad, is leaving us, so we have an exciting position open to take on her role. jobs.utdallas.edu/postings/28956 In addition to this being an exciting position, you will also get to learn from Ayesha before she departs.

It is important for people to see this graph/data. #NIH is the irreplaceable leader of USA leadership in biomedical discovery and development of new therapeutics.

The innovative antibody #MEDI0618, a PAR2-target, shows promise in preclinical #models for preventing migraines #Migraine #pain #PAR2 #PainResearch academic.oup.com/brain/advanc...