The Pain Beat – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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 Lite Yang, Scientific Director and co-producer, and Rebecca Seal, Chair Editorial Board of PRF, the podcasts feature open and spirited discussions about the hottest topics in pain and how the field moves forward.

Here we dive into a topic that's both surprisingly complex and often overlooked—eye pain. Our eyes are among the most sensitive structures in the human body, yet the mechanisms behind ocular pain remain poorly understood. In this episode, we have the pleasure hosting clinicians who are treating patients with eye pain every day speak with their colleagues and collaborators, who are preclinical pain researchers working to unravel the underlying biology. What emerged was a fascinating conversation about the different types and distinct mechanisms driving eye pain. Our guests explored the organ's intricate structures and their relationships to sensation as well as the role of different brain regions in shaping how we ultimately perceive and experience ocular discomfort.

Dr. Sue Aicher, Ph.D., Oregon Health and Science University,

Dr. Anna Matynia, Ph.D. University of Houston college of Optometry,

Dr. Brooke Harkness, O.D., M.S., FAAO, Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health and Science University,

Dr. Lindsey Delott, M.D., University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center

Dr. Anat Galor, M.D., M.S.P.H., Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at University of Miami,

Moderator was Dr. Sejiro Littleton, Ph.D., Duke University

This episode was produced by Lite Yang, and edited by Dieu Ni Daon.  Music by Kevin Seal of Seal Party.

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. Lite Yang moderates an important discussion with leaders in the pain field, which provides insights into current work to use human donor tissues to guide basic research findings to increase the success of clinical outcomes. This is update on Episode 4 recorded in 2021, which featured another group of leading pain researchers. Podcast participants include: Robert Gereau, PhD, Washington University in Saint Louis, US Wenqin Luo, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, US Theodore Price, PhD, UT Dallas, US William Renthal, MD, PhD, Harvard University, US Lite Yang, Washington University in Saint Louis, US PRF thanks Kevin Seal for creating the music.

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)

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)

For its ninth episode, The Pain Beat brought together experts in how pain is measured clinically and experimentally. This multidisciplinary group discussed what is the difference between pain and nociception, why organisms experience pain and whether pain can be objectively measured since it is a subjective experience. Additionally, the group explored why researchers have relied on the measurement of nociception for so long and offer paths forward for the research community including a discussion of new technologies.

Podcast participants include:

• Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, PhD, Columbia University, US
• Carl Saab, PhD, Case Western University, US
• Vivianne Tawfik, MD, PhD, Stanford University, US
• Mark Zylka, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US
• Tayler Sheahan, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, US (Moderator) 

For its eighth episode, The Pain Beat gathered together a group of pain researchers with expertise in the study of sex differences in pain. The group discussed their own discoveries of sex differences in pain in the course of their research, why pain investigators should pay attention to sex differences and how they should go about examining them, and much more.

Podcast participants include:

• Gregory Dussor, PhD, University of Texas at Dallas, US
• Jeffrey Mogil, PhD, McGill University, Montreal, US
• Anne Murphy, PhD, Georgia State University, Atlanta, US
• Kate Sadler, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, US (moderator)

Podcast participants include:

• Christian Büchel, MD, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
• Irene Tracey, DPhil, University of Oxford, UK
• Tor Wager, PhD, Dartmouth College, Hanover, US
• Howard Fields, MD, PhD, University of California San Francisco, US (moderator)

For the fifth episode, The Pain Beat gathered together a group of pain researchers virtually to discuss how the mammalian nervous system encodes sensory modalities related to touch, pain and temperature. Are there labeled lines? Is there population coding? Do the mechanisms differ by location – the brain, spinal cord or periphery?

Podcast participants include: Diana Bautista, PhD, UC Berkeley, US; Nicholas Betley, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, US; Adam Hantman, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia, US; Mark Hoon, PhD, National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIDCR, Bethesda, US; Taylor Sheahan, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, US (moderator)

For the fourth episode, The Pain Beat gathered together a group of pain researchers via Zoom to discuss the use of human tissue in pain research and prospects for clinical translation of new knowledge emerging from this approach. Podcast participants include:

• Steve Davidson, PhD, University of Cincinnati, US
• Michael Hildebrand, PhD, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
• Clifford Woolf, MB, BCh, PhD, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, US
• Laura Stone, PhD, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, US
• Alex Chamessian, MD, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, US (moderator)