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On October 4, 2021, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet jointly awarded David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their independent discoveries of…

In The Physiology of Taste, a classic first published in 1825, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

A wide variety of medical conditions can lead to itchy skin. One of those conditions, atopic dermatitis (eczema), affects 10 million children in the US alone. Yet itch is…

When pain researchers think about ion channels and mechanical pain, which specific channels first come to mind? PIEZO2 may sit near the top of the list for many investigators,…

How common is the transition from acute to chronic low back pain (LBP)? And what are the risk factors behind it? It's been difficult to answer these questions, in…

About 14 million Americans live with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), a disease of the joint in in which knee cartilage breaks down over time. This chronic condition is associated with…

An objective biomarker of pain – it’s what many consider the Holy Grail of pain research. In recent years, brain activity signatures from neuroimaging studies have received a great…

How do we predict pediatric pain trajectories? Who recovers from pain and for whom does pain persist? These questions were the focus of Laura Simons’ closing keynote address, “Predicting…

Many studies have shown interactions between the peripheral nervous system and immune system. But a detailed understanding of interactions between neurons and lymph nodes, and why this communication may…

Understanding pain experienced in childhood is crucially important, as pediatric pain sets the stage for both pain and healthcare experiences into adulthood. Of the many influences on childhood pain,…

Add allergen detection and the allergic immune response to the growing list of biological functions made possible by interactions between the nervous system and the immune system, according to…

Pain isn’t just under the dominion of neurons: Glial cells, including microglia and astrocytes, have long been known to modulate pain sensitivity via interactions with neurons in both acute…

The brains of patients with different chronic pain conditions, including fibromyalgia, often show differences in resting-state functional connectivity, compared to pain-free controls. Researchers have often interpreted this to mean…

Even though chronic pain disproportionately affects women, preclinical pain research has relied heavily on data from male rodents. With increasing recognition that males and females process pain differently, some…

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on RELIEF, PRF’s companion website for patients and the wider public, and is being republished here for PRF readers.