2026 Scientific Program

Speakers: please check your entry below and send changes to us at:     [email protected] 
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​Length of presentations: longer talks are 10 min plus 5 min for discussion; data blitz talks are shown below in blue italics and are 5 min plus 2 min for discussion (it may only appear to be blue on a computer screen). 
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Saturday, 16 May, 2026

1:00-5:00 pm  Registration open... if you are in Verona on Saturday, please come and register and help take the pressure off the Sunday morning stampede. 

The updated version of the program will always be available on your phone, so no hard copies will be provided at the Conference. Please print a copy of the program and bring it with you if that is your preference, but note that the program continues to change as speakers change titles or substitutions are made.


Sunday, 17 May, 2026

​The room will be very full at 08:30 on Sunday so please come early to register and have your choice of seats. If you have any disability, please sit in the reserved front row seats.

07:00- Registration open; Please come early if possible to register and get your name tag. 


​8:30- 9:00 am  Welcome and Announcements


9:00-10:00 am  Session #1   “Descending Modulation and Pain”    Kirsty Bannister (Imperial College London, UK), Chair

• Müge Altinkök  (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) “The neurons of hyperalgesia in sleep loss”
• Kenneth Steel (University of Bristol, UK) “Innocuous electrically-evoked potentials provide a biomarker of spinal nociceptive processing as a window on wide dynamic range neuronal excitability.”
• Uli Zeilhofer (University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland) “An RVM to dorsal horn circuit contributing to the ‘pain-inhibit-pain’ phenomenon” 
• Karen Davis (University of Toronto, Canada) “Brain and behavioural measures of endogenous modulation; individual variability and sex differences” 

10:00- 10:30am  Session #2     Neocortical pathways in pain and analgesia I.   Rohini Kuner (Heidelberg University, Germany), Chair

• Choong-Wan Woo (Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea) “Personalized functional brain models of pain”
• Jesse Niehaus (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA) “Decoding the cortical opioid system using single-cell transcriptomics” 

10:30 - 11:15 am    Coffee break


11:15- 11:45am  Session #2 continued    "Neocortical pathways in pain and analgesia I"    Rohini Kuner, Chair

• ​Mikkel Vestergaard (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) “Cortical encoding of temperature”
• Thomas Nevian (University of Bern, Switzerland) “Cortical signatures of pain behavior”
• Ipek Yalcin (University of Strasbourg, France) “Inhibition upheaval in ACC in pain-induced depression”
• Jing Wang (New York University, USA) “Cortical signatures and mechanisms of postoperative pain”

11:45- 12:30pm  Data Blitz #1   Kirsty Bannister, Chair 

• Brad Taylor (University of Pittsburgh, USA) “Medullary control of latent pain sensitization”
• Diana Torta (KU Leuven, Belgium) “Descending modulation in humans in the context of nociceptive sensitization; do we know how top-down influences work?” 
• Sophie Rogers (University of Pennsylvania, USA) "Modulation of aversive coding by expectation across the cingulate cortex"
• David Finn (University of Galway, Ireland) “Chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain-related behaviour in male and female rats; a role for the endocannabinoid system in the descending modulatory system”
• Jordan McCall (Washington University, St. Louis, USA) “Drugging the locus coeruleus pain generator” 
• Carol Kopruszinski (University of Arizona, USA) “A V1 specific circuit for migraine pain"

12:30 - 2:00pm  Free for Lunch


2:00- 3:00pm  Session #3   Neocortical pathways in pain and analgesia II          Greg Scherrer (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA), Chair

• Nicole Mercer Lindsay (Cornell University, New York, USA) “Motor cortex modulation of chronic pain through opioid dependent neural plasticity”
• Lirong Wang (Heidelberg University, Germany) “Mechanistic basis of pain relief by repetitive prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation in mice with neuropathic pain”
• Herta Flor (Heidelberg University, Germany) “Learning-related pain mechanisms  and brain-based interventions”
• Abigail O'Sullivan-Duffy (Indiana University, USA) “Prefrontal regulation by kappa opioid receptors”
• Ceng Luo (Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China) “A sensory-motor-sensory circuit underlies pain relief ignited by primary motor cortex”
• Kevin Lancon (Heidelberg University, Germany) “Dopaminergic signaling in the anterior cingulate cortex contributes to hunger-induced analgesia”

3:00- 4:00pm           Data Blitz #2     David Andersson, Chair​

• Laurent Martin (University of Arizona, USA) “Photoneuromodulation: bridging human and preclinical mechanistic insights”
• Sadhan Majumder (The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA) "Nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain is regulated by REST and offers a mechanism-based therapeutic approach"
• Geoff Woods (CIMR Cambridge, UK) “Mitochondrial genome variants in chronic pain - new avenues for fibromyalgia, CRPS, and diabetic neuropathy research”
• Nivedita Sarveswaran (CIMR, University of Cambridge, UK) “Advancing human iPSC models to study the regulation of sodium channel expression and trafficking in nociceptors” 
• David Hughes (University of Glasgow, UK) “Spinal connections of joint-innervating sensory neurons’’
• Christophe Altier (University of Calgary, Canada) “Mechanisms of ALKAL2-dependent neuroplasticity in inflammatory pain”
• ​Wenqin Luo (University of Pennsylvania, USA) “Single-soma RNA-seq of human DRG and TG neurons” 

4:00- 4:45pm  Coffee Break


4:45-5:30pm            Session #4     "VUS have me feeling all woozy – how to deal with genetic variants of unknown significance linked to pain"     Angelika Lampert, Chair​

• Angelika Lampert (Aachen, Germany)  "Using a first-principle approach to validate Nav1.7 and pain-associated variants"
• Ralf Hausmann (Aachen, Germany) "Profiling of Nav variants in iPSC-derived neurons and HEK cells using automated patch clamp"
• Graeme Newton (Bristol, UK) “The people’s vote; NaV1.7, 1.8, or 1.9 — which variants cause the most pain at the population level?"​

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5:30-6:15pm  Session #5     “Sensory control of nociception”     David Andersson, Chair

• David Andersson (King’s College London, UK) “Transfer of comorbid fibromyalgia from patients to mice”
• Margot Maurer (King’s College London, UK) “From genes to behaviour; Task-1 channel modulation of sensory neuron signaling” 
• Andrew Marshall (University of Liverpool, UK) “Nociceptor hyperexcitability, neuropathy and neuropathic type symptoms in fibromyalgia”​

6:30pm....   Aperitivo (get-together in the main lobby at ground level, with food and drink) 



Monday, 18 May, 2026

8:30- 9:30am   Session #6   “Structural plasticity and pain”  Thomas Kuner, Chair 

• Thomas Kuner (Heidelberg University, Germany) “Dendritic plasticity and mechanisms of neuropathic pain-induced neuronal loss in the secondary motor cortex”
• Peter Penzes (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, USA) "Targeting kalirin-mediated synaptic plasticity; a novel approach to treating chronic neuropathic pain"
• Radhika Puttagunta (Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Germany) “Spinal cord injury-induced below-level nociceptor plasticity in neuropathic pain and its reversal”
• Kimberley Tolias (Stanford University, USA) “Synaptic signaling in chronic pain-related disorders”​

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9:30-10:15am   Session #7    “Visceral pain”     Nick Spencer, Chair 

• Nathalie Vergnolle (INSERM-IRSD, Toulouse, France) “Peripheral mechanisms of visceral pain in inflammatory bowel disease patients”
• David Bulmer (University of Cambridge, UK) “Targeting GPCRs to treat visceral pain”
• Edita Navratilova (University of Arizona, Tucson, USA) “A neuroendocrine link to endometriosis pain”​

10:15- 10:30 am     Data Blitz #3

• Michelle Roche (University of Galway, Ireland) ‘’Recommendations for the inclusion and study of sex and gender in pain research’’
• Gadi Gilam (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) “A role for interoception in the link between pain and emotions”

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10:30-11:15 am   Coffee break

 
11:15- 12:00pm  Session #8   “Pain modulation and brain imaging in pain” Luke Henderson, Chair

• Lewis Crawford (University of Sydney, Australia) “Resolving somatotopic human brainstem pathways; the future potential for site-specific analgesia”
• Kevin Keay (University of Sydney, Australia) ‘’Connecting imaging and mechanism in human and animal studies"
• Tor Wager (Dartmouth University, USA) ‘’Imagined pain; a precision functional mapping approach’’

12:00-12:30pm  Data Blitz #4     Nick Spencer, Chair  

• Kate Sadler (University of Texas at Dallas, USA) “The vaginal microbiome drives endometriosis pain”
• Ursula Wesselmann (University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA) “Complex interactions - treatment of visceral pain syndromes improves co-morbid pain conditions"
• Nic Cenac (INSERM U1043, Toulouse, France) “Microbiota-sensory nerve interactions; towards mechanisms in visceral pain”​
• ​Nick Spencer (Flinders University, Australia)  "Could vagal afferents really underlie sensations, including pain, from the distal colon?’’

12:30-2:00pm   Free for lunch


2:00-3:00pm  Session #9    “Microbiome and pain”     Manuela Schmidt, Chair

• Sabita Roy (University of Miami, USA) "Long term gut brain axis consequences following early neonatal exposure to morphine”
• Amir Minerbi (Technion, Haifa, Israel) “Debugging pain; healthy microbiota transplantation in humans with fibromyalgia; preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial.”
• Chwan-Li Shen (Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, USA) “Functional foods and pain regulation; the role of the gut–brain axis”
• Manuela Schmidt (University of Vienna, Austria) “Using metaproteomics to reveal pain-associated host-microbiome interactions”
• Ana Reynders (Université Aix-Marseille, France) "Gut microbiota promotes pain chronicity in Myosin 1a-deficient male mice"
• Yasmin Nasser (University of Calgary, Canada) “Chronic pain in inflammatory bowel disease; sex and dysbiosis”

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3:00- 4:00pm     Session #10    Spinal circuits and pain I      Martyn Goulding, Chair

• Xiaoke Chen (Stanford University, USA) “A long-range circuit loop for mechanical allodynia”
• Martyn Goulding (Salk Institute, La Jolla, USA) “Ascending pathways for mechanical pain and itch transmission” 
• Artur Kania (McGill University, Canada) “Developmental insights into the functional logic of ascending pathways” 
• Victoria Abraira (Rutgers University, USA) “How spinal cord neuromodulation shapes our sensory experiences” 

4:00- 4:45pm   Coffee Break


4:45-5:30pm    Discussion - Rodent models, translation, and pain”      Jeff Mogil, Chair 

• Jeff Mogil (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) 
• Iain Chessell (Serenza Therapeutics, UK)

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5:30- 6:15pm   Data blitz #5    Nick Spencer, Chair  

• Atsufumi Kawabata (Kindai University, Japan) "Roles of neutrophils and platelets in oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy"
• Fumiko Sekiguchi (Kindai University, Japan) "Taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy involves macrophage-derived HMGB1 and is modulated by endogenous androgen in male mice"
• Yu Shin Kim (University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA) "Interoception and pain"
• Marcin Szczot (Linköping University, Sweden) “Hierarchical organization of mechano-nociceptive pathways revealed by activity labeling”
• Sufang Liu (Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, USA) “A critical neural circuit for trigeminal neuropathic pain”
• Dhanya Shanmuganathan (Monash University, Australia) “Investigating chronic pain and itch mechanisms in a skin fragility disorder, Epidermolysis Bullosa”

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Tuesday,  19 May, 2026
 
8:30- 9:30am   Session #11  “Human DRG I”       Manuela Schmidt, Chair 

• Allison Barry (University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA) “Multi-omic hDRG disruption in Opioid Use Disorder”
• Shams Bhuiyan (Harvard Medical School, USA) “A reference atlas of the human dorsal root ganglion”
• Zameel Cader (University of Oxford, UK) “Phospho-proteome dynamics in human stem cell derived nociceptors”
• Bruce Bean (Harvard Medical School, USA) "Pharmacological approaches to inhibiting human nociceptor excitability"

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9:30-10:30am   Session #12  “Human DRG II – Data blitz”        Manuela Schmidt, Chair 

• Will Renthal (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, USA) “Targeted gene delivery to nociceptors”
• Pat Dougherty (The University of Texas, Houston, USA) “Comparison of responses of native and iPSC-derived neurons in IL-6 family cytokine-induced sensitization”​
• Joe Lesnak (University of Texas, Dallas, USA) “Exploring disc to nociceptor signaling underlying discogenic low back pain”
• Jannis Korner (University Hospital Aachen, Germany) “Multimodal profiling of pediatric DRG neurons; insights from patch-seq”
• Jimena Perez Sanchez (University of Nottingham, UK) "Increased excitability in human iPSC-derived nociceptors with a novel paroxysmal pain disorder mutation"
• Elena Lucarini (University of Florence, Italy) "Human dorsal root ganglia organoids as a 3D platform for pain research; insights into chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy"

10:30- 11:15am       Coffee break


11:15-12:15pm   Session #13     “Central plasticity”      Emmanuel Van den broeke, Andre Mouraux, Co-chairs 

• Bruno Pradier (University Hospital Münster, Germany) “Cortical changes associated with postoperative pain in animals”
• Emanuel Van den broeke (KU Leuven, Belgium) “Effects of acute stress on HFS pain and hyperalgesia in humans”
• Andre Mouraux (UCLouvain, Belgium) "Repeated exposure to cutaneous high-frequency electrical stimulation prolongs the time course of secondary hyperalgesia”
• Walter Magerl (University of Mannheim, Germany) “Exaggerated central sensitization in major depressive disorder parallels CPM deficit and is modulated by monoaminergic medication load”

12:15-12:30pm   Data blitz #6     Emmanuel Van den broeke, Andre Mouraux, Co-chairs 

• Enrique Velasco (KU Leuven, Belgium) “Analgesic effects of low-intensity high-frequency electrical stimulation in patients”
• Suzanne Meijs (Aalborg University, Denmark) “The effect of peripheral high-frequency stimulation on the primary somatosensory cortex and behavior in a chronic large animal model”​

12:30- 2:00pm   Free for lunch


2:00- 3:00pm   Session #14   “New tools to explore peptidergic modulation of pain circuits”    Marc Landry, Chair

• Matthew Banghart (University of California San Diego, CA) "Photopharmacological tools for spatiotemporally precise manipulation of neuropeptide signaling"
• Bryan Copits (Washington University, St. Louis, USA) “Silencing of central and peripheral circuits with Opto-GPCRs”
• Feng Tao (Texas A&M University College of Dentistry, USA) “Trigeminal dynorphin and overlapping orofacial pain”
• Huan Wang (Peking University, China) “Monitoring neuropeptide dynamics using genetically encoded GRAB sensors”
• Marc Landry (CNRS, University of Bordeaux, France) “Neuroanatomical tools for 3D reconstruction and quantification of peptidergic circuits”
• Marie-Eve Paquet (CERVO, Laval University, Canada) “A new genetically encoded biosensor for real time detection of relaxin-3”

3:00-4:00pm   Session #15     “Osteoarthritis pain”        Ewan St. John Smith   (University of Cambridge, UK, Chair)

• Vicky Chapman (University of Nottingham, UK) “The therapeutic potential of soluble epoxide hydrolase for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain” 
• Niels Eijkelkamp (UMC Utrecht, Netherlands) “Immunity in OA pain; translational insights” 
• Jason Ivanusic (University of Melbourne, Australia) “OA pain; roles of nerves in subchondral bone” 
• Frederique Cornelis (KU Leuven, Belgium) “Structure or pain - a lipid enigma in OA?” 
• Anne-Marie Malfait (Rush University, Chicago, USA) “Neuroplasticity of knee joint innervation” 
• Tristan März (ETH, Zurich, Switzerland) “The synovium-nerve interactome after joint injury”
• Shyni Varghese (Duke University, Durham, USA) “Targeted delivery to mitigate OA pain”
• Jason McDougall (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada) “Visual exposure to green light alleviates osteoarthritis pain by engaging the endocannabinoid system”

4:00-4:45pm   Coffee break


4:45-5:30pm  Session #16     “Cutting edge non-invasive neuromodulation approaches for chronic pain; a tale of translation”  Dan Ciampi de Andrade, Chair  

• Sophie Clarke (University of Plymouth, UK) “The quest for new targets; Multi-focal ultrasound neuromodulation to the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex disrupts behavioural and neural pain processing”
• Daniel Ciampi de Andrade (Aalborg Universitet, Denmark) “How experimental and clinical pain affect cortical connectivity measured by TMS-EEG and how this could be used to inform therapy”
• Enrico De Martino (Aalborg Universitet, Denmark) “Probe before treating; Data from the large RCT using rTMS for chronic pain based on pre-therapy connectivity profile” 

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5:30-6:15pm   Data Blitz #7    Dan Ciampi de Andrade, Chair  

• Irwin Lucki (Uniformed Services University, USA) “Analgesic effects of the nonhallucinogenic ketamine metabolite 2R,6R-hydroxynorketamine are mediated by mGluR2 receptors” 
• Daniel Castro (Washington University, St. Louis, USA) “Opioids in the pancreas”
• Erika Harding (University of Calgary, Canada) “Circuits from the periaqueductal gray to peri-locus coeruleus and locus coeruleus govern pain and anxiety-like state”
• Mariana Cerqueira-Nunes (University of Porto, Portugal) “Neuropathic pain induces impulsive decision-making through orbitostriatal microcircuit dysfunction”
• Michael Jankowski (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, USA) “Neuronal control of inflammation in pediatric pain”
• Romane Bony (Université Clermont Auvergne, France) “Role of peripheral and central TREK1 channels in pain” 
• Maya Dannawi (University of Cambridge, UK) “Prdm12 overexpression reduces inflammatory joint pain” 

Wednesday, 20 May, 2026

8:30-9:30am   Session #17       “Sodium channels and pain I”      Rajesh Khanna, Chair

• John Wood (University College London, UK) “Nav1.8; from gene to drug”
• Kelly Knopp (Eli Lilly, USA) “Biophysical characterization of Nav1.8-targeted drugs”
• Rajesh Khanna (University of Florida, USA) “Targeting Moesin-Nav1.7/1.8 complexes to attenuate nociceptive signaling” 
• Fernanda Laezza (University of Texas Medical Branch, USA) “Targeting the FGF13/Nav1.7 complex to advance neurotherapeutic strategies in chronic pain"
• Amol Patwardhan (University of Texas Southwestern, USA) “Real world experience with Suzetrigine in chronic pain patients”

9:30-10:30am  Data blitz #8     Rajesh Khanna, Chair

• Kathryn Braden (Washington University, St. Louis, USA) “Modulation of dorsal raphe nucleus enkephalin alleviates neuropathic pain-induced avolition” 
• Jim Wang (University of Illinois Chicago, USA) “Astrocyte reactivity in the right lateral habenula differentially contributes to sensory and affective pain in paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy”
• Sabatino Maione (University of Campania, Italy) “Social isolation is responsible for nociplastic pain; changes in forebrain pain pathways”  
• Nurcan Uceyler (University Hospital Würzburg, Germany) “Mechanisms of inflammation in pain; lessons from clinical perspective, human tissues, and cellular models" ​
• Natalia Egorova-Brumley (University of Melbourne, Australia) “The relationship between delta power during sleep and pain in osteoarthritis”  
• Yenisel Cruz-Almeida (University of Florida, USA) "Glymphatic dysfunction as a pathway to chronic pain in humans"
• Stuart Bevan (King’s College London, UK) “A causal role for autoantibodies in Post Covid Syndrome (Long Covid) pain” 
• Madelene Ho (University of Alberta, Canada) “Association of CCR2+ macrophages with sensory neurons after nerve injury; implications for neuropathic pain”
• Cyril Rivat (University of Montpellier, France) "FLT3-dependent control of delta-opioid receptor signaling drives the resolution of neuropathic pain" 

10:30-11:15am  Coffee break


11:15-12:00pm   Session #19 “Spinal circuits and pain II”        Andrew Todd, Chair 

• Wangchu Xiang (Harvard Medical School, USA) “3D EM visualization of sensory afferents and their synapses in the mouse dorsal horn”
• Wendy Imlach (Monash University, Australia) “Under the radar, over the threshold; GlyR-α2 in pain circuits”
• Andrew Bell (University of Glasgow, UK) “Novel insights into spinal projection neurons”

12:00-12:30pm   Data Blitz #9   Andrew Todd, Chair 

• Adrien Tassou (University of North Carolina, USA) “Control of mechanical pain by μ-opioid receptor-expressing spinal pre-motor V1 neurons”
• Harrison Stratton (University of Pittsburgh, USA) "Mapping functional diversity across populations of primary afferent neurons" 
• Heike Rittner (University Hospital Wuerzburg, Germany) “Role of the immune system for pain resolution in complex regional pain syndrome” 
• Jingyi Liu (Harvard Medical School, USA) “Deep dorsal horn projection neurons mediate mechanonociception”
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12:30-2:00pm    Free for  lunch


2:00- 3:00pm  Session #20         “Border Immunity in Chronic Pain”     Arkady Khoutorsky, Chair 

• Thiago Cunha (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil) “Meningeal immunity; vertebral bone marrow axis in neuropathic pain development”
• Peter Grace (MD Anderson, USA) “Meningeal tertiary lymphoid structures; a novel B cell–orchestrated mechanism of neuropathic pain”
• Arkady Khoutorsky (McGill University, Canada) “Spinal lymphatic vessels in neuropathic pain”
• Geoffroy Laumet (Michigan State University, USA) "Immune disruption of the brain’s drainage as a driver of migraine"
• Dan Levy (Harvard University, USA) “Meningeal nociceptor-cortical astrocyte crosstalk in migraine pain

3:00-4:00pm      Session #21 “Non-neuronal cells in pain, touch and itch”       Cheryl Stucky, Chair 

• Allan Basbaum (University of California, San Francisco, USA) “A keratinocyte triggered neuropathic itch model”
• Andrea Nackley (Duke University, USA) “Beyond the neuron; adipose–neural–immune interactions in chronic pain”
• Daniela Menichella (Northwestern University, USA) “How skin immune cells communicate with neurons to drive neuropathic pain”
• Cheryl Stucky (Medical College of Wisconsin, USA)  “Mechanotransducers in skin cells; a touchy subject” 

4:00-4:45pm       Coffee break


4:45-5:45pm      Session #22    “AI/Machine learning and pain”      Steve Prescott, Chair 

• Steve Prescott (University of Calgary, Canada) “Chronic pain through associative learning in an artificial neural network”
• Ben Seymour (University of Oxford, UK) “The homeostatic map; pain, injury and survival”
• Corinna Oswell (University of Pennsylvania, USA) “Uncovering latent signatures of pain and analgesia in spontaneous behavior”
• Bradey Stuart (Medical College of Wisconsin, USA) “Unbiased classification of mouse behaviors in chemotherapy-induced neuropathy”
• Christopher Dedek (University of Toronto, Canada) “Self-supervised learning to automatically score behavior without using keypoints”​​

Thursday,  21 May, 2026

8:30-9:30am   Session #23     “Sensory neurons in acute and chronic pain I”      Greg Weir, Chair

• Greg Weir (University of Glasgow, UK) "Neuropathic pain at the source; can we selectively target only the neurons that drive pain?"
• Temugin Berta (University of Cincinnati, USA) "Mitophagy in sensory neurons drives pain resolution"
• Zachary Campbell (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA) "The impact of cellular stress responses on pain signaling"
• Steve Middleton (University of Oxford, UK) “Polyamines and pain; discovery of the neuronal polyamine transporter, SLC45A4" 

9:30-10:30am   Session #24  “Sensory neurons in acute and chronic pain II”      Alex Binshtok, Chair 

• Alex Binshtok (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) “Molecular and structural plasticity of nociceptive-free nerve endings underlying pathological pain”
• Nigel Bunnett (New York University, USA) “Structure, function, and targeting of NGF signalosomes for pain”
• Armen Akopian (University of Texas at San Antonio, USA) “Molecular signatures for heterogeneity, subtypes and stages of myofascial pain in TMD patients” 
• Seog Bae Oh (Seoul National University, Republic of Korea) “Neuroimmune interaction in humanized peripheral neuropathy-on-a-chip” 

10:30-11:15am   Coffee break

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11:15-12:30pm   Session #25  “GPCR signaling”        Daniela Salvemini/Andrea Hohmann, Co-chairs 

• Daniela Salvemini (Saint Louis University, USA) “Emerging GPCR targets in neuropathic pain”
• Susruta Majumdar (Washington University, USA) "Structure based design of GPCR modulators for treating pain"
• Ben Land (University of Washington, USA) “Phytocannabinoid effects on pain encoding in the basolateral amygdala”
• Andrea Hohmann (Indiana University, USA) “Therapeutic antibody agonists for CB2 cannabinoid receptors; a novel analgesic strategy for treating neuropathic pain”
• Simon Akerman (University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA) “Novel GPCR targets in migraine”
• Pierangelo Geppetti (University of Florence, Italy) “Schwann cell EP2 receptor decouples inflammatory pain from inflammation”

12:30-2:00pm       Free for lunch


2:00-3:00pm  Session #26  “Brain oscillations and pain”     Thomas Graven-Nielsen, Chair  

• Giulia Liberati (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) “Effects of neuromodulation on neural oscillations related to thermonociception”
• Felix Bott (Technical University of Munich, Germany) "Limits of resting-state EEG for biomarkers of chronic pain"
• Samantha Millard (Aalborg University, Denmark) “Modulation of pain by non-invasive brain stimulation and its effect on the peak alpha frequency”
• Nadine Attal (Ambroise Pare Hospital, Boulogne-Billancourt, France) "Algorithms regarding rTMS-induced analgesia’’

3:00-4:00pm  Session #27     “Pain, reward, and stress”      Susanne Becker, Chair

• Vanna Zachariou (Boston University, USA) “Transcriptomic and epigenetic modifications in the nucleus accumbens in models of neuropathic pain” 
• Catherine Cahill (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) “Loss of MOR in dopamine D2 receptor expressing neurons enhances opioid-induced negative reinforcement in a model of neuropathic pain”
• Sara E. Jager (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) “Peripheral engagement of pain-modulating circuits in the spinal cord”
• Katherine Martucci (Duke University, Durham, USA) “Dysfunctional brain reward processing in fibromyalgia patients and opioid use”
• Simon Desch (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany) “Evidence for spared and impaired reward processing in chronic pain”
• Francesca Fardo (Aarhus University, Denmark) “The computational logic of pain, prediction, and uncertainty”

4:00-4:45pm   Coffee break


4:45-5:30pm  Discussion -  Neuro-immune signaling          Mike Salter, Chair ​

• Marco Loggia (MGH, Harvard, USA) “Evidence for a role of skull bone marrow in human chronic pain as revealed by TSPO PET imaging”
• Shafaq Sikandar (Queen Mary University of London, UK) “Does the immune system shape the sensory landscape of osteoarthritis?”
• Michael Johnson (Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, USA) "Targeting neuro-immune mechanisms; how is translation to the clinic doing?"

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5:30p-6:10pm  Data Blitz #10        Thomas Graven-Nielsen, Chair ​

• Markus Ploner (Technical University of Munich, Germany) "Perspectives of EEG biomarkers of pain"
• Laura Sirucek (Aalborg University, Denmark) “Linking brain oscillations and metabolites in pain”
• Yaser Fathi (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) “Phase-specific tACS for modulating pain perception; can neural phase information predict neural and behavioural responses to tACS?”
• Eva Villalba-Riquelme (University College London, UK) "Compensatory mechanisms in embryonic NaV1.7 null neurons"
• Thomas Graven-Nielsen (Aalborg University, Denmark) “Neuroadaptability to pain reflected in evoked EEG measures”

Friday, 22 May, 2026

8:30-10:30am  Session #28     “Amygdala”     Volker Neugebauer and Benedict Kolber, Co-Chairs 

• Yarimar Carrasquillo (National Institutes of Health, USA) “An intra-amygdala circuit controls the transition from acute to chronic pain”
• Gregory Corder (University of Pennsylvania, USA) “Amygdalar cell-types encoding aversion to pain and opioid withdrawal”
• Kevin Beier (University of California, Irvine, USA) “Role of insular-amygdalar ensembles in pain chronification” ​
• Benedict Kolber (University of Texas at Dallas, USA) “Using 3-D computational modeling of the rodent amygdala to identify emergent properties of this structure in nociception"
• Regan Hines (Indiana University, USA) “Sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor signaling in amygdala neurons in pain”
• Yolanda Campos (Washington University, USA) “Dissecting the role of a dynorphinergic CeA to BNST input in the sensory and emotional components of pain”
• Cyril Goudet (Univ Montpellier, France) “Neuromodulation of pain through photocontrol of endogenous GPCRs in the amygdala”
• Michael Burman (University of New England, USA)” Early life pain affects biomarker-identified cell populations in the amygdala and hypothalamus in a sex-dependent manner”
• Nick Gilpin (LSU Health Sciences Center, USA) “Adolescent alcohol exposure leads to lasting hyperalgesia that is mediated by central amygdala circuits” 
• Volker Neugebauer (Texas Tech University, USA) “Neuroimmune signaling in the amygdala in the transition to chronic pain"

10:30-11:15am    Coffee break


11:15-12:15pm   Session #29      “Rethinking neuropathic pain etiology; emerging roles for autoantibodies"    Aubin Moutal, Chair  

• Claudia Sommer (University of Würzburg, Germany) “Autoantibodies in pain diseases; examples of broad versus focused autoimmunity”
• John Dawes (University of Oxford, UK) “Investigating pain-specific mechanisms in CASPR2 autoimmunity”   
• Aubin Moutal (Saint Louis University, USA) “From biomarkers to drivers: FGFR3 autoantibodies in autoimmune pain”   
• Michael Lacagnina (Cincinnati Children's Hospital, USA) “Autoantibodies in neuropathic pain; exploring B cell-nociceptor interactions”

12:15-12:30pm  Data Blitz #11      Aubin Moutal, Chair

• Alberto Russo (University of Milan, Italy) “Engineering a ROS-gated K+ channel for the treatment of neuropathic pain”
• Shajenth Premachandran (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) “Sensory impairments in Christianson Syndrome”

12:30-2:00pm      Free for lunch

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2:00-3:00pm    Session #30   “Autoimmune pain mechanisms”     Luda Diatchenko and Michaela Kress, Co-Chairs​

• Luda Diatchenko (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) “Role of the inflammatory response in pain resolution and persistence across pain conditions”
• Michaela Kress (Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria) “Nociceptors sending injury signals for neuroimmune crosstalk”
• Emerson Krock (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) “The gut microbiome and antibody-induced pain in fibromyalgia” 
• Harald Lund (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden) “Regulation and function of sensory-neuron-associated macrophages” 

3:00-4:00pm  Session #31 “Network approaches in pain”         Mike Salter, Chair 

• Francesco Ferrini (Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy) “Pain networks in balance; sex specific strategies for spinal inhibition”
• Stéphanie Ratté (University of Calgary, Canada) "Degeneracy enables subversive compensation to counteract drug treatments"
• Patrick Desrosiers (Université Laval, Canada) “Pain networks unveiled through graph modeling and identification of key determinants”
• Mike Salter (SickKids Hospital and University of Toronto, Canada) “The mechanistic mélange of pain”

4:00-4:45pm   Coffee break


4:45-6:00pm   Session #32   “New technology”      Yves DeKoninck, Chair

• Michael Bruchas (University of Washington, USA) “High throughput imaging of pag neuronal ensembles during the development of chronic pain” 
• Sophie Pezet (INSERM, ESPCI-PSL, France) “Decoding pain circuits using functional ultrasound imaging” 
• Pascal Fossat (University of Bordeaux, France) “Bilateral integration of sensory inputs by the dorsal horn of the spinal cord in freely moving mice”
• Anna Moroni (University of Milan, Italy) “A synthetic potassium channel reduces oxidative stress via cellular adaptronics”
• Yves De Koninck (Université Laval, Québec, Canada) “Resolving plastic changes in pain pathways with single cell and 3D micro-photometry” 

END OF CONFERENCE

























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