Dr Zameel Cader is the Director of the Oxford Headache Centre and a Consultant Neurologist. He is also Associate Professor in Clinical Neurosciences at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience and the Kavli Institute, Oxford. He is also founder and director of Oxford StemTech and Human Centric DD. His academic research programme is focused on understanding the disease process in migraine and pain using omics, human stem cell disease models and preclinical in vivo models. His group is now working to bring more effective and personalised treatments for these disabling disorders from bench to bedside.  

I am professor in the Departments of Neuroscience, Anesthesia, and PM&R at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, as well as the Director of Center for Translational Pain Research at Northwestern University. Our Pain Center is a National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse designated Center of Excellence for the study of Chronic Pain and Drug Abuse. 

The past 35 years of my life have been devoted to unravelling brain mechanisms that underlie acute and chronic pain, and more generally how the brain dynamically processes information that gives rise to perception. Over the last 20 years, I have used brain imaging technology to delineate brain biomarkers of chronic pain, with an emphasis on brain mechanisms of chronic back pain (CBP). These efforts have been quite successful and our work has resulted in many significant advances in the field of pain research: the first identification of grey matter atrophy related to chronic pain, the first account of brain activity unique to spontaneousfluctuations of chronic pain, the first characterization of resting state brain network abnormalities in chronic pain populations, thefirst determination of mesocorticolimbic biomarkers predicting future pain chronification, the first parallel human-rodentneuroimaging of the transition to chronic pain, the first demonstration that hippocampal synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis are critical for neuropathic pain, the first identification of brain biomarkers for placebo response propensity, and more. These observations have been replicated across multiple international laboratories. With over 17,330 citations, my h index is 63 and my work has been continuously funded by 6 NIH institutes (NINDS, NIDCR, NIDDK, NCCIH, NIDA, NIAMS) for > 2 decades. This work would not have been possible without the enthusiasm, creativity, and persistence of a large number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows whom I have trained, as well as the talent and inspiration of my colleagues. It has become clear to me thattransforming this body of research into the clinical treatment and prevention of chronic pain requires a transdisciplinary teamscience approach. 

Find out more about him in this interview conducted by EFIC Research Projects Advisor Mary O'Keeffe:

Katja Boersma is Professor of Psychology at the Center of Health and Medical Psychology, Örebro University, Sweden. Her main research interests revolve around understanding the role of psychology in the experience of pain and its consequences. An overarching goal is to develop and improve upon methods to prevent and treat chronic pain problems. With diverse methodologies Katja studies individual differences in for example emotional suffering, functional disability, overuse of prescription medication and sick leave. A particular focus is on the role of emotions and the regulation of emotions in the development and treatment of these problems. 

Find out more about her in this interview conducted by EFIC Research Projects Advisor Mary O'Keeffe:

Patrik Ernfors did his undergraduate studies at the University of Uppsala, Sweden and at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Following graduation, he started PhD studies with Professor Håkan Persson at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden and obtained a PhD in Molecular Neurobiology in 1991. After post-doctoral studies with Professor Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute, MIT, Boston he returned to Sweden as junior faculty the Karolinska Institutet where he in 1999 became full professor. He has been active at various internal and external academic functions such as Head of department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, member of the board of Research, expert functions at the ERC, Editor at Science Advances and more. 

Prof. Dr. Andrea W.W. Evers is professor of Health Psychology and chair of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She is also affiliated to the Technical University Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam as Medical Delta Professor Healthy Society. After her PhD (cum laude), Andrea Evers obtained several personal grants and awards for excellent researchers (e.g. NWO-Veni, NWO-Vidi, NWO Vici, ERC Consolidator Grant) for her innovative, interdisciplinary and translational research on psychoneurobiological mechanisms and treatments for health and disease. In addition to her broad clinical experience as a registered clinical psychologist, she uniquely combines fundamental and applied science in her translational research, by focusing both on basic research on psychoneurobiology (e.g. placebo mechanisms) and translational research on screening and innovative interventions for somatic conditions (e.g. e-health tools). In 2019, she received the Stevin Award, the highest award in the Netherlands for scientific research with societal impact. She was elected as a lifetime member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Science and Arts (KNAW) as well as the Royal Dutch Society of Science (KHMW). Since 2021, she is also a member of the supervisory board of the VU University Amsterdam. 

Find out more about her in this interview conducted by EFIC Research Projects Advisor Mary O'Keeffe:

Reto Huber holds a position as a professor at two key clinics for development, the University Children’s Hospital and the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, as a neurobiologist since 2007. He earned a M.Sc. degree in Neurobiology of the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. His PhD between 1996 and 2001 was supervised by Profs. A.A. Borbély and I. Tobler at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Zurich. Between 2002 and 2007 he was a post-doctoral researcher in the group of Profs. G. Tononi and C. Cirelli at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He received a professorship grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation in 2007. 

Find out more about him in this interview conducted by EFIC Research Projects Advisor Mary O'Keeffe:

Dr. Nancy E. Lane is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine  and Rheumatology at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine.  Dr. Lane has studied the epidemiology, biology, and treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip and knee for over 35 years.   Dr. Lane performed the initial proof of concept study determining inhibition of nerve growth factor was effective in the treatment of painful knee OA and is currently investigating the mechanisms for the adverse event of rapidly progressive knee OA.   In addition, Dr. Lane has contributed to the studies of wnt signalling modulation , and Trka receptor inhibition for the treatment of painful knee OA.   Currently, Dr. Lane is an elected board member of the Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Research Society, a master of the American College of Rheumatology.  Dr. Lane has contributed over 400 peer reviewed articles related to musculoskeletal diseases and aging.  

Find out more about her in this interview conducted by EFIC Research Projects Advisor Mary O'Keeffe:

Prof. Meyer-Lindenberg is Director of the Central Institute of Mental Health, as well as the Medical
Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Institute, based in Mannheim,
Germany and Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Heidelberg
in Heidelberg, Germany. He is board certified in psychiatry, psychotherapy, and neurology. Before
coming to Mannheim in 2007, he spent ten years as a scientist at the National Institutes of Mental
Health, Bethesda, USA.

Prof. Meyer-Lindenberg is the author of more than 450 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in
journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Medicine, Nature Reviews Neuroscience,
Nature Genetics, Neuron, PNAS, and others. He is has been continuously named as one of the most
highly cited scientists in the world (www.isihighlycited.com) He is the Editor-in-Chief of the European
Journal Neuroscience Applied, associate editor of Science Advances and on the editorial board of a
number of other journals such as Schizophrenia Bulletin, European Neuropsychopharmacology,
Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, and Neuroimage.

His research interests focus on the development of novel treatments for severe psychiatric disorders,
especially schizophrenia, through an application of multimodal neuroimaging, genetics and enviromics
to characterize brain circuits underlying the risk for mental illness and cognitive dysfunction.

In recognition of his research, Prof. Meyer-Lindenberg has received awards throughout his career,
including the Joel Elkes International Award for Clinical Research from the American College of
Neuropsychopharmacology (2006), the A.E. Bennett Award of the Society for Biological Psychiatry
(2007), Kurt Schneider Scientific Award (2010), the Hans-Jörg Weitbrecht-Preis für Klinische
Neurowissenschaften (2011), the ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award, 2012, the Prix ROGER DE
SPOELBERCH (2014), and the 2016 CINP Lilly Neuroscience Clinical Research Award (2016).

Dr Noori received his PhDs in mathematics and physics from Universities of Heidelberg and Kaiserslautern and was honoured with Venia Legendi from the Medical Faculty Mannheim of Heidelberg University as well. In 2008, he moved to Princeton University and focused his research on the interface of experimental and theoretical neurosciences. In the years 2013-2016, he worked as a group leader in the Central Institute of Mental Health. He further occupied visiting professorships at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques and Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences of New York University, where he works with Mikhael Gromov on singularities of geometric flows as observed in membrane deformations. Prior to joining the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a senior investigator, he was an associate professor and the head of the independent research group Neuronal Convergence at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. He was accepted as a Feodor-Lynen fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2016, as a fellow of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 2017, as an overseas fellow of the Royal Society for Medicine and a member of the American Academy of Neurology in 2018. He further is a research affiliate in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He received the Manfred Fuchs award for his pioneering work on neurobiology and cybernetics in 2017. Dr Hamid Noori was further awarded with the Ursula M Haendel award of the German Science Foundation and the DGPPN (German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics) award for excellence in research of psychiatric diseases in 2018 and the Fred Yates award of the Society for the Study of Addiction for Researcher of the Year in 2019. 

Ziad Obermeyer is Associate Professor and Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor at UC Berkeley. His research and teaching focus on machine learning as a tool for improving decision making in health. He continues to practice emergency medicine in underserved communities.

Professor Tiina Paunio (www.helsinki.fi/sleep-and-health) has long-standing and wide interest on mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and comorbid sleep traits, and their therapeutic interventions. She leads the SLEEPWELL Research Program at Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki. Dr Paunio has supervised and examined a number of doctoral theses in Finland and other European countries. Currently, she chairs the ESRS Somnologist examination Subcommittee, acts as a deputy editor of Journal of Sleep Research and as an Editor in the 2nd edition of the European Somnologist textbook. She is also Vice Dean of the Medical Faculty of University of Helsinki. 

Andrew Steptoe is professor of psychology and epidemiology at University College London, where he is Head of the Department of Behavioural Science and Health, and director of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). He graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford. He was previously head of the Department of Psychology and Chair of the Academic Board at St. George’s Hospital Medical School before moving to University College London as British Heart Foundation Professor of Psychology in 2000. He is a fellow of the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Academy for Social Sciences. Dr Steptoe’s research is primarily focused on links between psychological and social processes, physical health, and population aging. He is author or editor of 22 books and around 900 journal articles and chapters. 

Tor Wager is the Diana L. Taylor Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience at Dartmouth College, and the Director of Dartmouth’s Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience laboratory, the Dartmouth Brain Imaging Center, and the Dartmouth Center for Cognitive Neuroscience.  Professor Wager’s research centers on the neurophysiology of affective processes—pain, emotion, stress, and empathy—and how they are shaped by cognitive and social influences. One focus area is the impact of thoughts and beliefs on learning, brain function, and brain-body communication. Another focus is the development of brain biomarkers that track and predict affective experience, including pain and other clinical symptoms. A third focus is on statistical, machine learning, and computational techniques that provide a foundation for new models of the affective brain. Professor Wager’s laboratory conducts basic research in these focus areas and applies the resulting techniques and models  to collaborative, translational research on clinical disorders and interventions. In support of these goals, Professor Wager and his group have developed several publicly available software toolboxes (see http://canlab.github.io). He also teaches courses and workshops on fMRI analysis and has co-authored a book, Principles of fMRI.   More information about Dr. Wager and his lab’s activities, publications, and software can be found at http://canlab.science. 

Rikard K Wicksell, PhD, associate professor in Psychology is Head of Research group Behavior Medicine at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychology, Karolinska Institutet, and also Head of R&D at the Pain Clinic, Capio St Göran Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

During the past 20 years his research has focused on the development of behavioral interventions for adult and pediatric patients with chronic pain. Studies include analyses of outcome and change processes in behavioral interventions, the role and function of biological processes in pain and behavioral treatment, measurement development, parental and family factors in pediatric chronic pain, and neuropsychiatric comorbidity.  

During the past decade, an increasingly important area of research has been the development and implementation of digital behavioral interventions to increase resilience and improve functioning in individuals living with chronic pain. 

Find out more about him in this interview conducted by EFIC Research Projects Advisor Mary O'Keeffe:

Following her pharmacy degree in Turkey, she decided to work in the Neuroscience and Psychiatry field. For her PhD, she obtained a joint doctorate scholarship from French Embassy and trained as a behavioural neuropharmacologist and worked on preclinical modelling of depression in mice and antidepressant drug mechanisms. During her postdoctoral studies at CNRS in Strasbourg, she focused on the use of antidepressant drugs in neuropathic pain and she acquired an expertise in the pain field. In 2010, she obtained a tenure researcher position at CNRS and has started to focus her work on the comorbidity of chronic pain and mood disorders bringing together her PhD and postdoctoral expertise on a new and independent research axis in the laboratory of “Neuroanatomy, pain and psychopathology » that she is actually directing. She became research director in CNRS in 2020. She has 63 publications, 5 book chapters and two patents. She has been awarded two times with Young Investigator Awards from NARSAD, Young Talent Award from the University of Strasbourg, Prix Guy Ourisson and medal bronze from CNRS.

Find out more about her in this interview conducted by EFIC Research Projects Advisor Mary O'Keeffe: