Michaela Kress is a physician scientist and full professor at the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Physics Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria. She served as President of the Austrian Neuroscience Association, member of the Scientific Program Committee of several IASP and EFIC congresses and coordinator of the ncRNAPain research consortium funded by the European Commission. She teaches medical students and supervises PhD students in MSCA- and FWF funded programs. Her research focus is on neuroimmune interactions and their hub regulators in the pain pathway and these are explored by integrating multiple methodological approaches ranging from behavior phenotyping to expression analysis and electrophysiology. In particular, non-coding RNAs, proinflammatory cytokines and bioactive lipids are assessed and novel models for pain research developed with a particular focus on human model systems.