Winfried Meissner was appointed Head of Jena University Hospital’s Pain Unit in 1994, and Head of the Palliative Care Department in 2009. The Pain Unit covers all areas of pain management (acute pain service, outpatient service unit, inpatient consultation service, multimodal pain management program, interdisciplinary pain conference). Meissner and his group have initiated two large pain registries, QUIPS in Germany and PAIN OUT international, to improve postoperative pain management and to facilitate health service research. These projects resulted in more than 100 publications, including a couple of landmark papers. He was coordinator of European Commission funded IMIPainCare and subproject PROMPT (Providing Standardized Consented PROMs for Improving Pain Treatment).

In 2020, Winfried received the Robert G. Addison Award by the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

Winfried was President of the German Pain Society from 2021-2022 and Past President from 2023-2024. He is member of several national and international societies including ESAIC and IASP.

Winfried volunteers with the Johanniter Unfallhilfe (St John Ambulance), a humanitarian organisation affiliated with the Brandenburg Bailiwick of the Order of St John. Recently, he  raised funding for PAMELA, a project aiming to prevent and treat phantom limb pain in Ukraine.

Winfried is married and has five children.

Dr Dominic Aldington, originally a consultant anaesthetist,  currently works  exclusively on pain management, with expertise in acute and chronic pain, including migraine. He has authored over 75 publications in leading journals and presented internationally. A member of the British Pain Society and IASP, he serves as Chair of IASP’s SIG on Pain of Torture, Organised Violence and War.

David Holloway joined the electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration (ePPOC) as Director in May 2022, after an extensive career in both the public and private sector, most recently as Director of Quality and Safety for an Australian community nursing and aged care organisation. ePPOC has been collecting pain outcomes data for more than a decade across Australia and New Zealand and is currently progressing towards the third iteration of its dataset. 

David has held a varied range of operational management and clinical governance roles covering both face-to-face and telehealth delivery models and completed his PhD thesis on the efficacy of virtual environments in increasing competence and confidence of nursing students in relation to medication administration.

Andrew Rice is Professor of Pain Research at Imperial College London and President of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). He earned his medical degree from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1982 and his research doctorate from St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School in 1991. Andrew underwent specialist training in Oxford and at St Thomas’ Hospital before joining Imperial College in 1995. He led the Pain Research Group at Imperial College from its inception in 1995 until 2026. His research spans neuropathic pain in infectious diseases (HIV, Herpes Zoster, HTLV-1, leprosy), diabetic neuropathy, and peripheral nerve trauma and amputation, with a focus on improving translational research and evidence synthesis.  

Andrew chaired the IASP Presidential Task Force on Cannabis and Cannabinoid Analgesia and the Scientific Programme Committee for the 2020 World Congress on Pain. He previously served as an IASP Councilor and was elected President-Elect in 2022. Andrew is an Honorary Consultant in Pain Medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, stepping aside from clinical practice in 2023 to fulfill his presidential duties. 

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/a.rice

Dr. Tankred Stöbe is a specialist in Internal, Intensive and Emergency Care Medicine. His first project with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Germany was in Thailand/Myanmar in 2002. Since then his has taken part in more than 30 missions with Doctors Without Borders in  Syria, Haiti, the Gaza Strip, Ukraine, and Sudan.  Tankred Stöbe has also held various positions within Doctors Without Borders, including serving on the German board in 2004 and serving as president of the German section from 

Professor  Burkhard Gustorff is Chair the  Department for Anaesthesia, Intensive care and Pain Medicine at the Ottakring Clinic in Vienna. He has been active in pain therapy and pain research for over 20 years with a  focus on neuropathic pain, pain diagnosis using QST and invasive pain therapy. Burkhard has gained  considerable experience in postgraduate education and university teaching and sees himself someone who can bridge over  between knowledge gained from research and the clinical routine.  Collaborating  with colleagues in Ukraine, including the rehabilitation center Superhumans, Burkhard  has set up the Ukrainian-Austrian Pain Management School.   They plan to hold the school at least twice a year, engaging multidisciplinary professionals,  including physiatrists, rehabilitation experts, anaesthesiologists, neurologists. The goal is to establish a sustainable national pain management system grounded on a multidisciplinary approach and aligned with European clinical standards.

Professor Sascha Tafelski is a senior consultant, clinical scientist, anesthesiologist, and specialist in pain medicine.  Sascha has over a decade of experience at the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care at Charité Medical Center, Berlin. Starting in April this year, he will take up a professorship focused on postoperative neuropathic pain at the University Hospital Greifswald in northeastern Germany

Dr Jennifer Ernst is Director of the Innovative Amputation Medicine, Department of Trauma Surgery, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (MHH). Jennifer is a specialist in Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery. She has expertise in modern surgical techniques such as targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), osseointegration, and Agonist-Antagonist-Myoneuronal-Interface (AMI).

Dr Volodymyr Romanenko is a neurologist, Headache and Pain Specialist, Consultant at the Institute of Family Medicine. He serves as President of the Ukrainian Headache Research Society, Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Association for the Study of Pain, and European Pain Federation EFIC Councillor for Ukraine. Volodymyr’s areas of clinical and scientific interest include headache, neuropathic pain, and low back pain. He co-leads the PAMELA project with Winfried Meissner. 

Vitalii Marchenko is a senior physical therapist at Superhumans Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, Ukraine. Vitalii works with amputees, helping them to adapt to prosthetics and restore function. 

Dr. Jan van der Merwe has been active in the private and public sectors as a Clinical Psychologist for over 30 years. Jan was the clinical lead psychologist of interdisciplinary pain management teams at  King Edward VII’s Hospital in London (Veteran-Specific Pain Management Programme); Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London; and the Real Health Institute, London. Jan has contributed to scientific meetings and has published research articles, chapters and studies over the years, and continues to be engaged in such activities.

Dr Harriet Kemp is a Senior Clinical Lecturer within the Division of Anaesthetics Pain Medicine & Intensive Care. She is an Honorary Consultant in Pain Medicine at Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust where she leads a specialist neuropathic pain service. Harriet’s main research interests are the long term, pain-related, outcomes associated with traumatic injury and critical illness. Harriet sits on the Project Board of the Armed Services Trauma and Rehabilitation Outcome (ADVANCE) study which investigates the physical and psychosocial outcomes of combat injury (www.advancestudydmrc.org.uk). She leads the pain research for ADVANCE to understand pain-related outcomes in veterans and armed forces personnel. Her studies include sensory profiling through quantitative sensory testing, identification of blood and tissue-based markers and patient reported outcome measures. She has also led systematic review work identifying pain prevalence and risk factors for pain following traumatic injury.

Ruth Zaslansky, DSc. Trained as a pain neurophysiologist. Currently Scientific Director of PAIN OUT, an international quality improvement and research network working to improve management of postoperative management.  PAIN OUT has been involved in many projects in low resource countries – working with local healthcare providers to assess  pain-related patient reported outcomes, treatments for post-operative pain and implement quality improvement projects.  In IASP, Ruth is secretary of the Pain Registry SIG.  

Aayushi is currently an MD-PhD student at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD is being conducted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Department of Paediatrics at the UoM. Her topic will be covering chronic pain characterisation in children with cerebral palsy. Aayushi has completed a Bachelor of Biomedicine with a Major in Neuroscience at the UoM and is part way through her medical degree. She is keen on becoming a clinician & researcher in the future with a key focus on paediatric pain, neurodisability & rehabilitation.

Kelly Nguyen is a PhD student in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Kelly’s research interests include the use of digital and non-pharmacological interventions to promote self-management and pain management in children with chronic health conditions. Her decision to pursue a PhD was inspired by her previous research work involving children with arthritis and her clinical experiences as a nurse at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Adam Hirsh, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Indiana University (Indianapolis) and a licensed clinical psychologist. He leads a multidisciplinary research program focused on preventing and managing chronic pain through patient-centered coaching, clinician training, investigations of pain-related injustice, music-based interventions, and virtual patient/clinician and AI applications. Using clinical, laboratory, and epidemiologic approaches, his work identifies psychosocial mechanisms and translates them into pragmatic, scalable interventions. He also mentors numerous PhD students and early-career scholars through NIH-funded training grants and holds leadership roles in national and international organizations. 

Harrison is a doctoral candidate at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). His PhD focuses on applying and advancing causal inference methods to strengthen the use of observational data in guiding evidence‑based management of musculoskeletal conditions. He is passionate about supporting early career researchers and trainees and has been a member of the Education Committee of the IASP ECN since 2023.

Dr. Michele Sterling is a Professor at the RECOVER Injury Centre, Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence: Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury at the University of Queensland, an NHMRC Leadership (L2) Fellow, and a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. Michele’s research focuses on the mechanisms underlying the development of chronic pain injury, predictive algorithms for outcomes, and developing effective interventions for musculoskeletal injury and pain. Michele has served the IASP in many roles, including as a Section Editor of Pain and Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the 2024 World Congress on Pain in Amsterdam.  

Dr. Morika Williams is a veterinary clinician scientist with a focus on pain mechanisms, assessment, and treatment. She obtained her B.S. degrees in Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Science from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from North Carolina State University, completed a residency in Laboratory Animal Medicine, and is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. Dr. Williams earned her PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at NC State, exploring the effects of early life injury on chronic pain such as osteoarthritis. 

Dr. Williams joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) as a Clinical Fellow and Veterinarian, quickly advancing to Assistant Professor. She is the Director of the UNC Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Program. She leads the Pain, Aging, and Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral (P.A.I.N.) Laboratory, where she spearheads innovative research in behavioral neuroscience. Her work is dedicated to advancing acute and chronic pain management and assessment in newborns and adults, enhancing the quality of life in both animals and humans. Dr. Williams is the Chair-elect of the IASP Early Career Network and Co-Chair of the ECN Nominations Committee. She is committed to educating future scientists in biomedical research.

Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is an Assistant Professor at the Washington University Pain Center and the Division of Clinical and Translational Research at the Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch has a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. During her Ph.D, she worked with Dr. David Yarnitsky and specialized in pain modulation mechanisms in adults with chronic pain. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with Dr. Robert Coghill where she studied the neural changes in pediatric patients with chronic pain and after interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. In her Pain Across the Lifespan (PAL) lab, she focuses on studying the impact of sex hormones on pain specifically in adults and adolescents with migraine, endometriosis and arthritis. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is involved with IASP and USASP and seeks to promote early career programs and is the past president for the IASP Early Career Network.  

Dr. Marie-Eve Hoeppli is a Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellow in the lab of Prof. Susanne Becker at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. In her current research, she focuses on the study of mechanisms, in particular brain mechanisms, underlying functional disability.

Dr. Hoeppli completed her PhD in Dr. Petra Schweinhardt’s lab at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). For her PhD, she worked on behavioral responses and cerebral representations of muscle pain and fatigue in healthy individuals. She then completed a first post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Robert Coghill at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She worked extensively on the brain mechanisms of individual differences in the experience of pain. She also conducted and collaborated on studies investigating mechanisms of pediatric chronic pain conditions and recovery from these conditions.

Dr. Hoeppli is the current Chair of the Early Career Network and a committee member of multiple committees and task forces within IASP. She is very invested in supporting and promoting early career members of IASP in their professional development within and outside the association

Dr. Morika Williams is a veterinary clinician scientist with a focus on pain mechanisms, assessment, and treatment. She obtained her B.S. degrees in Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Science from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from North Carolina State University, completed a residency in Laboratory Animal Medicine, and is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. Dr. Williams earned her PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at NC State, exploring the effects of early life injury on chronic pain such as osteoarthritis. 

Dr. Williams joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) as a Clinical Fellow and Veterinarian, quickly advancing to Assistant Professor. She is the Director of the UNC Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Program. She leads the Pain, Aging, and Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral (P.A.I.N.) Laboratory, where she spearheads innovative research in behavioral neuroscience. Her work is dedicated to advancing acute and chronic pain management and assessment in newborns and adults, enhancing the quality of life in both animals and humans. Dr. Williams is the Chair-elect of the IASP Early Career Network and Co-Chair of the ECN Nominations Committee. She is committed to educating future scientists in biomedical research.

Alicia Koedijk co-facilitates the Groote Schuur Hospital Pain Clinic’s THRIVE TRIBE, Peer Support Group. She has 20 years of lived experience with neuropathy and is an advocate for persons living with chronic pain and disabilities. She is an IASP member and a Global Alliance of Partners for Pain Advocacy (GAPPA) Advocate. Alicia is also a South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) Peer Support Group Leader for Students Living with Disabilities. Currently in her second year as a BA Anthropology & Psychology student at the University of South Africa, Alicia wants to specialise in Pain Management.

Fiona Talkington is a distinguished BBC radio presenter, best known for hosting the award-winning program Late Junction. She has presented live concerts from venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall and produced documentaries and talk shows for the BBC. Fiona holds a Master of Arts in Literature and the Visual Arts and a Master of Science in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP). She received the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for her contributions to the arts and an honorary doctorate (D.Litt) from the University of Reading.  

Drawing on her personal experience with chronic neuropathic pain, Fiona serves as a patient partner in PAINSTORM and co-produces its podcast, PAINCAST.  

She has also participated in numerous SIGs for IASP and has facilitated numerous workshops for students and research groups with her focus on the communication and expression of chronic pain for individuals and in healthcare settingsand expression of chronic pain for individuals and in healthcare settings. In addition, Fiona has a forthcoming publication with Bloomsbury on the role of creative arts in enhancing communication between patients and clinicians. 

Jan Dirk Barreveld lives with his wife and two daughters in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where he works as a comic artist and illustrator of children’s books. He suffers from Primary Erythromelalgia as a result of a sodium channel gene mutation. When his hands warm up they become red and painful.

Jo Josh is a freelance communications professional specializing in translating medical and research information into plain language for mainstream audiences. Her background includes news and feature production for print and broadcast media, brand marketing, and crisis management. Since 2018, Jo has worked with the British HIV Association (BHIVA) on communications and advocacy with media, health systems, government, and HIV community organizations.  

She suffers from HIV-related peripheral neuropathy and edited language for “ACT OPEN,” a randomized controlled trial of online acceptance and commitment therapy for neuropathic pain in people living with HIV. In 2022, Jo provided plain language translations of research papers for IASP and is one of three patient partners for the PAINSTORM consortium (https://www.painstorm.co.uk), a three-year research project into the causes and mechanisms of neuropathic pain. She is a member of the Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP).  

Jo’s roles include Data Safety Monitoring on the RIO study (bNAbs), CONNECT research into digital communications in sexual health, and patient communications for Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust as a member of its Council of Governors. She is a former Vice Chair of a NICE committee. 

Philip Cornish is a Consultant Anaesthetist & Specialist Pain Medicine Physician in Adelaide, South Australia. In 2015, he published an account of complete long-term relief of phantom limb pain. This was followed by publications detailing complete, long-term relief of pain in multiple presentations of chronic pain, along with detailed scientific explanations for these results. These findings lead to a different understanding of pain and a different approach to it. 

Stephen Hart's neuropathic pain is diabetes related. He spent three years training to be a nurse but then a year after qualifying gave it up to become an actor/ YouTuber/ radio presenter and HIV advocate. Stephen speaks publicly about living with HIV as one of the Positive Voices speakers for the HIV charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust. He is also a singer in an HIV choir, the Joyful Noise Choir, and has previously worked professionally in both London’s Westend and Broadway.  

Toufieka Kanasashi is a patient at Groote Schuur Hospital and an active THRIVE TRIBE member. She has lived with neuropathy since the age of 7, caused by aggressive Keloid scarring. Toufieka is an advocate for patients living with this rare condition.

Calabrese is a Professor of Medicine, Vice Chair of the Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases and the Co-director of the Centre for Vasculitis Care and Research. He also serves as Director of the RJ Fasenmyer Centre for Clinical Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic. He also holds appointments in the Department of Infectious Diseases and the Wellness Institute. He has particular interest in vascular inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, primary and secondary immunodeficiency states and the intersection of infections and autoimmunity. Over the course of his academic research career, Professor Calabrese has authored over 500 publications including book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Luana Colloca is an NIH-funded physician-scientist who conducted ground-breaking studies that have advanced scientific understanding of the psychoneurobiological bases of endogenous systems for pain modulation in humans including the discovery that the vasopressin system is involved in the enhancement of placebo effects with a dimorphic effect. Currently, her team conducts basic and translational research on genomics of orofacial chronic pain, brain mechanisms of expectancy - and observationally-induced hypoalgesia - and immersive virtual reality. Her research has been published in top-ranked international journals including Biological Psychiatry, Pain, Nature Neuroscience, JAMA, Lancet Neurology, Science and NEJM. The impact of her innovative work is clear from her outstanding publications, citation rate, numerous invited lectures worldwide and media featured by The National Geographic, The New Scientist, Washington Post, Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Nature, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, News and World Reports.

Giovanni is a Senior Research Fellow and National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader at the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney, Australia. Giovanni’s research focuses on investigating the effectiveness of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, as well as new models of care, to improve outcomes for people with chronic pain. 

Rob is a physiotherapist who conducts research into the effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions, as well as muscle physiology and biomechanics. He has a long-standing interest in the design and analysis of clinical trials. He retired from full-time research in 2023 but retains honorary positions as Emeritus Professorial Fellow at NeuRA and Conjoint Professor at UNSW Sydney. He is an accredited statistician and now runs a statistical consulting business focusing on the design and analysis of randomized trials. 

Harrison is a doctoral candidate at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). His PhD focuses on applying and advancing causal inference methods to strengthen the use of observational data in guiding evidence‑based management of musculoskeletal conditions. He is passionate about supporting early career researchers and trainees and has been a member of the Education Committee of the IASP ECN since 2023.

Dr. Eleonora Galosi, MD, is a clinical neurologist and research fellow in the Department of Human Neuroscience at Sapienza University of Rome. Her work focuses on translational research in peripheral neuropathic pain and nociplastic pain. 

Her research integrates advanced clinical, neurophysiological, and molecular phenotyping of peripheral nervous system disorders, with skin biopsy serving as a central methodological pillar. By combining structural nerve fiber biomarkers with functional and clinical measures, Dr. Galosi has contributed to advancing diagnostic strategies and improving the mechanistic understanding of neuropathic and nociplastic pain conditions. 

William Renthal, MD, PhD, is Chief of Headache and Facial Pain in the Department of Neurology at Mass General Brigham and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He provides care for patients with refractory headache and facial pain at the John Graham Headache Center. 

Dr. Renthal leads a research laboratory focused on the genomic and epigenomic mechanisms underlying chronic headache and pain. He also directs the Harvard PRECISION Pain Center, a collaborative initiative that brings together clinicians and scientists to apply advanced multi‑omic approaches to identify the cellular drivers of chronic pain using human tissue and patient‑derived samples. 

Dr. Ru‑Rong Ji, PhD, is the William Maixner Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Center for Translational Pain Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. His laboratory investigates glial mechanisms of neuropathic pain, with a particular emphasis on neuro–glial interactions following nerve injury and diabetes. His recent work has revealed a critical role for mitochondrial dysfunction in neuropathic pain and has identified multiple therapeutic targets for pain relief and resolution. 

Angelika Lampert, MD, is the Director of the Institute of Neurophysiology at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. She coordinates the Sodium Channel Network Aachen and serves as speaker of the Scientific Center for Neuropathic Pain Aachen (SCNAACHEN), focusing on inherited neuropathic pain syndromes such as small fiber neuropathy linked to sodium channel mutations. Her research emphasizes translational basic science, including patient-derived stem cells, Patch-Seq, sodium channel biophysics, and pharmacology. Angelika is co-chair of the IASP Global Year 2026 on Neuropathic Pain. 

Daniela Maria Menichella, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Pharmacology at Northwestern University in Chicago. She directs the Peripheral Neuropathy Multidisciplinary Clinic and the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association Center for Excellence. Dr. Menichella provides care for patients suffering from neuropathic pain due to peripheral neuropathy. In addition to her clinical work, she is actively involved in basic and translational research and takes part in NIH NeuroNext and NIH HEAL EPICC clinical trials. Her research focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie neuropathic pain and axonal degeneration in both hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies, with a particular emphasis on painful diabetic neuropathy. Her laboratory utilizes an integrated approach that combines pain behavioral testing, electrophysiology, in vitro and in vivo calcium imaging, confocal microscopy, chemogenetics, and single-cell RNA sequencing, using conditional and transgenic mouse models. Recently, her lab has begun to validate therapeutic targets using human tissue, such as dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and skin biopsies from patients with well-characterized painful peripheral neuropathies. 

Diana Tavares Ferreira, PharmD, MS, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas. She earned her PharmD and MS degrees from the University of Coimbra and completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield, followed by postdoctoral training at UT Dallas. 

Her research focuses on axonal transport, RNA regulation, and plasticity in neurodegeneration, peripheral neuropathies, and chronic pain. She employs a broad range of omics, experimental, and computational approaches to investigate mechanisms underlying nervous system dysfunction. 

Patrick Dougherty, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Pain Medicine–Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. 

Throughout his career, his research has focused on understanding the neurochemical and physiological consequences of peripheral nerve injury and inflammation on central nervous system activity. His laboratory’s recent work centers on elucidating the mechanisms of pain in cancer patients, with the goal of identifying interventions for chemotherapy‑induced neuropathic pain and cancer‑related hyperalgesia. This work includes complementary clinical and preclinical studies, combining quantitative sensory testing with skin biopsy to define the specific sensory nerve fibers involved in chronic chemoneuropathy.

His research was among the first to demonstrate that cancer itself can contribute to neuropathy prior to treatment and that pre‑existing differences in distal innervation influence pain vulnerability. More recent studies have characterized anatomic, physiological, and transcriptomic changes in human dorsal root ganglia associated with neuropathic pain, revealing sexually dimorphic molecular mechanisms underlying ectopic neuronal activity and persistent pain. 

Dr. Alessandro Chiarotto has a background in physiotherapy (BSc, University of Padua, 2005) and clinical epidemiology (MSc ‘cum laude’, VU University Amsterdam, 2014). During his PhD, he coordinated an international group of researchers, clinicians and patients consumers to develop a core outcome measurement set for clinical trials in patients with low back pain. He completed his PhD in 2018 (VU University Amsterdam) with a thesis entitled “A core outcome measurement set for low back pain”. Since 2018, he works at the Department of General Practice of Erasmus MC. He also works part-time at the VU Department of Health Sciences.

Dr. Chiarotto’s research currently focuses on the clinical management of patients with spine-related musculoskeletal disorders, and on methodological research on the assessment and interpretation of patient-reported outcome measures. He was co-promotor of one PhD student who successfully defended his PhD (2020, Erasmus MC). He now supervises 7 PhD students and one post-doctoral researcher. He has > 40 articles published in international scientific journals (Scopus H-Index 16), including high ranking journals like BMJ, Pain, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. Two years and half after the end of his PhD, he acquired > 500.000€ in research funding.

Laura A. Frey Law is a Professor of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Iowa, where she leads research within the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory. Her work centers on two major areas of investigation: pain heterogeneity and the dynamics of muscular strength and fatigue.

Dr. Frey Law’s research on pain seeks to understand the multifactorial contributors to individual pain variability, including biological sex, psychological traits, genetics, and activity levels. Utilizing experimental human pain models—such as intramuscular infusion, cold pressor testing, and induced muscle fatigue—along with survey-based measures of pain perception and personality characteristics, she investigates why women appear more likely than men to exhibit referred pain despite similar local pain responses.

Her second line of research focuses on mathematical modeling and empirical study of strength and fatigue, conducted in collaboration with the Virtual Soldier Research group. This work explores static and dynamic strength indices, aging-related differences, sex-based variations, and muscle-specific fatigue patterns to better understand human physical performance capacity and its clinical implications.

Paul W. Hodges DSc MedDr PhD BPhty(Hons) FAA FACP APAM(Hon) is an National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow (Level 3), Professor and Director of the Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR) at The University of Queensland (UQ). He is lead chief investigator on an NHMRC Synergy Grant that includes colleagues from the Universities of Queensland, Adelaide and South Australia, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. Paul is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, which is a Fellowship of the nation's most distinguished scientists, elected by their peers for outstanding research that has pushed back the frontiers of knowledge. He is also a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science, and was made an Honoured member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, their highest honour.

Stephanie Smith is a researcher within the Pain Centre Versus Arthritis at the University of Nottingham, studying pain management in osteoarthritis knee pain. Stephanie completed a BSc and MRes in Sports and Exercise Science at Nottingham Trent University, followed by a PhD at Glasgow Caledonian University exploring neuromuscular control in knee osteoarthritis. Stephanie then continued working as a post-doc researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University investigating the biomechanics of knee osteoarthritis before joining the University of Nottingham. Her interests lie in bridging the gap between basic science and clinical applications which a particular focus on neuromuscular control, muscle function and pain in osteoarthritis, rheumatic diseases and musculoskeletal conditions. She has also published in phenotyping and ultrasound in osteoarthritis.