Since 2014, Dr. Serra has been a Consultant in Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology at King’s College Hospital, London. Jordi Serra received his medical degree in 1988 from the University of Barcelona and completed his Neurology specialty in 1992 in Barcelona. He spent following years (1992 – 1995) as a Neuromuscular Fellow at the Neuromuscular Unit, Good Samaritan Hospital and Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon, USA, where he specialized in the study, diagnosis and treatment of neuropathic pain patients.

During this period, he was trained in the technique of microneurography. Microneurography offers an unrivaled tool to study spontaneous pain in humans by producing objective records of the abnormal nerve impulse activity responsible for paresthesia (myelinated fibers) and spontaneous pain (unmyelinated fibers). This is the only available technique to detect and quantify positive sensory phenomena of peripheral nerve origin in humans by recording individual action potentials from single sensory fibers.

Dr. Serra’s pioneering work on the recording of abnormal spontaneous activity in C-nociceptors from patients and animal models of neuropathic pain is widely cited in medical literature. Currently, he is researching the correlation of peripheral nociceptor spontaneous activity as seen in patients with the perceptual experience of ongoing pain.

Dr. Serra’s expertise also lies in the areas of electromyography, nerve conduction studies, evoked potentials, quantitative sensory testing, thermography, and intraoperative electrophysiological monitoring.

He cofounded both the Pain section of the American Academy of Neurology and the Neuropathic Pain Group of the Spanish Society of Neurology, where he served as the first Chairman. He is a member of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), the British Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, the Spanish Society of Neurology, and the Spanish Pain Society.

Dr. Serra has authored many scientific journal articles and book chapters. He is a frequently invited speaker and organizes courses on neuropathic pain. He also serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals.

Manuela Schmidt completed her PhD at the International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences in Göttingen (Germany) in 2006. She subsequently joined the laboratory of Prof. Ardem Patapoutian at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where she investigated TRP and Piezo2 ion channels. She went on to establish an Emmy Noether-funded research group at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, focusing on the systems biology of pain. In 2020, she was appointed Full Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Vienna, where she also serves as Vice Dean for Research at the Faculty of Life Sciences.

Theodore (Ted) Price is Ashbel Smith Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he is the Director of the Center for Advanced Pain Studies. Ted did his PhD with Ken Hargreaves at UT Health San Antonio and his postdoc with Fernando Cervero at McGill. Ted started his independent lab in 2007 at the University of Arizona and moved to UT Dallas in 2014. Ted’s lab’s goal is to identify molecular mechanisms causing chronic pain with emphasis on developing new drugs to treat pain. His lab’s focus is on human molecular neuroscience with specialization in the dorsal root ganglion and spinal dorsal horn. Ted has published more than 250 peer-reviewed studies and has been continuously funded by NIH for more than 15 years. He is a co-founder of many companies, including 4E Therapeutics.

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. 

Joletta is a fierce advocate for the integration of lived experience into the research, study, and treatment of pain. She came to this work through her own experiences of living with chronic pain and struggling to find adequate care, resources, and support after an on-the-job injury as a firefighter. She began writing a blog to try and make sense of things, which led to invitations to speak at conferences and to partner in pain research, education, and publishing. 

She was invited to a meeting at the 2018 World Congress on Pain to discuss how IASP could meaningfully integrate lived experience into its work. In 2019, the Presidential Task Force that became the Global Alliance of Partners for Pain Advocacy (GAPPA) was formed, and Joletta became the founding Co-Chair with Blair. She currently serves as GAPPA Past Co-chair. 

Blair H. Smith MD, FRSE, Professor of Population Health Science at the University of Dundee (Scotland), recently also retired as Consultant in Pain Medicine. Graduating at the Universities of Glasgow (MBChB, 1987) and Aberdeen (MEd Distinction 1998; MD 2000), he held an NHS Primary Care Career Scientist Award (2000 to 2005) and was Professor of Primary Care Medicine at the University of Aberdeen until 2011 before taking up his current post.

His research on chronic pain and neuropathic pain has been published widely, specifically studying its epidemiology, genetics, primary care management and self-management. He has published >320 peer-reviewed research papers, various book chapters and reports, and two volumes of poetry. He has been listed in the Web of Science as a “highly cited researcher” (top 0.1% globally) from 2020 to 2024 (Scopus h-Index 88), and has been (co-)investigator on research grants totalling >£28.3M. In 2025 he was given biennial the Lady Margaret MacLellan Award for outstanding contribution to medical research in Scotland. He was a founding Co-Chair of GAPPA, with Joletta and continues to serve as Past Co-Chair.

Dawn Marie Gibson is a former youth and young adult lay chaplain turned artist, organizer, and citizen lepidopterist. Before joining the National Pain Advocacy Center's leadership she led the Spoonie Chat Twitter community, supporting her fellow spondyloarthritis and fibromyalgia folks and other chronic pain patients through health social media, media availability, and policy advocacy centering the lived experience of patients and the people who love them.

She has extensive family caregiving experience in medical and surgical oncology, dementia, and end-of-life care. She lives in Michigan with her family and a cadre of hand-raised butterflies. 

Carole Torsney is a Reader at the University of Edinburgh and is based in the Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research. She is a member of the Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain and the Simons Foundation Autism Rat Models Consortium. She received her PhD under the supervision of Professor Maria Fitzgerald at University College London. She then did postdoctoral training at Columbia University, New York, before establishing her lab at the University of Edinburgh. Her research investigates the nervous system processing of pain and touch, and how this can differ between the sexes. She is specifically interested in the plasticity that underlies chronic pain conditions and the altered pain and tactile reactivity that manifests in neurodevelopmental disorders.  

Dr Roche is an Associate Professor in Physiology and Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Galway, Ireland. Her research interests focus on enhancing understanding of the neurobiology and pathophysiology underlying pain, mood disorders, autism and their interactions. She has a particular interest sex differences and the role of the neuro-immune, endocannabinoid and opioid systems. Her research Her research has resulted in over 80 research manuscripts, reviews and book chapters and supported by EU, national and industry funding. Dr Roche is currently European Pain Federation EFIC council member and immediate past-president of the Irish Pain Society (2023-2025). Dr Roche has contributed to and lead on several international networks including as scientific coordinator for PAINDIFF and Enlight PainNet and as the Scientific Communications Coordinator for EU-SABV Cost Action. She is an Editorial Board member of several international scientific journals including Frontiers in Pain Research and Neuropharmacology.

Clair is a Consultant Physiotherapist. Physiotherapy Clinical Lead in Pain Management at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, Senior Lecturer in Advanced Physiotherapy Practice, Brunel University, London, UK. She also works with Freedom from Torture, UK, She holds national and international positions as Vice-Chair of the Pain and Trauma Special Interest group IASP and Co-Chair of the Physiotherapy Pain Association. Clair has 30 years of experience as a clinician, manager, and educator, both within the NHS and Internationally. She is a graduate of Narrative Medicine and an accredited and experienced facilitator in narrative based and psychologically informed approaches. She has recently published a service evaluation on 'Patient perceptions in relation to trauma-informed care on pain management programmes.'

Dr Felicity Saunders is a Senior Clinical Psychologist specialising in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine at London's Barts Health NHS Trust. She is the lead psychologist for the My Body Back™ Clinic, the only clinic in England offering specialised, trauma-informed healthcare—including cervical screenings and STI testing—designed specifically for survivors of sexual trauma- My Body Back Project - Rape and sexual assault support in London. My Body Back™ has appeared on BBC London News and BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour. Felicity also works privately, using Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) to support her clients with complex mental health difficulties and finds it a particularly helpful model when working with Trauma and Psychosexual difficulties.

Dr Jill Zelin is a Consultant in Sexual Health at Barts Health NHS Trust and Medical Lead for the My Body Back™ Clinic London. She has led the development of trauma-informed cervical screening and sexual health services for women and people who have experienced sexual violence, working with NHS and voluntary-sector partners to improve access, choice and psychological safety in care. Her work focuses on survivor-informed service design, inclusive pathways, clinical governance and embedding trauma-informed practice within routine NHS systems

Esther Pogatzki-Zahn (EPZ) is a professor in the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine at the University Hospital Muenster. She has been trained as an anesthesiologist, is a certified pain specialist and a neuroscientist. She leads the clinical pain service at the University Hospital Muenster, and the „Translational Pain Research“ group. Her research is aiming to provide insight into the neuropathology of postsurgical, pelvic, chronic inflammatory, neuropathic and cancer-related pain by using basic science, in-vivo behavioral, electrophysiological, omics, optogenetic, fMRI and molecular methods. Furthermore, she performs human experimental and clinical pain-related studies encompassing a bio-psycho-social spectrum related to the pain entities mentioned above. She performs systematic reviews and meta-analysis related to pain, regional anesthesia and perioperative medicine (pre-clinical and clinical) including methods to improve their methodology/design. Her work further encompasses the field of Core Outcome Sets. EPZ is involved in many national and international multicenter research projects, for example as a PI (or Co-PI) in IMI-PainCare (www.imi-paincare.eu/), POET-Pain (https://www.poet-pain.de), PANDOS (www.esaic.org/research/research-groups/pandos/), IT-Pain (https://itpain.org/), CHIELDPAIN, among other. Since recently, she is leading StEPP-UPP, a consortium intended to investigate mechanisms of endometriosis-related pain, and GEPARD, a project addressing gender differences in efficacy of treatments for pain after surgery. Her research is supported by grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) and the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI). She is president elect of the European Pain Federation (EFIC), was council member of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP, from 2018-2024), is executive board member of the German Pain Society, board member of the Acute Pain SIG of the IASP, member of the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia & Pain Therapy (ESRA) PROSPECT group (https://esraeurope.org/pain-management/) and chair of the European Pain Federation (EFIC) Research Group, among others. She is Deputy Editor in Chief for the EJA and EJAIC, section editor for the EJP and reviewer for many international peer review journals. She published more than 190 original peer reviewed manuscripts, more than 50 review articles/ editorials, 16 book chapters and 3 books (h-Index: 61).  

Dr. Lascelles is the Dr. J. McNeely and Lynne K. DuBose Distinguished Professor of Musculoskeletal Health, and Professor of Translational Research in Pain and Surgery. Since his PhD training at Bristol, UK, he has devoted is professional career to improving our ability to recognize and treat pain in animals. His research program (Translational Research in Pain [TRiP]) develops methods to measure pain associated with spontaneous disease in animals and seeks to understand the underlying neurobiology with the goal of improving our understanding of how to control pain in companion animals, and facilitating analgesic development in human medicine.

He is director of the Comparative Pain Research and Education Centre (CPREC). He has authored over 270 peer reviewed research papers and reviews, over 400 research abstracts, and ~ 30 book chapters.

David Finn is an Established Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Principal Investigator, and Founding Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Galway, Ireland. Professor Finn graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Biotechnology from the University of Galway and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Bristol, and he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham.  His research focuses on the affective and cognitive dimensions of pain, stress-pain interactions, and neuroinflammatory processes, with an emphasis on the endogenous cannabinoid system. He is Past-President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) and of the Irish Pain Society. He has been a member of the Presidential Task Forces for Cannabis, Cannabinoids, and Chronic Pain of both the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and the European Pain Federation (EFIC), and leader of the Basic Science Work Package for the IASP Task Force. He is a member of the EFIC Working Groups for Translational Pain Research and Pain Research Strategy, the IASP Task Force for Use of Animals in Pain Research, a member of the Scientific Programme Committees for the IASP 2026 and 2024 World Pain Congresses, NeuPSIG 2025, EFIC 2022, and a member of EFIC Council.   Professor Finn is a member of the Editorial Boards of multiple international scientific journals, including Pain, Journal of Psychopharmacology, Frontiers in Neuropharmacology, Frontiers in Pain Research, and the Scandinavian Journal of Pain. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters and frequently lectures at international conferences.

Dr Roche is an Associate Professor in Physiology and Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Galway, Ireland. Her research interests focus on enhancing understanding of the neurobiology and pathophysiology underlying pain, mood disorders, autism and their interactions. She has a particular interest sex differences and the role of the neuro-immune, endocannabinoid and opioid systems. Her research Her research has resulted in over 80 research manuscripts, reviews and book chapters and supported by EU, national and industry funding. Dr Roche is currently European Pain Federation EFIC council member and immediate past-president of the Irish Pain Society (2023-2025). Dr Roche has contributed to and lead on several international networks including as scientific coordinator for PAINDIFF and Enlight PainNet and as the Scientific Communications Coordinator for EU-SABV Cost Action. She is an Editorial Board member of several international scientific journals including Frontiers in Pain Research and Neuropharmacology.

Jeffrey S. Mogil is the E.P. Taylor Professor of Pain Studies and a Distinguished James McGill Professor at McGill University, where he formerly directed the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain. He earned a B.Sc. (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Toronto (1988) and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from UCLA (1993), completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Portland, Oregon (1993–1996), joined the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign faculty, and moved to McGill in 2001. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Dr. Mogil is renowned for seminal work in pain genetics, sex differences in pain and analgesia, and algesiometric testing in mice; he authored landmark reviews and edited the first textbook in the field, The Genetics of Pain (IASP Press, 2004). He has published 270+ papers and chapters since 1992, delivered nearly 400 invited lectures, holds an h-index of 100 (Google Scholar), and his work has been cited 40,000+ times; a 2022 Stanford analysis ranked him 7th in Anesthesiology and 210th in Neuroscience worldwide. His research has been supported by NIH, CIHR, NSERC, and leading foundations; current support includes a CIHR Foundation Grant, NSERC Discovery Grant, CIHR Sex and Gender Science Chair, and LAEF. Honors include major awards from IASP, CPS, and APS. He has served as Section Editor (Neurobiology) for Pain, chaired the 13th World Congress on Pain Scientific Planning Committee, sat on the IASP Council, and founded the North American Pain School.

Kevin A. Keay is a Professor of Neuroscience and Chief Anatomist in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney. He is known for his research on the neural circuits that underpin emotional coping behaviours, particularly those involved in the transition from acute injury to chronic pain.  His work has contributed to understanding of how midbrain, hypothalamic, and cortical networks interact to regulate active and passive responses to pain and stress. Using a multidisciplinary approach that integrates behavioural, physiological, neuroanatomical, and molecular methods, Professor Keay has contributed to improving the translational relevance of preclinical pain models. He has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed, and widely cited publications, supported by continuous competitive research funding. Professor Keay has supervised over 40 PhD students and is widely recognised for his commitment to mentorship, research excellence, and fostering inclusive scientific environments. He has held academic and research appointments in both Australia, United Kingdom, and the US. Through sustained international collaboration and leadership within the pain research community, he continues to advance understanding of chronic pain mechanisms and their clinical translation.

Dr Carina has a PhD in Neuropsychopharmacology from the Karolinska Institute and a Docent from Åbo Akademi University in Drug Research. Carina has 30 years of experience in drug discovery in the Pharma industry, where her focus has been on cross-discipline pain research for most of this time.  

Professor Markus Ploner investigates how the human brain generates the experience of pain. His interdisciplinary research group employs methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and non-invasive brain stimulation to understand how the brain processes pain in healthy individuals and in people with chronic pain. The aim is to develop new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain. His research is guided by the principles of open, reproducible science and actively involves people with chronic pain in the research process.

Professor Ploner studied medicine in Cologne and Vienna and received his doctorate from the University of Cologne. He began his research career at the University Hospital Düsseldorf, where he also completed his specialist training in neurology. In 2007/2008, he conducted research at the University of Oxford as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Since then, he has been working at the Department of Neurology at TUM. In 2014, he was appointed Professor of Human Pain Research, and in 2024, he became Head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine at the TUM University Hospital.

Dr Michael Ferraro (PhD, BSc Hons) is a postdoctoral researcher at NeuRA's Centre for Pain IMPACT. Michael's research is centred around the evaluation of treatments for chronic pain disorders, particularly complex regional pain syndrome and neuropathic pain. He also has research interests in clinical trial methodology, evidence synthesis, and research transparency. Michael's work has been published in leading general medical and specialty journals, and presented at premier conferences both internationally and nationally.

Dr G. Baranidharan has been a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, United Kingdom, since 2006, serving as Clinical Lead from 2012 to 2026. He also holds an appointment as an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Leeds.

A recognised leader in neuromodulation, Dr Baranidharan pioneered the development of the Leeds Neuromodulation Centre, transforming it from a small service into one of the most significant units in Europe. His research and clinical interests focus on neuropathic pain, neuromodulation, and the management of pain originating from visceral structures. He is widely published in peer‑reviewed journals and remains active in clinical research, teaching, and national service development.

Dr Baranidharan has made major contributions to the establishment of the National Neuromodulation Registry for the United Kingdom and currently chairs its Dataset Committee. In September 2025, he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (FPM), where he also serves as an examiner.
Since 2008, he has successfully led an annual cadaveric pain procedures workshop in Leeds, recognised internationally for its educational excellence (www.paincourse.co.uk).

Dr. Jankowski is the Theodore W. Striker, MD Chair in Anesthesia Research, a Professor and Vice Chief for Research in the Department of Anesthesia at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.  His research focuses on basic mechanisms of nociception and how these mechanisms change across the lifespan with a focus on neuroimmune and non-neuronal communication.

Giulia Mesaroli is a physiotherapist, researcher, and educator with a focus on pediatric pain management. She works clinically as a physiotherapist in the Department of Rehabilitation Services at The Hospital for Sick Children. Her clinical and research interests include neuropathic pain, complex regional pain syndrome, and the use of digital technologies to assess and treat pediatric chronic pain within rehabilitation settings.

Vina Mohabir, MSc, is a patient partner and PhD student in Health Systems Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. She is a trainee in the iOUCH Pain Lab within Child Health Evaluative Sciences at SickKids Research Institute, where her work focuses on co-designing digital health tools with young people living with painful conditions alongside intersecting forms of discrimination. She brings research training together with lived and living experience of neuropathic and chronic pain to her advocacy, with a focus on what matters most to young people and their families. 

Suellen Walker is Professor of Paediatric Pain Medicine, UCL GOS Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK. Current activities include paediatric pain clinical practice, and she is Principal Investigator in the UCL GOS ICH Paediatric Pain Research Group. Her research interests include the long-term impact of pain experience during childhood, and paediatric neuropathic pain. (https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/303-suellen-walker). 

Massieh Moayedi is a Canada Research Chair in Pain Neuroimaging, a University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain scientist, and co-director of the Multimodal Sensorimotor and Pain Research. Moayedi received his PhD under the supervision of Karen Davis and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London under the supervision of Giandomenico Iannetti. He is Secretary of the Canadian pain Society, and Councilor of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Moayedi's interest in pain research is borne out of personal lived experience with pain. His work uses brain imaging and behavioral paradigms to delineate the mechanisms of acute and chronic pain, with a goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets. He has an extensive collaborative network of clinicians and scientists with expertise to answer complex questions in pain physiology.

Professor Markus Ploner investigates how the human brain generates the experience of pain. His interdisciplinary research group employs methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and non-invasive brain stimulation to understand how the brain processes pain in healthy individuals and in people with chronic pain. The aim is to develop new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain. His research is guided by the principles of open, reproducible science and actively involves people with chronic pain in the research process.

Professor Ploner studied medicine in Cologne and Vienna and received his doctorate from the University of Cologne. He began his research career at the University Hospital Düsseldorf, where he also completed his specialist training in neurology. In 2007/2008, he conducted research at the University of Oxford as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Since then, he has been working at the Department of Neurology at TUM. In 2014, he was appointed Professor of Human Pain Research, and in 2024, he became Head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine at the TUM University Hospital.

Thomas Graven-Nielsen acquired his PhD within Biomedical Science and Engineering in 1997 (Aalborg University, Denmark). In 2006 he obtained a Doctoral degree in Medical Science (DMSc, Copenhagen University). He is Director at Center for Neuroplasticity and Pain (CNAP), Aalborg University, Denmark (since 2015), and Full Professor in Pain Neuroscience since 2008. The Danish National Research Foundation inaugurated CNAP. He is also Councillor in the International Association for the Study of Pain.

The research focuses on translational studies of pain bridging the gap between basic animal findings and clinical manifestations of pain. The scope is to identify and modulate key features of human pain neuroplasticity leading to prevention of maladaptive neuroplasticity and promote advantageous neuroplasticity. The core areas are musculoskeletal pain, referred pain, localised and widespread deep-tissue hyperalgesia, pain modulatory mechanisms, pharmacological screening, and electrophysiological techniques to assess pain physiology and neuroplasticity. Novel pain models, bio-markers, assessment and neuro-modulatory technologies are key biomedical tools for the translational studies.

A core research philosophy in his work is that pain research by nature is multidisciplinary, hence interdisciplinary and intersectorial collaboration is a key concept, as is collaboration with excellent researchers and students. Thomas has published 385+ peer-reviewed scientific papers (H-index: 78, approx. 20.000 citations) and received several awards, most notably the Knight of the Order of Dannebrog (2020). He reviews papers on a regular basis for high ranked journals, has presented as keynote speaker at several international conferences, and organised scientific workshops and symposia at international meetings. Multiple national and international collaborations on translational pain research have been established. Moreover, advocacy for pain research has been a cornerstone activity via dedicated involvement.

André Mouraux (MD, PhD) is Full Professor at the UCLouvain Institute of Neurosciences (IoNS). As a neuroscientist trained as a clinical neurologist, his research focuses on the cerebral mechanisms underlying nociception and pain perception in humans, using electroencephalography (EEG) – including intracerebral EEG – combined with techniques to selectively activate distinct classes of nociceptive afferents. A central theme of his work is understanding the changes in nociceptive processing induced by inflammation, injury, or sustained nociceptive input that drive peripheral and central sensitization, and may contribute to the transition from acute to chronic pain. He has contributed to the development of pharmacodynamic biomarkers of nociceptive processing within large European collaborative projects, including IMI2-PAINCARE and H2020-QSPainRelief, and is currently involved in MSCA-FRESCO4NoPain, which explores non-invasive brain stimulation as a means to modulate pain.  

Dr J.P. Caneiro is a Specialist Physiotherapist who combines clinical practice with his role as Adjunct Senior Clinical Researcher at Curtin University, and co-Director and Educator of Evoolve Pain care Academy, a social enterprise promoting equitable access to evidence-based musculoskeletal pain care and clinician training worldwide. Dr Caneiro is an integral part of the team that has developed a novel management approach for people disabling low back pain – called ‘Cognitive Functional Therapy’. This treatment has demonstrated efficacy in numerous clinical trials, including a recent landmark trial published in The Lancet in which Dr Caneiro was one of the lead trainers. With over 50 peer-reviewed publications and international conference presentations, he is an emerging leader on the field of chronic pain, particularly in the management of back pain and osteoarthritis. Dr Caneiro has taught on the Masters of Physiotherapy program at Curtin University, and he consults at bodylogic.physio where he reviews patients with complex musculoskeletal pain presentations. Dr Caneiro is dedicated to bridge the evidence-to-practice gap by mentoring clinicians to deliver high-quality, person-centred care. 

Dr Lauren Heathcote is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Health Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London. She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford and completed a five-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in >span class="NormalTextRun SCXW179073375 BCX0">Pain Medicine division at Stanford University School of Medicine. She was the 2022 recipient of the prestigious Ulf Lindblom Young Investigator Prize for Clinical Science from the International Association for the Study of Pain as well as the 2022 Hiroomi Kawano New Investigator Award from the International Psycho-Oncology Society, both in recognition for her early and distinguished contributions to pain and psycho-oncology research.  

>span class="NormalTextRun SCXW179073375 BCX0">identify mind-body mechanisms of physical and mental health and to harness these using innovative behavioural medicine approaches to improve the lives of young people and adults living with and beyond chronic illness.

Dr. Sarah Wallwork is a Senior Research Fellow and physiotherapist within IIMPACT in Health and at the Robinson Research Institute at Adelaide University. She leads a program of research that targets childhood to reduce the prevalence and burden of chronic pain in young people and adults. Her work explores the ecology in which a child is situated, including interconnected social, cultural and societal contexts, and how that may shape a child’s resilience against chronic pain. She has been awarded >$4.3m in funding, has published >45 peer-reviewed articles, has been invited speaker to 26 national/international conferences/seminars, and has been recipient of multiple national and international competitive scholarships. In 2021, she was named Field Leader in The Australian Research Magazine’s top researchers from 250 fields of research. 

Kevin E. Vowles is a clinical psychologist and researcher specializing in the psychological and behavioral processes that influence adaptation to chronic pain. His work examines how acceptance, present-moment awareness, and values-based action can support individuals in engaging with meaningful activities, even in the context of persisting pain. As a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast and clinician at the Belfast Centre for Pain Rehabilitation (UK NHS), Kevin has contributed to the development and evaluation of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as an evidence-based intervention for chronic pain. This work, which has been cited by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and is recognized for its empirical support by the American Psychological Association’s Division of Clinical Psychology, highlights a critical insight: having a full and meaningful life is not dependent on reducing pain. With over 150 peer-reviewed publications, Kevin’s research has informed clinical guidelines and academic discourse on chronic pain and its treatment goals. His work aims to bridge the gap between scientific rigor and clinical utility, supporting individuals in re-engaging with valued life activities with ongoing chronic pain. Alongside research, Kevin is involved in education, training, and community work collaborating with clinicians and researchers worldwide to integrate these principles into practice. His ultimate goal is to empower people to live fully, even when pain persists.