Animal Models of Pain-Related Outcomes

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).  

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.