Securing Success: Developing Competitive Applications for IASP Grants, Prizes, Awards and Fellowships Opportunities

Dr. Calvo's research interest is complementary to her clinical work. Her general aim is to better understand the mechanisms behind neuropathic pain. She studies both animal models and patients employing a variety of techniques ranging from transgenic mouse models to human psychophysical studies and genetics. She currently has two active lines: neuropathic pain in dermatological diseases, and pain modulation by potassium channels. Apart from research, Dr. Clavo currently attends a chronic pain patient unit twice a week within the Interdisciplinary Pain Management Team at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

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 Saurab Sharma is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NeuRA and the UNSW School of Health Sciences. Saurab is supported by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) John J. Bonica Fellowship (2020). Dr Sharma received the Exceptional Thesis Award for his PhD by the University of Otago (2020). Before joining a PhD in 2017, Saurab worked as an educator and musculoskeletal physiotherapist in Nepal for a decade. Saurab has won multiple awards including The Otago Most Promising Pain Research Award (2021) and The UNSW School of Health Sciences Early Career Researcher of the Year Award (2022).

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. Vollert is a chronic pain researcher from Germany, where he did his PhD in neurophysiology at the University of Heidelberg. After six years at Imperial College in London,UK, he has joined the University of Exeter, UK, as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in October 2023.

His background is in data science and statistics, and he collaborates with clinicians across the UK and Europe to analyze multifaceted datasets searching for predictors of developing chronic pain (for example after surgery) and predicting response to treatment to enable personalized pain medicine. He uses a wide array of methods -sensory phenotyping, patient-reported outcomes, -omics – and machine learning to identify mechanistic subgroups.

Dr. Daniela Escobar-Espinal is a Dentist (DDS) from the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) with clinical experience in general dentistry, including volunteer work with Operation Smile Honduras. She completed a Master’s degree in Sciences and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Basic Oral Biology at the University of São Paulo (FORP-USP), Brazil. Her research focuses on the neurophysiology and pharmacology of pain, with particular emphasis on orofacial neuropathic pain and cannabinoids as potential therapeutic strategies for chronic pain. She is an active collaborator of the Orofacial Pain League at FORP-USP and a volunteer of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), serving on the Education Committee and the Mentorship Subcommittee.