The Contribution of Endocannabinoids to Pain Sensitivity and Modulation

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.

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.