The Expanding Role of Empathy in Placebo Biology
Includes a Live Web Event on 03/30/2026 at 10:00 AM (EDT)
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This webinar is being produced through a collaboration of the IASP's Pain and Placebo Special Interest Group and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA - in particular - the University of Maryland School of Nursing's Placebo Beyond Opinions Organized Research Center. Both groups are aligned on advancing unbiased knowledge of placebo effects by promoting interdisciplinary investigation of the placebo phenomenon and nurturing placebo research.
Please note that this webinar is unique in that it is being hosted (both in-personal and virtually) by the University of Maryland.
Join us for the Placebo Beyond Opinions Center guest lecture hybrid series. The series will explore the roles of neuroscience, empathy and the placebo effect in the management of chronic pain. This lecture on "The Expanding Role of Empathy in Placebo Biology: Why Should We Care?" is presented by Leonard Calabrese, DO.
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.
*If you would like to receive CE credit for attending this webinar, Register Here
Leonard Calabrese
Professor of Medicine
Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases, Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA
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, MD, PhD (Moderator)
Professor of Pain and Translational Symptom Science
University of Maryland, USA
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.