Translational Science in Neuropathic Pain: The State of the Art

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. 

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. 

Dr. Eleonora Galosi, MD, is a clinical neurologist and research fellow in the Department of Human Neuroscience at Sapienza University of Rome. Her work focuses on translational research in peripheral neuropathic pain and nociplastic pain. 

Her research integrates advanced clinical, neurophysiological, and molecular phenotyping of peripheral nervous system disorders, with skin biopsy serving as a central methodological pillar. By combining structural nerve fiber biomarkers with functional and clinical measures, Dr. Galosi has contributed to advancing diagnostic strategies and improving the mechanistic understanding of neuropathic and nociplastic pain conditions. 

Dr. Ru‑Rong Ji, PhD, is the William Maixner Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Center for Translational Pain Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. His laboratory investigates glial mechanisms of neuropathic pain, with a particular emphasis on neuro–glial interactions following nerve injury and diabetes. His recent work has revealed a critical role for mitochondrial dysfunction in neuropathic pain and has identified multiple therapeutic targets for pain relief and resolution. 

William Renthal, MD, PhD, is Chief of Headache and Facial Pain in the Department of Neurology at Mass General Brigham and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He provides care for patients with refractory headache and facial pain at the John Graham Headache Center. 

Dr. Renthal leads a research laboratory focused on the genomic and epigenomic mechanisms underlying chronic headache and pain. He also directs the Harvard PRECISION Pain Center, a collaborative initiative that brings together clinicians and scientists to apply advanced multi‑omic approaches to identify the cellular drivers of chronic pain using human tissue and patient‑derived samples.