Future Leaders in Pain Research

2006 Grant Recipient: Theodore J. Price, PhD

McGill University
Montreal, Canada
Role of RNA Transport and Local Translation in Nociceptive Processing

Please state which institution you are currently conducting research.

University of Arizona

How did receiving the Future Leaders in Pain Research Grant impact your career in pain research?

In ways I think the Future Leaders grant served as validation to my colleagues in the field that I wasn’t crazy. We were trying to work on something that was counter to nearly every neuroscience textbook and it was very hard, for a time, to overcome dogma in the area. Without the Future Leaders grant I am not sure that our axonal translation work ever would have gotten a chance.

What is your current research focus? Briefly describe the importance of this work and how it advances the APS goals, mission, and your own personal development.

We now work in a number of areas, many focused on plasticity in chronic pain conditions. My lab still focuses strongly on translation control in peripheral sensory neurons but we have also moved into the areas of dorsal horn plasticity and even plasticity in brain areas such as the anterior cingulate cortex. We have also started to work more broadly in the general neuroscience area as we now have ongoing projects on mechanisms of fragile X mental retardation and healthy aging of the brain. Our goal, in all of this work, is to develop novel therapeutics and advance our basic understanding of disease.

Are you still an APS member? If yes, do you feel that it has been of value to your professional development?

Yes, I am still an APS member. After the Future Leaders grant, I was lucky enough to be one of the first recipients of the Rita Allen Award in Pain Research. Hence, APS has unquestionably played a huge role in my career development. I now serve on several committees for APS and I regularly attend the annual meetings. I hope to continue to contribute to APS throughout my career. It is the least I can do considering the opportunities that APS funding has created for my career.