EUROPAIN · Understanding chronic pain and improving its treatment

We will establish an international team of leading researchers and clinicians (EuroPain) to undertake multidisciplinary translational research which will: 1) increase the understanding of chronic pain mechanisms; 2)facilitate the development of novel analgesic drugs; and 3) improve the treatment of chronic pain patients.Nineteen researchers drawn from the London Pain Consortium, the Danish Pain Research Centre, the German Pain Network and a Spanish research-intensive SME centre will form a ‘meta’ consortium with complementary expertise. The LPC is mainly laboratory based with a spectrum of skills from molecular biology and bioinformatics through integrated research in animal models to human physiological research, including imaging.The German and Danish groups have large databases on neuropathic and postsurgical pain, respectively, while the Spanish centre offers expertise in human microneurography. We will undertake a series of six interlinked and mutually supportive programs of experimental research, underpinned and supported by a coordinated training and bioinformatics facility. These programs will form a series of workpackages each delivered through collaboration of network laboratories to bring together multiple techniques and considerable expertise to each area. In addition, there will be considerable synergies between the programs. The programs, which fully address the Call, will focus on: Neurobiological mechanisms of chronic pain; Improving animal models of pain; Translational pain models in humans; Mechanisms and assessment of pain in patients; Risk factors for chronic pain.