Nurse-Led Innovation: Lee receives national USASP-MAYDAY pain research award
The College of Nursing proudly announces that Chiyoung Lee, PhD, RN, has been honored as the 2025 USASP-MAYDAY Clinical/Translational Research Scholar, a prestigious national accolade that underscores the essential role of healthcare professionals in advancing pain relief science. The award, which includes a grant, supports her project titled Dual-Site Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Comprehensive Pain Relief in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis Experiencing Chronic Widespread Pain.
This is the first year of the USASP-MAYDAY collaboration, created to support early-career investigators proposing innovative clinical and translational pain research. Lee, a member of Dean Brian Ahn’s Brain Digital Technology research team, is helping to redefine pain care through non-pharmacological, personalized, and neurotechnological strategies led by nurse-scientists.
“This award recognizes not only Lee’s innovative work but also the transformative role nurse-scientists play in tackling complex, multidimensional health challenges like chronic pain,” said Brian Ahn, PhD, dean of the College of Nursing. "Her research exemplifies the college’s dedication to advancing integrative, technology-enabled, and human-centered methods that can improve lives, especially for older adults.”
At the core of Lee’s research is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This non-invasive brain stimulation technique delivers a gentle electric current through the scalp to influence brain activity. When applied to key regions such as the primary motor cortex (M1) and prefrontal cortex, tDCS can reduce pain sensitivity by altering how the brain perceives and processes pain. Repeated use has been shown to induce synaptic plasticity, the process by which neural connections become stronger or weaker based on experience.
“Pain isn’t just a signal from the body; it’s a complex brain-based experience,” says Lee. “We now understand that in chronic conditions like osteoarthritis, the central nervous system itself becomes sensitized, overreacting to even minor stimuli. Our goal is to interrupt that maladaptive pattern at the source, the brain.”
A growing body of neuroscience research supports the idea that chronic pain is a disorder of brain connectivity, not just the body’s tissues. Functional MRI and other imaging technologies have shown that chronic pain changes activity in regions such as the thalamus, insula, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). These same areas are targets of therapeutic tDCS. Interestingly, brain networks linked to pain are also involved in emotion, attention, and memory, explaining why chronic pain often leads to depression and cognitive changes.
In support of the USASP-MAYDAY award, Lee and her team are specifically targeting older adults with knee osteoarthritis who experience chronic, widespread pain. Chronic widespread pain is highly prevalent among individuals with knee osteoarthritis and correlates with more severe knee pain and impaired physical function. Additionally, patients with knee osteoarthritis experiencing chronic widespread pain exhibit more severe maladaptive pain-related cognitive and emotional symptoms, including pain catastrophizing, kinesiophobia, pain-related anxiety, and depressive symptoms, amplifying their pain burden. Therefore, treatment strategies for patients with knee osteoarthritis experiencing chronic widespread pain should be comprehensive. In this award, Lee and her team propose a feasibility clinical trial of tDCS targeting multiple key brain regions to achieve comprehensive pain relief in patients with knee osteoarthritis experiencing chronic widespread pain. The study will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of this innovative treatment and assess its preliminary efficacy. Additionally, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the treatment effects will be investigated using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and psychophysical pain biomarkers.
One of the tools supporting this research, fNIRS, is a portable and affordable imaging technique that enables real-time monitoring of cortical responses to pain. Unlike fMRI, which is stationary and costly, fNIRS can be used in more accessible clinical settings, making it well-suited for future deployment in community-based pain programs. A successful outcome from the USASP-MAYDAY award will inform future large-scale randomized clinical trials and pave the way for tailored pain management strategies for patients with knee osteoarthritis experiencing chronic widespread pain.
Lee’s award showcases a growing national recognition that nurse-led research is not only innovative but also vital. As the population ages and chronic pain becomes more common, the demand for non-addictive, accessible solutions is pressing. This is more than just a grant; it’s a catalyst for rethinking pain, transforming treatment, and reaffirming the significance of nurse-led science.