Pain Neuroscience Research Lab

About

The ultimate goal of the Pain Neuroscience Research Lab (PNRL) is to continue developing the most effective strategies to reduce people's pain and improve their quality of life through innovative, neuroscience-based approaches. The mission of the PNRL is to prevent, ameliorate, and manage pain through a nonpharmacological approach to the use of brain stimulation. We will accomplish this by researching, discovering, educating, and outreaching to the community.

Soterix Medical 1x1 tDCS mini-CT
Medoc TSA2 Advanced Thermosensory Stimulator
Thermo Scientific ARCTIC A25 Refrigerated Circulator
Shimadzu LIGHTNIRS Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

COI Training
HIPAA Training
CITI Training <Human Research - Biomedical Research Investigators>

University of Arizona Research Development Institute
07/2025-09/2026 | $10,000
Characterizing Knee Osteoarthritis Patients With and Without Chronic Widespread Pain: A Multidimensional Clinical and Neuroimaging Approach

United States Association for the Study of Pain (USASP) – Mayday Clinical/Translational Research Award
07/01/2025–06/30/2027 | $50,000
Dual-site transcranial direct current stimulation for comprehensive pain relief in patients with knee osteoarthritis experiencing widespread pain

Arthritis Foundation, TrialLaunch: Early-Stage Osteoarthritis Trials
07/2026–07/2027 | $100,000
RESHAPE-TKA: Recovery Through Transcranial Electrical Stimulation with Home-based Lower-body Strengthening Exercise After Total Knee Arthroplasty

Office of Research and Partnerships and the Office of Responsible AI
07/2026–12/2027 | $80,000
Multimodal Radiomics for Knee Osteoarthritis Phenotyping of Knee Osteoarthritis for Precision Neuromodulation Interventions

University of Michigan (prime: NIH/NIH HEAL Initiative), National K12 Clinical Pain Career Development Award
07/2026–06/2029 | $ 562,035
K12 NS130769. Home-based Dual-site Neuromodulation for Comprehensive Pain Care in Older Adults with Knee Osteoarthritis Experiencing Chronic Widespread Pain

Sex-specific effects of digital home-based neuromodulation combined with mindfulness-based meditation on knee osteoarthritis symptoms. Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20552076261456558
Heterogeneity of treatment effects in transcranial direct current stimulation for knee osteoarthritis pain and symptoms. Link: https://journals.lww.com/painrpts/fulltext/10.1097/pr9.0000000000001141~effects-of-pain-on-cortical-homeostatic-plasticity-in-humans
Predicting heterogeneity of treatment effects to transcranial direct current stimulation for knee osteoarthritis pain and symptoms: A machine learning approach. Link: https://www.ovid.com/jnls/clinicalpain/abstract/10.1097/ajp.0000000000001364~predicting-heterogeneity-of-treatment-effects-to?redirectionsource=fulltextview
Home-based, remotely supervised transcranial direct current stimulation improves the overall pain experience of older adults with knee osteoarthritis. Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/prm/1783171
Immediate and long-term effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on pain relief in older adults with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias: A pilot study. Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0197457225001144?via%3Dihub