{"id":97,"date":"2020-10-28T12:43:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T12:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/mmpu\/?page_id=97"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:35:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:35:37","slug":"chronic-pain-and-homeostasis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/mmpu\/research-groups\/chronic-pain-and-homeostasis\/","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Pain and Homeostasis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Group leaders: Robert Prevedel, Rohini Kuner and Jan Siemens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our research interest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Homeostatic dysregulation is a cornerstone for diverse neural disorders, particularly for chronic pain, which is a major health problem worldwide. Our unit addresses key biological challenges in chronic pain and homeostasis, such as understanding metabolic mechanisms of chronic pain and homeostasis, and elucidating cellular circuits in the brain that are involved in these adaptive and maladaptive processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our collaborative activities bridge the expertise in neurobiology (Siemens, Kuner) and cutting-edge molecular imaging techniques (Prevedel).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Homeostatic mechanisms are key to fundamental body functions. The brain is not only a mastermind of homeostatic control, but also critically subject to homeostatic regulation. How key homeostatic functions, such as thermoregulation and basic metabolic pathways, are governed by the nervous system remains unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chronic pain remains a major health problem worldwide, which severely impacts on quality of life. Several forms of chronic pain involve structural and\/or functional plasticity or maladaptation processes, which are related, at least in part, to homeostatic dysregulation. Understanding the molecular and circuit basis of maladaptive plasticity leading to chronic pain is critical for designing new therapeutic approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Within our unit, we aim to combine our expertise on the analysis of experimental models (Siemens, Kuner) and molecular and cellular imaging technologies (Prevedel) to address a number of key questions in chronic pain and homeostasis, while simultaneously further driving innovation and developments of advanced imaging techniques. We plan to study primarily transgenic mouse models, and wherever applicable to employ humanised systems, such as stem cell-derived peripheral and central human neurons or patient material. Cutting-edge technologies represented by the EMBL partners with respect to metabolomics and deep in vivo<\/em> imaging of cellular circuits will enable us to derive biological insights on chronic pain and homeostatic dysregulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, our current and future work will focus on two themes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n