Selected Grants
Neural correlates and behavioral impact of withdrawal-induced hyperalgesia among people who smoke with and without chronic pain
ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2025 - 2030Neurobiological Effects of Long-Term Opioid Therapy in the Brain and Spinal Cord
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institute on Drug Abuse · 2022 - 2027Accelerated rTMS of MPFC Circuits: A Pilot Mechanistic Clinical Trial in FMS
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association · 2025 - 2026Development of Adrb3 Antagonists for the Treatment of Pain
ResearchSignificant Contributor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2023 - 2026Integrated Training in Anesthesiology Research
Inst. Training Prgm or CMEMentor · Awarded by National Institute of General Medical Sciences · 1996 - 2026Predictors of Pain Severity and Pain-Related Outcomes in Individuals with Sickle Cell Disease
ResearchConsultant · Awarded by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute · 2023 - 2025Interdisciplinary Clinical Advances and Research Excellence in TMDs (ICARE 4 TMDs) Collaborative
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by University of California - Los Angeles · 2024 - 2024Duke Pain Early-phase Research Clinical Center (PERC)
ResearchCollaborator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2019 - 2024Mechanisms of Pain in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Lupus Research Alliance · 2023 - 2024The Impact of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Spinal Cord Activity in Chronic Pain: A Pilot Crossover Study
ResearchMentor · Awarded by Mind & Life Institute · 2023 - 2023A High-Performance 3T MRI for Brain Imaging
EquipmentMinor User · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2021 - 2022The Impact of Opioids on Chronic Pain: Clinical Research and Career Training in Spinal Cord fMRI and Brain Reward Systems
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2018 - 2021Fellowships, Gifts, and Supported Research
NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) ·
August 2015
- August 2018
Principal Investigator ·
Awarded by: NIH NIDA
DESCRIPTION: Although opioids are widely prescribed for chronic pain due to fibromyalgia (FM), the effects of opioid medications on the activity of the central nervous system (CNS) and on reward behavior and clinical outcomes have not been determined for this indication. Current evidence strongly suggests that altered activity in the brain and spinal cord contributes to the chronicity of FM symptoms, and opioids are known to produce similar changes in CNS activity. Thus, the central hypothesis is that opioids exacerbate existing alterations in pain and reward processes in the CNS in individuals with FM. To test this hypothesis, the proposal includes clinical neuroimaging research projects that Dr. Katherine Martucci, will conduct. During the K99 mentored training phase (completed, 2015 - 2018), Dr. Martucci conducted a clinical research study using brain and spinal cord functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure differences between individuals with FM who take opioids and individuals with FM who do not. She determined the effect of opioids on levels of pain and spinal cord activity in FM. She determined the effect of opioids on the brain's reward systems and reward behavior in FM.
Together, these projects will provide a more complete picture of the effects of opioid medications in FM and will fill the critical knowledge gaps of inherent risks of neurobiological changes and altered behavior and psychology that occur when prescribing opioids.
NIH Loan Repayment Program in Clinical Research ·
July 2014
- June 2016
Awarded by: NIH LRP
The NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) are a set of programs established by Congress and designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers. Additional detailed information about each LRP is provided at www.lrp.nih.gov/about_the_programs/index.aspx and www.lrp.nih.gov/apply.
The NIH invites qualified health professionals who contractually agree to engage in NIH mission-relevant research for an average of at least 20 hours each week for at least two years, initially, to apply for an award in the Extramural LRPs. The Extramural LRPs repay up to $35,000 annually of a researcher's qualified educational debt in return for a commitment to engage in NIH mission-relevant research at a domestic, nonprofit, or government entity. Research funding from NIH is not required to participate in the Extramural LRPs. LRP awards are based on an applicant's potential to build and sustain a research career.
NIH Institutional Postdoctoral Anesthesia Training Program in Biomedical Research (T32) ·
2013
- 2015
Awarded by: NIH NIGMS
NIH Individual Predoctoral Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F31) ·
2010
- 2012
Awarded by: NIH NIDA
ALTERATIONS IN TEMPORAL ASPECTS OF PAIN PROCESSING AND MODULATION
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite the severity and frequency of chronic pain, current medicine lacks diagnostic tools for treatment selection to consistently and effectively alleviate pain on an individual basis. The symptoms of hyperalgesia and allodynia are helpful for clinical diagnoses, however, more subtle temporal changes in sensitivity may also represent important diagnostic endpoints. Painful aftersensations, the abnormal persistence in pain long after the end of a tactile / thermal stimulus, are frequently observed in chronic pain and may be related to altered temporal processing of nociceptive information due to disrupted pain modulation. In order to better understand how nociceptive processing is temporally altered in clinical states, a combination of psychophysical and fMRI studies will examine healthy subjects and CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome) patients to address the following specific aims: Aim 1: To identify temporal alterations in pain perception as a consequence of central sensitization. Aim 2: To identify neuropharmacological substrates supporting temporal processing of noxious stimuli. Aim 3: To identify neurophysiological correlates of temporally altered pain perception in chronic pain. Offset analgesia is a phenomenon that may represent the dynamic engagement of endogenous anti- nociceptive mechanisms during the processing of temporal dimensions of noxious stimuli. Assessment of offset analgesia and subjects/patients responses to acute painful heat stimuli with variable durations and slow fall rates will allow us to elucidate how temporal aspects of pain processing are altered in states of central sensitization (capsaicin-heat sensitization and chronic pain) and pharmacological manipulation (opioid agonist and antagonist). We will then correlate these changes in psychophysical responses to observed physiological abnormalities using functional imaging of cortical and subcortical regions with BOLD (blood oxygenation level dependent) and ASL (arterial spin labeling) fMRI designs. The proposed research in this fellowship application aims to resolve the lack in understanding of pain mechanisms and how nociceptive processing is dramatically altered in chronic pain patients. The investigation of mechanisms that support temporal processing of noxious information may contribute to and improve clinical assessment and treatment of pathological pain states.
NIH Institutional Predoctoral Neurobiology and Anatomy Sensory Training Grant (T31) ·
2007
- 2009
Awarded by: NIH NINDS
External Relationships
- NIH Office of Scientific Review
- Owner of Tesla Stock
- United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Medical Research Council (MRC)
- United States Association for the Study of Pain (USASP)
This faculty member (or a member of their immediate family) has reported outside activities with the companies, institutions, or organizations listed above. This information is available to institutional leadership and, when appropriate, management plans are in place to address potential conflicts of interest.