Dr. Clifford J. Woolf will speak on "Pain-Specific Blockade -- Targeting Analgesics Only to Where it Hurts," on Monday, March 3 at 2:00 p.m. in the Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10, on the NIH campus. His talk will focus on a novel strategy, recently developed by his laboratory that allows highly selective blockage of electrical signaling in pain-sensing neurons without affecting signaling by other types of neurons. Unlike conventional anesthesia, this new strategy allows a pain-specific anesthesia or analgesia without producing paralysis or general numbness. Dr. Woolf and his colleagues describe their findings in the October 4, 2007 issue of Nature.

Dr. Woolf holds the Richard Kitz Chair of Anesthesia Research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He has made numerous contributions to the field of pain research, particularly in the understanding of pain mechanisms and in therapeutic approaches to pain.

If you wish to meet with Dr. Woolf during his visit to NIH, contact Dr. John Kusiak at kusiakj@mail.nih.gov.

This lecture is the first in NIDCR's new seminar series titled "From Basic Research to Therapy -- The Latest Frontier." The series is designed to highlight advances in basic and applied research that are most likely to benefit medical practice in the future. Series talks will focus on research topics of broad interest to the NIH community and will take place about once a month.

Date Last Modified: 02/07/2008