A new initiative at HMS will explore how nerve and immune cells communicate across the body to sustain chronic pain in conditions including migraine. Image: YakobchukOlena/Getty Images
Chronic pain affects tens of millions of people in the United States, yet current treatments often provide limited relief or carry serious side effects. A $2 million grant from The Warren Alpert Foundation is seeding a new effort at Harvard Medical School to change that by exploring how the nervous and immune systems work together to generate—and potentially quiet—pain.
The award will support The Neuroimmunology of Pain, a project led by Isaac Chiu, AB ’02, PhD ’09, a professor of immunology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS. The initiative will unite 11 laboratories spanning the HMS departments of immunology, neurobiology, and cell biology and HMS‑affiliated hospitals to study pain across organs and disease contexts.
“While acute pain is critical—helping the body sense danger and protect injured tissues—chronic pain can be profoundly debilitating both physically and psychologically,” says Chiu. “Our goal is to define the molecular and cellular logic by which immune cells, neuronal subtypes, and tissue context interact to amplify or dampen pain.”
Researchers increasingly recognize that immune cells not only respond to injury or infection but also release cytokines and other signals that can increase or reduce the activity of pain‑sensing neurons. Those neurons, in turn, can shape immune responses in tissues ranging from the gut and uterus to the meninges surrounding the brain. Yet the details of this neuroimmune interaction remain poorly understood, especially in chronic and hard‑to‑treat pain.
This program exemplifies the bold, interdisciplinary science we are eager to champion.
August “Gus” Schiesser
Isaac Chiu explains why studying neural-immune interactions is crucial for human health