NLM DIR Seminar Schedule

Abstract:

Chronic pain is often associated with elevated inflammatory markers, leading to the widespread view that inflammation drives pain persistence. However, findings from large-scale human transcriptomic studies challenge this paradigm. In this lecture, Dr. Luda Diatchenko will present evidence that the dynamics of the inflammatory response, rather than its mere presence, play a critical role in determining pain outcomes.
Using unbiased transcriptomic profiling and integrative bioinformatic analyses of longitudinal human cohorts, her team identified immune-response signatures associated with pain resolution. These studies suggest that a robust acute inflammatory response may be required to activate endogenous resolution pathways, whereas chronic pain may result from a failure to properly initiate or complete these processes.
Dr. Diatchenko will discuss how human transcriptomics can serve as a powerful hypothesis-generating approach, revealing unexpected biological mechanisms and guiding mechanistic investigations in experimental models. The findings highlight novel therapeutic opportunities aimed at promoting pain resolution rather than simply suppressing pain and illustrate the growing role of human omics data in advancing pain research. More broadly, this work demonstrates how unbiased analyses of dynamic human transcriptomic data can uncover disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets that may be relevant not only to chronic pain but also to other prevalent chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and related inflammatory disorders.