Pain is not always transient and is, in fact, an acute warning system which can stand out with its usefulness as a protective function, and a big challenge in the field is to understand how the switch occurs from chronic to persistent pain. How we can prevent it and how can we ultimately reverse it is the question, David Julius, biochemist, molecular physiologist, and co-recipient of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology, said.
Delivering the TNQ Distinguished Lectures in the Life Sciences - 2024 on the topic ‘How we sense pain’, on Monday dwelt on various aspects of pain, and the challenges before researchers.
Different pain syndromes
Dr. Julius said that finding different pain syndromes is another challenge. “How do chronic pain syndromes differ and what are the underlying molecular mechanisms? So we all know, for example, that lower back pain is different from gastrointestinal pain, visceral pain, or arthritis knee pain, or migraine pain, and I think until we understand how they are distinguished mechanically, we will not be able to target them specifically. So, we need to understand the molecules, the mechanism, the cellular pathways that underlie different forms of chronic pain so we can take a rational mechanistic approach to treat it,” Dr. Julius said.
Dr. Julius also took questions from the audience at the JN Tata Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science.
To a question on why pain or discomfort tend to peak during the evening or night, he replied, “Lots of things happen sort of in the evening for people. I think there is a huge effect of circadian rhythm. My guess, is there is [pain that tends to peak in evening hours]. But I don’t know how intensively that has been studied.”
Award presented
The Inspiring Science Award 2024 for the best published Life Sciences paper by a student from India in the last one year was also presented on the occasion .
All eight finalists shortlisted by the jury received an Apple laptop, a medal, and a citation. The winner, Abhinav Banerjee, Ph.D. student in the Department of Biochemistry, IISc, received the medal, a citation, and a travel fellowship to a conference of their choosing anywhere in the world.
Mr. Banerjee won the award for his paper titled ‘Single-molecule analysis of DNA base-stacking energetics using patterned DNA nanostructures’.
