Research News

Paramita Basu, PhD, MS, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, and Michael S. Gold, PhD, Department of Neurobiology, have been selected for notable honors in recognition of their leadership and contributions to the field of pain research.

Our department earned the #4 spot among all NIH-funded anesthesiology departments in the nation, up from #6 in 2024.

The grant, titled "A Parabrachial Hub for the Prioritization of Pain and Other Survival Behaviors," will support Dr. Taylor's continued investigation into how the brain naturally modulates pain in response to competing survival needs.

Our department has awarded research seed grants to T32 postdoctoral scholars Sarah Margerison, PhD, and Jim Wherry, PhD, who are both pursuing innovative approaches to understanding and treating pain conditions.

Siamak Salavatian, MEng, PhD, has been named a winner of a Phase 1 award in the University of Pittsburgh Un-Challenge (PUnCh) competition.

Siamak Salavatian, MEng, PhD, will present two sessions on cardiac neuromodulation at the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) annual meeting, January 23-25, 2026, in Las Vegas.

The lab was a key contributor to a multi-institutional study that sheds light on how the brain prioritizes critical survival behaviors over pain and was recently published in Nature, one of the world's most-read academic journals.

Dr. Leimer’s project will investigate how specific brainstem circuits may contribute to the development and persistence of chronic low back pain, a condition affecting over 600 million people globally and the leading cause of years lived with disability.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette spotlighted work led by Jacques E. Chelly, MD, PhD, MBA, showing that preoperative aromatherapy significantly reduced anxiety and halved opioid use in hip replacement patients, highlighting scent as a promising tool in multimodal pain and anxiety management.

Dr. Vogt and Derrick received the first place and second place abstract awards, respectively, at the International Society for Anaesthetic Pharmacology (ISAP) 34th Annual Meeting on Friday, October 10, 2025, in San Antonio.