Congratulations to Dr. Angela Starkweather, Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and Director of the P20 Center for Accelerating Precision Pain Self-Management who has received a subaward of $68,149 from the University of Maryland at Baltimore (UMB) for a newly funded NINR study Physiological, psychological, and genomic factors that predict the transition from acute to chronic pain in patients with traumatic lower extremity fracture.  Dr. Starkweather will work with Drs. Renn and Dorsey of UMB and Dr. Griffioen of University of Delaware to examine physiological, psychological, clinical, and sociodemographic factors predictive of chronic pain phenotype following lower extremity fracture.  In addition, they will test the hypothesis that differences in gene expression will be associated with the chronic pain phenotype following lower extremity fracture.  Their analyses will examine how changes in gene expression differ between extreme phenotypes at baseline and 52 weeks, and construct a database of altered gene expression profiles as well as novel therapeutic targets and pathways for better pain management.

Congratulations to Rebecca Acabchuk, PhD and Sharon Casavant MSN, RN who have received the first set of CAMP-PRIM funds for their pilot research studies. Dr. Acabchuk has received a $1500 award for her project “Informing Mindfulness Studies for Pain and Addiction Recovery: Investigating the Inflammatory Pathway”. She will be working with her advisor Dr. Blair Johnson (Psychology) to examine salivary C-Reactive Protein levels pre- and post-mindfulness intervention among a sample of college students. Sharon Casavant has received $1000 grant for her study “Predicting Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of Preterm Infants Using Multi-Omic Measures (PRENOP): A Pilot Study of Gene Expression”. She will be working with her advisor Dr. Xiaomei Cong (Nursing) to examine  changes in gene expression at 2 time points and investigate associations between gene expression and neurodevelopmental outcomes as a result of painful procedures in preterm infants.