Innovations and Advances in Modelling and Measuring Pain in Animals and Comparisons to Humans

The translation of analgesic drug candidates to the clinic relies upon successful preclinical pain modelling. Dr. Stucky will discuss best practices for modeling persistent and chronic pain through choosing the most “face valid” animal models and pain behavior assays. Four fundamental decisions apply to every pain behaviour experiment: choice of subject (model organism), choice of assay (pain-inducing injury), laboratory environment and choice of outcome measures. She will discuss pros and cons of each of these four factors in making these choices. In addition, she will discuss how the use of human tissues (e.g. dorsal root ganglia, skin and plasma) which are increasingly accessible, can be used to validate the translatability of targets and mechanisms identified in animal pain models. The translation of analgesic drug candidates to the clinic relies upon successful preclinical pain modelling. Dr. Stucky will describe recent trends in the methods used to model pain in laboratory animals and provide recommendations for experimental designs that may increase translational success.