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The transition to translational research was sparked through our weekly laboratory meetings. What was then the Neurobiology and Anesthesiology Branch contained both basic and clinical research groups, and the clinical group sometimes presented patients with chronic pain problems. This was my first exposure to patients with chronic neuropathic pain disorders, and it was a real eye-opener. Chronic neuropathic pain is notoriously difficult to control with currently available drugs and procedures, and the subjects we were seeing exemplified this clinical state of the art. Often, what had begun as relatively minor nerve damage after a traumatic injury progressed to a severe chronic pain disorder. Patients experienced high levels of spontaneous pain and mechanical allodynia (pain from a normally nonpainful stimulus). Just brushing the skin in the neuropathic zone was enough to cause them excruciating pain. This exposure stimulated us to begin exploring new treatments for pain, in addition to studying the molecular neurobiology of pain.
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