Grant Investigators: Chris Somerville and Heather Youngs
This page was reviewed but not written by the grant investigators. University of California, San Francisco staff also reviewed this page prior to publication.
The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $1,021,318 over three years to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to support basic research on understanding the brain mechanisms that process pain messages and that contribute to the transition from acute to chronic pain after injury. The work will be led by Allan Basbaum, PhD, Professor and Chair of UCSF’s Department of Anatomy. This grant will allow UCSF to pursue an answer to the question of how the brain interprets various types of pain signals (e.g., heat, cold, mechanical) and itch, how these signals are regulated by different anesthetics and how they are altered when there is injury. Resolving these questions could facilitate the design of novel drugs that can block pain without also blocking consciousness.
This grant falls within our interest in funding scientific research, and specifically within our interest in advancing transformative basic science.