Speakers

Dr. Frank Porreca is Professor of Pharmacology and Anesthesiology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. He also holds an appointment as a Senior Consultant in the Department of Collaborative Research at Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona.

He trained in Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University in Pharmacology at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Dr. Porreca’s research focuses on understanding circuits and mechanisms promoting chronic pain and addiction. He has explored the impact of pain on motivation and reward as a basis for enhancing translation. Several themes have been emphasized including (a) the role of descending modulatory circuits in chronic pain states; (b) the mechanisms by which opioids and stress engage these circuits and (c) the discovery of molecules that can modulate these circuits through novel mechanisms. His recent work has focused on sexually dimorphic mechanisms of pain.

Dr. Porreca has been honored by the International Association for the Study of Pain with the Ronald Melzack Award, by the British Pain Society with the Patrick Wall Award and by the American Pain Society with the Frederick W. Kerr Award for Basic Research in Pain.  

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