AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is a key collaborator in a first-of-its-kind National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to investigate and understand the biological characteristics underlying the transition from acute to chronic pain and the subsequent dependence or addiction to opioids.
The NIH Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures program is supported by a four-year, $40 million grant and will be the most comprehensive study to date to investigate the connections of peripheral biology, brain, psychological and bio-behavioral risk factors.
"Chronic pain is an epidemic that is costing the U.S. more than any other disease, both in economic terms - with total costs on the order of $600 billion annually - and in human suffering," said Ari Kahn, the Human Translation Genomics coordinator at TACC. "We need studies to identify 'bio-signatures' in humans that can tell us who is at risk for chronic pain so we can more precisely match individuals with the treatments that will help them most."
