PRESENTER LIST in ORDER
Pain, Fatigue, Depression and Cognitive Impairment Session
Saturday, April 16, 2106
2PM – 4PM (15 minute presentations each)
Outline of Presentations:
2:00 – Smith
2:15 – Darbari
2:30 – Discussion
2:40 – Stucky
2:55 – Gupta
3:10 – Discussion
3:20 – Cai
3:35 – Armstrong
3:50 - Discussion
Speaker Information follows – one page per speakerand includes their title, email, presentation title and bio.
2:00-215 PM -Speaker #1 and Co-Chair
William Smith, M.D.
Florence Neal Cooper Smith Professor of Sickle Cell Disease
Vice Chair for Research
Division of General Internal Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University
Email:
Presentation Title: Sickle Cell Pain: A Conceptual Model
Wally R. Smith, M.D., Florence Neal Cooper Smith Professor of Sickle Cell Disease at Virginia Commonwealth University, is the Principal Investigator (PI) of Start Healing in Patients with Hydroxyurea (SHiP HU). He has authored over 100 publications and been PI of over 50 funded grants, including the Pain in Sickle Cell Epidemiology Study (PiSCES), the largest and most detailed adult cohort study of sickle cell pain, which redefined our understanding of SCD pain in adults, and led to an NIH Request for Proposals on the Neurobiology of Pain in Sickle Cell Disease. He was an inaugural member of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, a Federal effort which has produced a National Pain Strategy, and is one of the investigators writing AAPT, a proposed standardized taxonomy for all pain conditions.
2:15-2:30 PM - Speaker #2
DeepikaDarbari, M.D.
Attending Physician, Division of Hematology
Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
Children's National Medical Center
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Washington, D.C.
Email:
Presentation Title: Central mechanisms of pain in individuals with sickle cell disease
Dr. Darbari is a board certified Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist at the Children’s National Medical Center and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University in Washington DC. Sickle cell team at Children’s National provides comprehensive care to one of the largest populations of children and adolescents with sickle cell disease in the United States. Dr. Darbari studies complications of sickle cell disease with emphasis on pain. She has been conducting clinical and translational studies directed to better understanding of sickle cell pain and its management. She has published many peer reviewed papers on the subject. Her work was first in the field showing presence of altered brain connectivity in patients with frequent hospitalization for pain. Dr. Darbari will present her findings suggesting roles of central mechanisms in sickle cell pain.
2:40-2:55 PM - Speaker #3 and Co-Chair
Cheryl Stucky Ph.D.
Professor of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy
Director of the Neuroscience Doctoral Program
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Email:
Presentation Title: Mechanisms that Drive Severe Pain in Sickle Cell Disease
Chronic pain affects approximately 100 million adults in the United States. Many of these patients are sub-optimally treated as a result of limited understanding of the mechanistic causes of the chronic pain. The Stucky lab has made key contributions to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying acute and chronic pain. Our current research is focused on translational models of chronic pain including inflammation, nerve injury and diseases associated with devastating pain, including sickle cell disease. We have discovered novel neuronal mechanisms that underlie the pain in sickle cell disease by performing studies in mouse models of sickle cell disease in tandem with pain studies in patients with severe acute and chronic sickle cell-evoked pain. In addition to focusing on sensory neurons, long known to mediate touch and pain, our work highlights a key role for epidermal keratinocytes in sensory neuron signaling under both acute and chronic pain conditions of the skin.
2:55-3:10 PM - Speaker #4
Kalpna Gupta, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Vascular Biology Center, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department
of Medicine
Co-leader, Tumor Microenvironment Program, Masonic Cancer Center
Co-leader, Molecular and Cellular Engineering Program, Institute for Engineering in Medicine
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Email:
Presentation Title: Mechanism-based Treatable Targets for Sickle Pain
The Gupta laboratory studies pain in sickle cell disease (SCD) – a major issue affecting patients’ daily lives and happiness. We seek to develop therapies by understanding mechanisms of pain in SCD from the molecular level onwards. These insights help us treat both pain and the underlying disease process causing pain in the first place. Our laboratory has identified several new targets at the intersection of the sickle disease process and pain, including cannabinoid receptors, mast cells, and the nociceptin receptor. We are also testing integrative approaches including diet modification, acupuncture and perception modulation to relieve pain. Ultimately, we hope to harness mechanistic insights to treat the root causes of pain in SCD. Dr Gupta’s research on sickle pain is funded by NHLBI and she is also a recipient of the Excellence in Hemaoglobinopathies Research Award from NHLBI to examine the potential of cannabinoids to treat pain and develop methods to quantify pain objectively.
3:20-3:35 PM - Speaker #5
DongshengCai, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Pharmacology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
Email:
Title of Presentation: Hypothalamic Inflammation and Disease Relevance
Dr. DongshengCaiobtainedhis M.D. from Nanjing Medical University in 1993 and Ph.D. from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2000, and then did his postdoctoral research in Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School from 2000 to 2005. He was appointed as Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, and Associate Professor in 2008 and Professor in 2012 both at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr.Cai’s lab has been studying the hypothalamicmechanisms of developing systemic health problems, including metabolic, cardiovascular and aging-related diseases. Dr. Cai’s research is currently funded by NIDDK, NIA, NHLBI, HIEHS, and the Hirschl foundation.
3:35-3:50 PM - SPEAKER #6
Daniel Armstrong, Ph.D.
Professor & Executive Vice Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Director, Mailman Center for Child Development
Co-Director, University of Miami Sickle Cell Center
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (Interim)
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami Florida
Email:
Title of Presentation: Cognitive Impairment in Sickle Cell Disease – An Emerging Understanding in a Changing Treatment Environment
Dr. Armstrong is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, with multiple leadership roles related to child health at the University of Miami and the Holtz Children's Hospital and Women's Hospital Center at the UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, including Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Pediatrics, Director of the Mailman Center for Child Development (UCEDD), Co-director of the University of Miami Sickle Cell Center, and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs for the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Armstrong is also Associate Chief of Staff for the Holtz Children's Hospital.Dr. Armstrong's research focus is on neurodevelopmental mechanisms and outcomes of children with chronic diseases (sickle cell disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS). He has served as part of the scientific leadership of a number of National Institute of Health (NIH) multi-center clinical research trials for the NCI and NHLBI.He was chair of the NHLBI's Congressionally-mandated Sickle Cell Disease Advisory Committee. He has been a consultant to the Institute of Medicine at the National Academies of Sciences, the Director of the NIH, the Food and Drug Administration, the HRSA/Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and White House. Dr. Armstrong is actively involved in state and local issues and organizations related to developmental disability and chronic illness. He serves on the Board of Directors for both the Florida Division of the American Cancer Society (President & Chair) and the national American Cancer Society, Inc., as Chair of the Florida Biomedical Research Advisory Council, on the Executive Committee for the Florida Association of Children Hospitals,and on a number of foundation boards and medical advisory panels.