Valeria Vásquez, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Physiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has received a g$120,000 grant from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation to study the causes of chronic pain.

She will be working in collaboration with Avi Priel, PhD, member of the faculty of medicine in the School of Pharmacy - Institute for Drug Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Chronic or persistent pain is a major burden on individuals, healthcare systems and social services, and carries high indirect costs. It is a debilitating condition that decreases the quality of life of affected individuals, and is the single most common reason for seeking medical help.

The detection of pain occurs when proteins are triggered by neurons. Vásquez and her research team are most interested in the role of the transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 channel (TRPV1), as it relates to chronic pain. Also known as the chili pepper or heat receptor, TRPV1 causes a painful, burning sensation in humans upon activation, a symptom commonly associated with chronic pain.