Clifford J. Woolf

Woolf has made many key discoveries in the physiology of pain and itch. He discovered the phenomenon of central sensitization of pain, whereby nerve injury enhances excitability of spinal cord neurons through an NMDA-receptor-dependent mechanism, leading to allodynia and hyperalgesia, and described the intracellular signaling pathways involved. Another major contribution is identification of cytokines, neuropeptides, and receptors underlying critical neuro-immune interactions in inflammatory pain. His research is highly interdisciplinary, with important discoveries from the level of ion channels to behavioral studies, including introducing a widely used spared nerve injury model for neuropathic pain and developing new therapeutic approaches.