Excerpt:

Chronic pain is a serious medical problem, afflicting approximately 20% of adults. Some individuals are more susceptible than others, and the degree of pain experienced after injury or surgery is known to be highly variable between patients, even under nearly identical circumstances.

The basis for this has remained largely unknown, prompting researchers to search for the contribution of genetics to chronic pain susceptibility. To accelerate research in this field, animal models are proving to be critical to understanding the underlying biology of chronic pain in human patients.

First, the international research team – led by Profs. Ariel Darvasi and Marshall Devor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and including scientists in Canada and Europe – identified a region of mouse chromosome 15 that likely contained a genetic variant or variants contributing to pain.