European Pain School®

at the University of Siena

European Pain School®

at the University of Siena

European Pain School®

at the University of Siena

EPS 2026 • Pain in Translation: From Cellular and Animal Models to Humans

Siena, Italy • 13-19 June 2026

Pain in Translation:
From Cellular and Animal Models to Humans

Siena, Italy • 13-19 June 2026

Pain in Translation:
From Cellular and Animal Models to Humans

Siena, Italy • 13-19 June 2026

Programme

Ln Faculty Lectures (L1-L16)
Sn Scholars’ Oral Presentations (S1-S33)
Wn Interactive Workshops, Seminars and Special Presentations (W1-W2)

  • Saturday, 13 June
    Arrival of Scholars and Faculty at the Certosa di Pontignano and accommodations
    15:00-16:30 Guided tour of Certosa by Giancarlo Carli
    16:30-17:00 Coffee break
    17:00-17:30 Welcome & Opening by Anna Maria Aloisi
    17:30-19:00 Opening lecture L1. Andrew S.C. Rice (London, United Kingdom - IASP President)
    IASP update
    Improving trustworthiness in pain research
    20:00 Dinner

  • Sunday, 14 June
    7:30 Physical exercise in the large Cloister
    8:00 Breakfast
    9:00-10:00 L2. Martin Schmelz (Mannheim, Germany)
    Nociceptor classes in translation: conserved expression, but different function
    10:00-10:15 S1. Gabriela Basile Carballo (Linköping, Sweden)
    Hierarchical organization of mechano-nociceptive pathways revealed by activity labeling
    10:15-10:30 S2. Ana Benilde Carneiro Ribeiro (London, UK)
    Microneurography reveals unmyelinated small nerve fiber dysfunction in long COVID
    10:30-11:00 Coffee break
    11:00-11:15 S3. Sofia Passaponti (Siena, Italy)
    Extracellular vesicles in human pain modulation: from molecular cargo to sensory neuron function
    11:15-11:30 S4. Humay Ismayilzade (Altındağ, Turkey)
    Evaluation of the effects of the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide on bupivacaine-induced sciatic nerve blockade in a rat model
    11:30-12:30 L3. Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer (Zurich, Switzerland)
    Neurons and circuits of descending pain control
    13:00-15:00 Lunch
    15:00-16:00 L4. Éric Troncy (Montréal, Canada)
    Is pain in veterinary diseases transposable to the human condition? Focus on osteoarthritis in companion animals
    16:00-16:15 S5. Helene Dragelund Garcia (Frederiksberg, Denmark)
    Can we trust our pain assessments? Investigating the Rat Grimace Scale's performance and problematic images in preclinical pain research
    16:15-16:30 S6. Thamires Bragança Paduam Gonçalves (São Paulo, Brazil)
    Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) increase Chikungunya virus titers in human sensory neuron-like cells
    16:30-17:00 Coffee break
    17:00-17:15 S7. Adelina Paduraru (Bucharest, Romania)
    Modulatory effect of tumor suppressor candidate 5 on transient potential receptor channels
    17:15-17:30 S8. Ines Gerard-Ursin (Vienna, Austria)
    Network-based discovery of molecular mechanisms and genetic signatures of pain
    17:30-18:30 L5. Michael J.M. Fischer (Vienna, Austria)
    Experimental human pain 101
    20:00 Dinner
    After dinner W1. Formation of YES and NO groups and organization of scholarly Debates

  • Monday, 15 June
    7:30 Physical exercise in the large Cloister
    8:00 Breakfast
    9:00-10:00 L6. Martin Schmelz (Mannheim, Germany)
    Concepts of chronic pain between terminology and phrenology
    10:00-10:15 S9. Katarina Sicovic (Belgrade, Serbia)
    Semaglutide mitigates pain hypersensitivity and cognitive dysfunction in a murine model of chronic migraine: possible role of opioidergic signaling pathways
    10:15-10:30 S10. Julia Schedlbauer (Erlangen, Germany)
    Comparative analysis of reactive dicarbonyl-induced human TRPA1 activation: calcium and ROS responses in HEK293 cells and mouse DRG neurons
    10:30-11:00 Coffee break
    11:00-11:15 S11. Daniel Allen-Ross (Reading, United Kingdom)
    Neuronal tracking of psilocybin driven neuroplastic analgesia and synergy with gabapentin in neuropathic pain
    11:15-11:30 S12. Yingyu Tang (Copenhagen, Denmark)
    Blocking nerve growth factor attenuates nociceptive behaviors in a mouse model of fibrous dysplasia
    11:30-12:30 L7. Andrew S.C. Rice (London, United Kingdom)
    Medical cannabis for pain? What is the evidence for benefit and harm
    13:00-15:00 Lunch
    15:00-16:00 L8. Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer (Zurich, Switzerland)
    Control of spinal nociception by GABA-A and glycine receptors
    16:00-16:15 S13. Denisa Dresslerová (Prague, Czech Republic)
    The chemokine CXCL16 modulates nociception by reducing GABAergic inhibition via a glia-dependent pathway
    16:15-16:30 S14. Isabel Bleimeister (Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
    Reevaluating the role of descending inhibition in acute nociception
    16:30-17:00 Coffee break
    17:00-17:15 S15. Felix Resch (Vienna, Austria)
    RAGE mediates LPS-induced inflammatory pain in human skin
    17:15-17:30 S16. Benedetta Riboldi (Milan, Italy)
    Targeting trigeminal pain from preclinical models to humans: purple corn effect in an animal model of multiple sclerosis and topographic differences in pain perception in healthy volunteers
    17:30-18:30 L9. Michael J.M. Fischer (Vienna, Austria)
    Human pain - back to square two
    20:00 Dinner

  • Tuesday, 16 June
    7:30 Physical exercise in the large Cloister
    8:00 Breakfast
    9:00-10:00 L10. Giandomenico Iannetti (Rome, Italy)
    The contribution of the non-specific extralemniscal system to the sensory-evoked brain responses
    10:00-10:15 S17. Gabrielle Herbillon (Brussels, Belgium)
    Modulating early neuronal with hypnosis: can hypnotic hypoesthesia modulate early somatosensory evoked potentials?
    10:15-10:30 S18. Paula Lehtinen (Turku, Finland)
    Functional MRI following sensory stimulation in rat monosodium iodoacetate model of osteoarthritis pain as a tool for drug therapy discovery
    10:30-11:00 Coffee break
    11:00-11:15 S19. Sven Arvidsson Hernández (Stockholm, Sweden)
    Tissue to analysis framework enables multiscale mapping of the architectural and cellular organization in the human dorsal root ganglion
    11:15-11:30 S20. Hannah Cho (Montréal, Canada)
    Fibromyalgia fecal microbiota transplant into germ-free mice stimulates the generation of pain-inducing IgG
    11:30-12:30 L11. Camilla Svensson (Stockholm, Sweden)
    From mouse models to human reality: DRG architecture beyond the transcriptome
    13:00-15:00 Lunch
    15:00 Excursion to Montalcino Castello Banfi and Bagno Vignoni

  • Wednesday, 17 June
    7:30 Physical exercise in the large Cloister
    8:00 Breakfast
    9:00-10:00 L12. Giandomenico Iannetti (Rome, Italy)
    How nociceptive reflexes (e.g. the eye blink) can help us to understand how the brain measures action value
    10:00-10:15 S21. Femke de Krom (Utrecht, The Netherlands)
    T cells promote the resolution of inflammatory pain in mice through LAIR-1
    10:15-10:30 S22. Maxime Kusik (Quebec City, Canada)
    Defining the cellular source of nerve growth factor in peripheral nerve injury reveals infiltrating monocyte-derived macrophages as key regulators of pain
    10:30-11:00 Coffee break
    11:00-11:15 S23. Andrea Lovincic Babic (Solna, Sweden)
    Development of novel human in vitro models for chronic pain drug discovery
    11:15-11:30 S24. Khosiyat Makhmudova (Stockholm, Sweden)
    Can glia-targeting autoantibodies differentiate axial spondyloarthritis patients from control subjects and are they linked to comorbid fibromyalgia?
    11:30-12:30 L13. Camilla Svensson (Stockholm, Sweden)
    The neuroimmune periphery in fibromyalgia: evidence from transfer models and patient tissue
    13:00-15:00 Lunch
    15:00-16:00 L14. Heike Rittner (Würzburg, Germany)
    Complex regional pain syndrome: a disease to study pain resolution
    16:00-16:15 S25. Beate Hartmannsberger (Würzburg, Germany)
    Spatial transcriptomics discovers specialized CD147+ fibroblasts as regulators of pain resolution after nerve injury
    16:15-16:30 S26. Larissa Gonzaga Santos Kiataki (São Paulo, Brazil)
    Evaluation of a venom-derived peptide and antibody–peptide fusion as analgesic strategies for neuropathic pain
    16:30-17:00 Coffee break
    17:00-17:15 S27. Mariana Schiess-Azuma (São Paulo, Brazil)
    Disruption of mitochondrial dynamics underlies paclitaxel-induced neurotoxicity in sensory like-neuron cells
    17:15-17:30 S28. Emile Abou Chaar (Quebec City, Canada)
    Rethinking the management of global suffering in palliative oncology care: toward an integrative pharmaceutical–spiritual approach (PHARMA‑S‑SPIR)
    17:30-18:30 L15. Carlo V. Bellieni (Siena, Italy)
    Fetal and neonatal pain during therapeutic surgery: treatment and measurement of pain
    20:00 Dinner
    After dinner W2. Federico Montechiaro (Ugo Basile Srl, Gemonio, Italy)
    Behavioral pain measurement

  • Thursday, 18 June
    7:30 Physical exercise in the large Cloister
    8:00 Breakfast
    9:00-10:00 L16. Heike Rittner (Würzburg, Germany)
    Human skin biopsies, sural nerves and dorsal root ganglia to study neuropathic pain
    10:00-10:15 S29. Ida Kanneworff (Copenhagen, Denmark)
    The PICK1 A87L knock-in mouse as a tool for investigating PDZ-interactions of PICK1 and its implications in neuropathic pain
    10:15-10:30 S30. Bernardo Miguel (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
    Mechanistic insights into the anti-inflammatory actions of IMT504
    10:30-10:45 S31. Clara Lazzarelli (Monterotondo, RM, Italy)
    Circadian and sex-dependent modulation of spontaneous neuropathic pain in mice: a deep learning-based behavioral approach
    10:45-11:15 Coffee break
    11:15-11:30 S32. Mariana Leonor (São Paulo, Brazil)
    Evaluation of the antinociceptive effects of apitoxin and melittin administered via pharmacoacupuncture at ST36 in female rats
    11:30-11:45 S33. Neeharika Senthilkumar (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
    Developing an in vitro co-culture model for investigating neuroimmune mechanisms in arthritic-chronic pain
    11:45-12:45 Scholarly Debates
    It’s more promising to develop peripherally than centrally acting antinociceptive drugs (YES or NO?)
    12:45 Closing remarks
    13:00-15:00 Lunch
    15:00 Siena Tour
    20:00 Farewell dinner

  • Friday, 19 June
    Departures