Friday, January 31st, 2020
UTEB 150 at Storrs & Videoconferenced to UCHC CG-079B
12:00-1:00 pm
“Visceral Pain: the Physiology and Management”
Presented By: Bin Feng, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, Storrs Campus
Abstract: Chronic visceral pain is the cardinal symptom of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) affecting up to 15% of the U.S. population. Efficacious and reliable therapeutic intervention is still unavailable despite the tremendous economic burden imposed by visceral pain. Pharmacological treatments of IBS-related visceral pain are largely unsatisfactory with side effects outweighing therapeutic benefits. Engineering approaches are promising at providing non-drug alternatives for managing chronic visceral pain. Pre-clinical and clinical evidence has confirmed that heightened peripheral drive from colorectal afferents (i.e., afferent sensitization) is necessary and sufficient for IBS-related pain and hypersensitivity. In this presentation, I will first summarize the unique psychophysical and neurophysiological characteristics that make visceral pain unique from other types of pain. Then, I will emphasize on the noxious nature of mechanical stimuli to reliably evoke pain from the viscera, and the significant role of colorectal tissue biomechanics in afferent mechanotransduction and mechano-nociception. Further, I will introduce our ongoing research approaches of implementing neuromodulation to attenuate or inhibit peripheral afferent drives, which can potentially guide the design of next-generation neuromodulatory devices to better manage visceral pain.
Biography: Dr Feng received a B.S. from Tsinghua University in Precision Instruments, an M.S. from the University of Oklahoma in Mechanical Engineering, and a PhD from Purdue University in Biomedical Engineering. He completed his postdoctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh in Visceral Pain and Neuroscience. Dr Feng’s Neuroengineering & Pain Research Laboratory focuses on the sensory encoding and processing of the peripheral nervous system. Particular interests are given on 1) how the sensory afferent neurons detect and transmit pain-related sensory information, 2) the peripheral mechanisms that underlie the sensory aberrations in chronic pain and 3) translating scientific discoveries into next-generation neuromodulatory strategies and devices that target peripheral nerves/neurons as non-drug alternatives for managing chronic pain.
For more information, contact: Wendy Vanden Berg-Foels at wendyv@engr.uconn.edu