CERVO Brain Research Centre, Universite Laval
Canada
Yves is Professor of Psychiatry & Neuroscience at Université Laval and Scientific Director of the CERVO Brain Research Centre. His research focuses on altered synaptic function in pathological syndromes, including chronic pain, drug dependence, and cognitive decline.
Oxford University
UK
Annina Schmid is Professor of Pain Neurosciences and a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford University in the UK. She leads the Neuromusculoskeletal Health and Science Lab (https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/research/neuromusculoskeletal-health-and-science-lab) which uses a translational and interdisciplinary approach to study the pathophysiology of neuromusculoskeletal conditions with the ultimate goal to improve management for patients.
Annina and her team specialise in deep clinical phenotyping combining clinical methodologies (e.g. psychophysical testing, neurophysiological recordings, sensory profiling) with advanced neuroimaging (e.g. diffusion tensor imaging, MR neurography) and cellular and molecular analyses of human bio-samples to gain a detailed understanding of changes associated with nerve injuries and neuropathic pain. Annina also has a special interest in the physiotherapeutic management of neuropathic pain, entrapment neuropathies and other neuromusculoskeletal conditions with the ambition to develop precision therapy for these patients.
Annina has published her work in leading clinical and basic science journals. Her research contribution is recognised by the award of several prizes, most recently the prestigious Emerging Leaders Prize in Pain Research from the Medical Research Foundation. She has won seven highly competitive fellowships and has been the first allied health professional to be awarded the Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust.
In addition to her research activities, Annina teaches postgraduate courses related to pain and neuroscience internationally. She also maintains a weekly caseload as a specialist musculoskeletal Physiotherapist. Further information can be found at https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/annina-schmid.
Griffith University
QLD
Dr Samantha Bunzli is a senior research fellow in Physiotherapy who holds a conjoint position between the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith University and the Physiotherapy Department at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
In her program of musculoskeletal pain research, Dr Bunzli engages stakeholder (patient, clinician, community) voices through qualitative methods. Her research investigating the beliefs, behaviours and treatment experiences of people with persistent pain has advanced person-centred communication in musculoskeletal care and informed the design and implementation of interventions that meet patient needs and preferences.
Dr Bunzli has presented as keynote and invited speaker at national and international conferences on cognitive behavioural aspects of musculoskeletal pain. She has published >100 journal articles and her research is supported by $11 million in grant funding from the NHMRC, MRFF, Commonwealth Govt and Arthritis Australia.
Curtin Medical School
WA
Dr Flavia Di Pietro is a teaching and research Academic at Curtin Medical School and the Curtin Medical Research Institute, in Western Australia. After an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (University of Sydney 2015 – 2019) that aimed to better our understanding of basic pain mechanisms with functional neuroimaging, Flavia’s research currently uses quantitative and qualitative methods to continue to address fundamental questions in pain, namely on sensory function, perception and threat.
University of South Australia
SA
Dr Emma Karran is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of South Australia and has a background in clinical Physiotherapy and education. Emma’s PhD focussed on investigating strategies to optimise the clinical management of LBP. Her postdoctoral studies focussed on evaluating the role of the social determinants of health in pain experiences across low back pain and spinal cord injury groups. Emma’s current research interests primarily relate to understanding the role of the social determinants of health in persistent pain and promoting equity considerations in the pain field. In 2022 she led the development of the ‘Identifying Social Factors that Stratify Health Opportunities and Outcomes’ (ISSHOOs) in Pain Research’ project – a global, collaborative and interdisciplinary initiative to develop a standardised assessment tool to guide the collection of 'equity-relevant' data in all human pain research. Her contributions have been the basis for system change across injury compensation and public health systems in several countries. Emma serves on the IASP 2025 Global Year taskforce on Pain Education, Research, and Treatment in Low- and Middle-Income Settings. She lives and works on Kaurna Land.
HammondCare
NSW
Professor Melanie Lovell is a palliative medicine physician and senior staff specialist with HammondCare in Northern Sydney. She is a Clinical Professor with University of Sydney.
Melanie’s research interests are in cancer pain, spiritual care and health services research. She was founding Chair of the Cancer Council Australia’s Pain Management in Adults guideline. She is Chair of the Pain Node of Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC) and Cancer Symptom Trials groups which conducts trials across the spectrum of research methodologies and translation.
University of New South Wales
NSW
A/Professor Gila Moalem-Taylor graduated with a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed a Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre, USA. She then joined the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, where she received the Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (2004-2007) and the NSW Science and Medical Research Career Development Fellowship (2010-2013). In 2014, she became a combined track (teaching & research) academic in the Department of Physiology at UNSW, leading the Neuroimmune Pain Research Group. Her research focuses on neuroimmune mechanisms in chronic pain due to nerve injury, nervous system autoimmune diseases, and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.
Monash University
VIC Australia
Denise O’Connor is a Professor and Deputy Director of Wiser Health Care Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, and NHMRC Investigator Leadership Fellow.
Denise leads implementation research in 3 NHMRC-funded Centres of Research Excellence (Wiser Healthcare Collaboration, Australia and New Zealand Musculoskeletal Clinical Trials Network, and Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Digital Era across One Health) and collaborates with health agencies, clinicians and consumers to improve value in healthcare for Australians.
Denise’s research explores the causes of, and the design and evaluation of solutions to address, implementation failures. With her collaborators Denise has been awarded $50 million in competitive grant funding as Chief Investigator, has 160 publications and h-index of 44.
Griffith University
QLD Australia
Dr Karin Plummer is a pediatric nurse and clinician researcher dedicated to minimising harm for hospitalised children by reducing unnecessary pain and distress. As a Lecturer in Nursing at Griffith University and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Children’s Hospital Queensland Department of Anaesthesia and Pain, she combines clinical expertise with innovative research in pediatric pain management.
Karin’s work advocates for kinder and less toxic pain treatment options for children, integrating medical and psychological interventions to optimise care. Her research is informed by a neuroscience-driven approach, recognising that untreated pain can lead to lasting changes in a child’s nervous system and avoidable pain conditions.
As a translator of research into practical solutions, Karin is at the forefront of developing personalised pain management strategies for children with cancer. With support from the Kids Cancer Project Early Career Research Fellowship, she is leading the design of a digital tool to assist parents in making confident and timely decisions about pain management during their child’s treatment in collaboration with their healthcare providers.
Karin serves as Chair of the Australian Pain Society’s Pain in Childhood Special Interest Group and the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Oncology Nurses Research Group. She is committed to incorporating consumer voices in paediatric pain research and policy to enhance health outcomes for children, families and their healthcare providers.
Curtin University
WA Australia
Professor Helen Slater is a Clinical Researcher Professor in the School of Allied Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University. She co-leads a research group with Prof Andrew Briggs, at Curtin University with a focus on strategic capacity-building initiatives in musculoskeletal pain and health to strengthen health systems and re-orient health services to support consumers receiving ‘right’ pain care. She works closely with health policy makers in WA Health and the Australian Government Department of Health, including an appointment on the Clinical and Technical Advisory Committee of the Australian Digital Health Agency.
University of Sydney
NSW Australia
Associate Professor Chris Williams is a clinical and implementation scientist with an interest in the 'what and how’ of better integrated care for chronic pain and associated lifestyle disease. He has qualifications in exercise science and physiotherapy, and postgraduate training in biostatistics. Chris leads an embedded research program across three regional NSW Local Health Districts, designed to advance Learning Health Systems activities that continuously improve care through comparative effectiveness trials and quality improvement initiatives. The program brings together support for rural health challenges through research capacity building, infrastructure, meaningful collaborative trials and community involvement to deliver tangible benefits for patients and communities. He serves in various roles including Research Development Manager (Mid North Coast Local Health District, since 2021), Director of Research (University Centre for Rural Health, since 2023) and co-chair of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance Raising Equity of Access to Clinical Trials (REACT) Special Interest Group. His work is supported by philanthropic, federal and state government funding including NHRMC Investigator Grant (EL2) and MRFF project funding.
Alfred Health / Monash University
VIC Australia
Dr Noam Winter is the Head of Pain Services at Alfred Health. He is also a member of the Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) Board and currently holds the role of Chair, FPM Scientific Meetings Committee and is a member of the FPM Professional Affairs Executive Committee. As the FPM Board representative, Noam was a member of the Governance Advisory Group for the project to develop Australian Standards for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education during 2024-2025.
University of Sydney
NSW Australia
Dr Ben Colagiuri is a Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney. His research explores how expectancies influence human behaviour, with a specific interest in placebo and nocebo effects. To date, he has developed a number of novel experimental models to uncover the mechanisms of placebo and nocebo effects for pain, sleep, nausea, and related conditions. His current research explores how knowledge about placebo and nocebo effects could be used ethically to improve patient outcomes.
University of South Australia
SA Australia
Dr Daniel Harvie is a physiotherapist, clinical pain scientist, and Program Director of the Master of Advanced Clinical Physiotherapy in the Allied Health & Human Performance Unit at Adelaide University. His research focuses on technological and remote delivery of biopsychosocial and brain-based interventions, including via virtual reality and digital health. He is also co-author of Pain and Perception: A Closer Look at Why We Hurt (NOI Group Pty Ltd).
University of Sydney
NSW Australia
Dr Lipin Loo received his PhD in pharmacology and is currently a Group Leader in RNA Therapies and co-leads the Single Cell Biology node at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney. His primary interest is leveraging functional genomics to define the underlying principles that control human biology and disease.
University of Queensland
QLD Australia
Professor Michelle Sterling is the program leader of the Improving Health outcomes after musculoskeletal injury program at RECOVER Injury Research Centre, and Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury, University of Queensland. A Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists, she holds expertise in the physiological and psychological factors underlining musculoskeletal pain, the prediction of outcome following whiplash injury, and the clinical translation of research findings to clinical practice.
University of Queensland
QLD Australia
Dr Irina Vetter is a Professor and NHMRC Leadership Fellow with joint appointments at the Institute for Molecular Biology (IMB) and School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland. Her research interested lie in the fields of peripheral pain mechanisms, target identification and analgesic drug discovery. She investigates the contribution of ion channels to sensory neuronal physiology using highly subtype-selective toxins isolated from venomous animals with the aim to develop novel analgesics.