Chronic pain is the biggest unresolved health condition of our time. The central problem is that we do not fully understand why and how some people develop ongoing chronic pain whereas others do not. This makes chronic pain extremely difficult to prevent and treat.
Dr David Klyne’s research centres on solving this problem by exploring how the immune and nervous systems are involved and the potential role of “everyday” factors such as sleep. His unique mix of basic and clinical sciences has revealed specific inflammatory patterns that interact with the nervous system to either facilitate or inhibit pain persistence—which is heavily “swayed” by how we sleep and how physically active we are. These breakthroughs have shifted how we think about pain in the context of sleep and physical activity, and the development and testing of promising new preventative and therapeutic treatments for chronic pain, led by Dr Klyne and his team.