During this scientific event, five applicants presented their translational research projects, addressing topics such as biomarkers of pain resolution, advanced imaging diagnostics, and clinical intervention studies.

All candidates made a positive impression on the selection committee, composed of senior researchers from KFO5001, with their scientific quality, clinical relevance, and commitment to bridging patient care and research. They have now been officially accepted into the program, including one advanced Clinician Scientist continuing from the first funding period.

The selected Clinician Scientists are (in alphabetical order):

• Anna Ryskal, Department of Neuroradiology
• Friedrich Krepiev, Department of Anesthesiology
• Dr. med. Magnus Schindehütte, Department of Neuroradiology (Advanced Clinician Scientist)
• Regina Pistorius, Department of General, Visceral, Transplant, Vascular and Pediatric Surgery (Chirurgie I)
• Xinyu Zhang, Department of Neuroradiology

Integration of healthcare and research

The Clinician Scientist Program is part of the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) Würzburg and plays a key role in fostering academic careers for physician-scientists at the interface of patient care and biomedical research. Within KFO5001, the program is instrumental in promoting and strengthen clinical perspectives in basic research and ensures that patient-relevant questions are addressed through interdisciplinary collaboration.

We warmly congratulate all newly accepted Clinician Scientists and look forward to an exciting second funding period together!

Over the course of two days, consortium members and invited guests gathered to reflect on the achievements of the first funding period and to exchange ideas on future directions in the interdisciplinary study of pain resolution.

We were especially honored to welcome two distinguished keynote speakers:

• Prof. Dr. Yiheng Tu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing), who provided fascinating insights into the neural representations and modulations of pain in humans, and
• Prof. Dr. Niels Eijkelkamp (University Medical Center Utrecht), who presented his latest work on the role of inhibitory receptors and the immune system in pain resolution.

A further highlight was the presentation by Prof. Dr. Paul Geha (University of Rochester Medical Center, NY), who continues his engagement with KFO5001 as a Mercator Fellow. His contributions in the area of cranial fMRI promise to enrich the translational scope of the consortium’s research.

The meeting also offered the opportunity to welcome new members to the consortium and fostered a productive environment for team building and scientific networking across disciplines and institutions.

In a warm and appreciative gesture, we also bid farewell to the Clinician Scientists of the first funding period, acknowledging their significant contributions to the success of the program and wishing them the very best for their future careers.

In addition, the newly elected Steering Board, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and Junior Council were announced and will support the strategic development and collaborative spirit of the consortium over the coming years.

We thank all speakers and participants for their valuable contributions and are looking forward to a successful second funding period.

Würzburg. One of the first tasks Claudia Sommer was given in March 1995 after starting work in the neurology department at Würzburg University Hospital (UKW) was to put up no smoking signs. But the then 36-year-old specialist in psychiatry and neurology refused. “As a new senior physician, I didn't want to make myself unpopular with all the smokers right away,” she says. For subsequent generations, it is now unimaginable that smoking was once allowed in hospital buildings or that doctors constantly ran around the building looking for lost X-ray images and were not allowed to go home in the evening until they had personally stuck the lab reports into the patient files. These and other anecdotes were recounted on May 2, 2025, in the packed lecture hall of the Head Clinics. Prof. Dr. Claudia Sommer had invited colleagues to a symposium to bid a fitting farewell after 30 years and take a look at current research and potential developments.

Continues as spokesperson for the ResolvePAIN clinical research group

Claudia Sommer is not really leaving. She has moved from B1 up the hill to Building A9, from the neurology department to the Center for Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine (ZiS), where she shares an office with Prof. Heike Rittner.

Together, the two physicians head the Clinical Research Group (KFO 5001) ResolvePAIN, which is now in its second funding period supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (see announcement dated December 17, 2024). Claudia Sommer is not only involved in projects of the research group, of which she is the spokesperson, but also in the Collaborative Research Centre 1158 (SFB 1158) at Heidelberg University. She currently supervises eight doctoral students in the natural sciences and approximately 20 medical students in various stages of their dissertations.

The privilege of a senior professorship

“I am infinitely grateful for the privilege of being able to continue working as a senior professor,” says Claudia Sommer. She considers the change of location important in order to make room for the next generation. But it is difficult for her to imagine "no longer having the great colleagues and cooperation partners who constantly challenge me intellectually. Or the many young students who want to work with me. That's wonderful." She adds that a senior professorship is not a given. Many clinics do not offer their retired scientists the opportunity to continue working as senior professors. It would be a shame to lose all the knowledge they have accumulated over the years.
Milestones in research into pain, polyneuropathies, fibromyalgia, and stiff person syndrome

In addition to pain research, Claudia Sommer has made a name for herself in the field of polyneuropathies. These are diseases of the peripheral nervous system, i.e., the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. For example, she and her team discovered an autoantibody that destroys Ranvier's nodes. These structures are located on the nerve fibers and ensure that signals from the brain reach their destination. This has now become a separate field of research in which the researchers have made a name for themselves worldwide. Claudia Sommer has also been able to show that antibodies attack the neurons in stiff person syndrome. Furthermore, her research has freed fibromyalgia sufferers from the stigma that chronic pain is only related to the psyche.

Learning from patients and receiving research questions

Born in the Palatinate region of Germany, she wanted to be a researcher even as a child. She got her research questions from patients, so her entire professional life has been inextricably linked to clinical work and research. “I've always been fascinated by discovering mechanisms behind unexplained diseases that perhaps hardly anyone believes in, and showing that something is actually happening in the body and that we need to take the phenomenon seriously.” Each patient was a puzzle for her that needed to be solved.

As a senior professor, she is now only allowed to treat patients as part of research projects. “That's a shame, but the patients at the clinic are well cared for. I have very good successors.” What she will miss less is writing grant applications, which can be very labor-intensive, exhausting, and sometimes frustrating. But she is already involved in many applications again. “I find it difficult to say no to exciting projects. And as long as I still have the energy and enjoy it, why not?”

President of the Peripheral Nerve Society and editor of the European Journal of Neurology

Other institutions are also putting out feelers now that word has spread that she may have more time in the future. Starting in the summer of 2025, she will serve as president-elect for two years and then as president of the Peripheral Nerve Society for another two years. She also actively supports the GBS|CIDP Foundation International. This global non-profit organization supports people affected by Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN), and related disorders. She will also soon become editor of the European Journal of Neurology, for which she has been deputy editor in recent years.

She is still a long way from her goal of working only half-time in the near future. But she already enjoys some freedoms that everyday life at the clinic did not allow. For example, it is an incredible luxury for her to play tennis in the morning before work or to add a week's vacation in Italy after a conference in Apulia.

Groundbreaking advances in the treatment of strokes and multiple sclerosis

Apart from digitalization and smoke-free clinics, she considers breakthroughs in the treatment of strokes and multiple sclerosis to be among the positive achievements of the past 30 years in neurology. "When I was a resident, stroke treatment was unpredictable. Today, anyone who arrives in time can be treated – thanks to the fantastic combination of understanding what happens during a stroke and technology for removing the thrombus. And a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis no longer automatically means an early death. Thanks to modern therapies, many patients with MS can lead completely normal lives."

She is cautiously optimistic about the future: although it is not her field of research, she would like to see a cure for ALS, a terrible disease that suddenly and unexpectedly takes people's lives. In her opinion, great progress is being made in the treatment of immunological neuropathies. In pain therapy, she hopes that one of the many ideas will lead to a drug that significantly reduces pain and has few or no side effects. At the moment, they can reduce pain by 50 percent on average. But she is not satisfied with that. “If pain no longer serves as a warning sign, then it should disappear completely.” Claudia Sommer is working on it.

Test subjects wanted for various studies

The research conducted by Claudia Sommer, her colleagues, and doctoral students would not be possible without the participation of patients and healthy control subjects who take part in the studies. Claudia Sommer is delighted with the amazing commitment shown by citizens from Würzburg and the surrounding area and would like to thank all current and future study participants for their often selfless dedication, which is making a significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge. Healthy control subjects and patients with migraine are currently being sought for various studies (see announcement dated March 28, 2025).

A detailed profile of Prof. Dr. Claudia Sommer can be found in the UKW series #WomenInScience.

Text: Science Communication UKW / KL

Proteomics and novel pain targets

On April 28, Dr. Sampurna Chakrabarti, an expert in proteomics and molecular pain mechanisms, visited Würzburg and delivered a keynote lecture titled “Ultrasensitive proteomics uncovers nociceptor diversity and novel pain targets.” In her presentation, she discussed how state-of-the-art proteomics technologies can help uncover new protein signatures in distinct sensory neuron populations, with implications for the understanding and treatment of chronic pain. Her visit also included meetings with several leading researchers across the university’s departments, enabling rich scientific dialogue and interdisciplinary exchange.

Clinical research on systemic lidocaine therapy in fibromyalgia

On May 14-15, the ResolvePAIN team hosted Dr. med. Min Liu, a physician and pain specialist with a focus on systemic lidocaine infusion for fibromyalgia. During her stay, Dr. med. Liu presented her clinical research on predictors of lidocaine response in patients with chronic pain. In addition, she visited the Department of Neurology to learn more about Würzburg’s established protocols for skin biopsy collection and analysis. Under the guidance of Prof. Claudia Sommer and her team, Dr. med. Liu gained insights into biopsy processing and diagnostic standards that will help refine similar workflows at the hospital where she works in London.

These visits reflect the dynamic exchange of clinical and scientific expertise within the ResolvePAIN Clinical Research Unit and reinforce our continued commitment to advancing translational pain research through international collaboration and hands-on methodological exchange.

Although knowledge about fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) has expanded rapidly in recent years, fundamental questions about its cause, diagnosis and treatment remain unanswered. 

CRU expertise in Vienna

The program of the 7th Fibromyalgia Congress was also enriched this year by contributions from Würzburg. Prof. Dr. med. Heike Rittner, scientific coordinator of the Clinical Research Unit (CRU) ResolvePain and head of the Interdisciplinary Pain Center at the University Hospital of Würzburg (UKW), spoke about “Neuroimmune Interactions: A New Frontier in Fibromyalgia Research”. Prof. Dr. med. Claudia Sommer, Senior Consultant at the Department of Neurology and CRU spokesperson, discussed the latest findings on the detection of this difficult-to-diagnose disease in her presentation “What Happens to Small Neurons in Fibromyalgia?”. 

New perspectives in research

Research into fibromyalgia has been conducted in Würzburg for years. The two pain researchers and their teams have repeatedly contributed to new knowledge about fibromyalgia syndrome. The latest findings from Sommer's working group suggest that the disease may be caused by an incorrect reaction of the immune system. Heike Rittner compares fibromyalgia with “complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)” and gains a better understanding of the mechanisms and treatment options for both diseases from this comparison. This will be a focus of her work in the second funding period of Clinical Research Group 5001.

In her presentation, Prof. Diatchenko will explore the role of NF-κB signaling in neutrophils and its contribution to fibromyalgia persistence. She will discuss how NF-κB inhibition in these immune cells influences disease mechanisms, potentially sustaining chronic pain and inflammation.
By presenting recent findings and their implications, she will offer insights into novel therapeutic targets that could help disrupt this pathological cycle and improve patient outcomes.

Prof. Luda Diatchenko, earned her MD and PhD in the field of Molecular Biology from the Russian State Medical University. Dr. Diatchenko started her career in industry as the Leader of the RNA Expression Group at Clontech, Inc., and later served as Director of Gene Discovery at Attagene, Inc. During this time, she contributed to the development of widely used molecular tools for analyzing gene expression and regulation, many of which are highly cited. 

Dr. Diatchenko began her academic career in 2000 at the Center for Neurosensory Disorders, University of North Carolina. Since then, her research has focused on uncovering the cellular and molecular mechanisms through which functional genetic variations influence pain perception and the risk of developing chronic pain conditions. 

Her work aims to identify new drug targets, predict treatment responses to analgesics, and improve diagnostics. Dr. Diatchenko is a frequent speaker at national and international pain research conferences. Through multiple collaborations, the Diatchenko group translates genetic findings from human association studies to molecular and cellular mechanisms, animal models, and ultimately, human clinical trials.

Dr. Diatchenko holds a joint appointment in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences and the Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, at McGill University, Canada.

Download the invitation for further information

Over 14 million people in Germany suffer from chronic pain, which, by definition, lasts for more than three months or repeatedly occurs, becoming its own disease entity. How can its development be prevented in the early stages? What physiological processes contribute to its onset? And above all – how can it be reversed, and how can therapies be improved?

AI, VR Reality, and Brain Electrodes

In the age of innovative technologies, new possibilities are now available, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality glasses, sensors, and even implantable brain electrodes. These open new perspectives for diagnosis, therapy, and research. A focus is placed on the targeted influence of the brain, such as through deception, distraction, or conditioning. As a result, it stimulates the body’s own pain defense mechanisms and alleviates pain stimuli.

Nevertheless, the many proven modules of pain therapy, such as relaxation techniques, movement therapy, or biofeedback, are still essential and are individually tailored.

An essential factor for successful therapy is also the support from a specialized team, which addresses the individual needs of those affected and works together in an interdisciplinary manner.

The podcast "IQ – Science and Research" from December 17, 2024, vividly highlights the current situation regarding the therapy and research of chronic pain, providing practical examples.

Podcast link

"IQ - Wissenschaft und Forschung," a format by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), regularly reports on the latest developments and controversies in areas such as medicine, climate research, astronomy, technology, and society. In the episode from December 17, 2024, renowned pain experts were interviewed:

- Prof. Ulrike Bingel, MD, Head of Pain Medicine at the University Hospital Essen

- Prof. Dominik Irnich, MD, Head of the Interdisciplinary Pain Outpatient Clinic at LMU Munich

- Prof. Heike Rittner, MD, Chair of Pain Medicine at the University of Würzburg, Head of the Clinical Research Group 5001 ResolvePain

- Prof. Prasad Shirvalkar, Pain Specialist at the University of California San Francisco, USA