Terence Coderre
Harold Griffith Chair in Anesthesia Research
Research Interests
The overall aim of our research program is to understand the processes which underlie the transition from acute to chronic pain, and the means by which this processes can be prevented or reversed in order to develop improved therapies for chronic pain. To achieve the overall aim of this research program we pursue the following key objectives:
1) To determine the neurochemical and cellular alterations both in peripheral tissues and within the central nervous system (CNS) which occur in response to tissue injuries that induce persistent pain;
2) To establish the relationship between injury-induced peripheral tissue or CNS alterations and the
development or maintenance of persistent pain;
3) To discover optimal treatments which prevent or reverse ongoing pain or pain hypersensitivity using mechanism-based therapeutic strategies? To meet these key objectives we have adopted the following strategies:
● To discover or implement animal models that exhibit translational (face and content) validity with, or which
assist in establishing mechanistic hypotheses for,human chronic pain conditions;
● To develop methodologies to study neurochemical, cellular and molecular alterations in peripheral tissue and in the central nervous system;
● To establish methods to assess indices of persistent pain behavior, including spontaneous nociception and pain hypersensitivity (hyperalgesia and allodynia), as well as determining the anti-nociceptive and anti-hyperalgesic and anti-allodynic effects of therapeutic interventions.
● To advance strategies to ensure the strength of the relationships between tissue/CNS alterations and pain behaviour, as well as the internal validity of therapeutic interventions developed to reduce persistent pain.
Expertise
Dr. Coderre is an Associate Professor in Anesthesia at McGill University. He is the director of pain research laboratories in the Anesthesia Research Unit and at the MUHC Research Institute, and a member of the McGill Centre for Research on Pain. He received a PhD. in Psychology (Behavioural Neuroscience) from McGill University in 1985, and then received postdoctoral training in Anatomy and Medicine (Neuroscience) at University College London and University of California San Francisco, respectively. He spent 10 years as director of the Pain Mechanisms laboratory at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montr�al, before moving to McGill University in 2000. Dr. Coderre is on the editorial boards of Journal of Neuropathic Pain & Symptom palliation, and Pain Research & Management. He is a former member of the executive (treasurer) of the Canadian Pain Society. Dr. Coderre has been awarded the Early Career Investigator Award from the Canadian Pain Society and the Patrick D. Wall Young Investigator Award from the International Association for the Study of Pain.