We have spent this month introducing the people who do this work. It is fitting to end with the person who built the place they do it in.
Roger B. Fillingim is the founding director of the Pain Research & Intervention Center of Excellence and one of the most widely cited pain researchers working today.
His central question is deceptively simple: why does the same injury hurt different people differently?
That question turns out to open onto almost everything. Sex differences in pain sensitivity. Genetic contributions to pain risk. Why some people recover from an acute injury and others transition into years of chronic pain. Fillingim’s work has helped establish that pain is not a straightforward readout of tissue damage — it is produced by a nervous system shaped by biology, psychology, and social context, all at once.
That framing, now standard in the field, was not always standard. Much of the evidence for it came out of laboratories like his.
It is also, if you have been reading along, the thread running through every researcher we have introduced this month. Cruz-Almeida on the aging nervous system. Bartley on why some people do well. Booker on who the research actually reaches. Tamargo on what people eat. Ribeiro-Dasilva on the face and jaw. Six different entry points into one question about variation between people.
His recent work continues to push outward from the laboratory. A 2026 scoping review with colleagues Staja “Star” Booker and Ellen Terry examined community-driven, culturally tailored interventions for musculoskeletal pain in Black and African American communities — research about how treatment actually reaches people, not just whether it works in principle.
Fillingim was the first guest on the PRICE of Pain podcast, where he laid out what the center was built to do. That episode remains a good introduction to the whole enterprise.
Next: Pain Research Day, October 2
Pain Awareness Month ends this week. The work does not, and neither does the calendar.
Pain Research Day brings the UF pain community together on October 2 — just after this campaign closes. It is where the research described across these thirty days gets presented, argued about, and connected between departments.
It runs 8:30 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening on the third floor of the CTRB, 2004 Mowry Road, and the shape of the day says a lot about the field: a poster session and judging, a panel discussion, trainee presentations, a session given over to people living with pain, roundtables, and a reception to close.
This year there are two keynotes. The scientific keynote is Dr. Alexandre F. DaSilva of the University of Michigan, whose work runs across orofacial pain, migraine, pain neuroimaging and brain stimulation. The second is given by Jennifer Feldman, founder of Oh My Jaw, speaking from lived experience of pain.
We asked Dr. Fillingim to close the month.
Here at PRICE, we strive to improve the lives of people living with pain by creating, disseminating and applying important new knowledge about pain and its treatment. We achieve this through the collaborative efforts of our faculty, staff, trainees and our community partners. We particularly appreciate the invaluable contributions of the people with lived experience of pain whose perspectives and expertise ground us and energize us. We look forward to sharing our work with many of you on Friday October 2nd at Pain Research Day! We are delighted to have two Keynote Presentations — one by Dr. Alex DaSilva from the University of Michigan and the other by Jennifer Feldman, founder of Oh My Jaw.
Roger B. Fillingim, PhD
What we study:
- Pain and Aging
- Chronic Pain Risk Factors
- Pain and the Brain
- Musculoskeletal Pain
- Pain and Exercise
- Non-Medical Treatment of Pain
Prefer to talk to a person? Call 352-273-5967 or email PRICE-CTSI@ufl.edu.
UF Study ID IRB201400126
References
- Eze BC, Fillingim RB, Booker SQ, Terry EL. Community-driven, culturally tailored interventions for MSK pain in Black/African Americans: A scoping review. J Pain. 2026 Aug;45:106344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2026.106344
- PRICE of Pain podcast archive, 22 episodes (2021-2022). https://price.ctsi.ufl.edu/price-of-pain-podcast/
- PRICE Research Registry recruitment materials, UF Study ID IRB201400126. IRB-approved; supplied by site owner. https://is.gd/PRICE
- PRICE Pain Research Day. Friday, October 2, 2026, 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM, CTRB Third Floor, 2004 Mowry Road, Gainesville FL. Keynote: Alexandre F. DaSilva, DDS, DMedSc, University of Michigan. Official event flyer and announcement, UF College of Dentistry, 26 August 2026. https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=-KBNDTFKdk2s5gpiMx4bhExU3EN69V5Gq6IlbT6rtoVUMTZEUjk5WjlIQkhJVDJKWlBXSVc4TUo3OC4u&origin=QRCode