Bruce Bean
Seminars
Tuesday 26th January 2027
Discovering & Validating Novel Targets to Drug Ready Mechanisms for Non-Opioid Pain
1:00 pm
As the field looks beyond sodium channel blockers and established approaches, identifying the next generation of clinically meaningful pain targets remains a critical challenge. This workshop will explore emerging pain biology, novel therapeutic mechanisms and modern target discovery approaches, with a focus on translating biological insights into validated, drug-ready opportunities.
Key Topics Covered:
- How can human genetics, multi-omics datasets and AIenabled approaches uncover novel pain mechanisms and identify high-priority therapeutic targets?
- What can emerging insights into neuroinflammation, central sensitization, neuronal plasticity and neuroimmune interactions reveal about the drivers of chronic pain?
- Which novel target classes, including neuroimmune pathways, microglial signalling, adenosine receptors, NOX pathways, ATTR-related mechanisms and GLP-1 signalling, show the greatest therapeutic potential?
- How can developers distinguish compelling biology from truly druggable opportunities by assessing causality, tractability, target engagement and translational confidence?
