Clifford Woolf
Director, FM Kirby Neurobiology Centre Boston Children’s Hospital
Clifford Woolf earned his MB, BCh, and Ph.D. degrees in South Africa and then moved to London where he became Professor of Neurobiology at University College London. In 1997 he was recruited by Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and in 2010 became director of the Neurobiology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has received a Gill Distinguished Scientist award and Reeve-Irvine medal and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. His research is devoted to investigating how functional, chemical, and structural plasticity of neurons is involved in both normal adaptive functions of the nervous system and in maladaptive changes that contribute to neurological diseases. His major discoveries are central sensitization as a driver of pain, preemptive analgesia, how to selectively inhibit nociceptors, and utilization of stem cell-derived human neurons to model disease and identify novel therapeutics.
Seminars
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?
