Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

The primary goal of this laboratory is to promote the health and well being of children and adolescents with chronic pain and their families. In line with this goal, research projects focus on biological, neurological, cognitive, affective, and social risk and resiliency factors of the pain experience. Projects include brain imaging, longitudinal clinical cohort, and treatment intervention studies.

Our laboratory develops and applies state of the art genetic, genomic and stem cell technologies to its research programs. These methodologies are used to discover the mechanisms mediating disease susceptibility and drug response, and to develop new therapies. As one example, we developed a novel computational genetic analysis method, which has identified genetic factors affecting disease susceptibility and biomedical responses in mouse models. Over 25 genetic factors affecting susceptibility to drug addiction, chronic pain, infectious diseases, and others have already been identified.

Chronic pain affects 1 in 3 Americans at a huge cost to society. A more thorough understanding of the basic mechanisms contributing to chronic pain is crucial to the development of therapies that target the likely unique underlying causes of diverse pain conditions. Projects in the Tawfik Lab use clinically-informed basic science approaches to further understand the crosstalk between the nervous system and the immune system in several mouse models of perioperative injury.

We are a machine learning lab with a primary focus on predictive modeling of clinical outcomes using multiomics biological assays. Our research covers a wide range of unconventional yet high-impact topics ranging from space medicine to the integration of mental health, physical health, immune fitness, and nutrition in various clinical settings. We are primarily a computational immunology research group but depending on the problem at hand, our datasets include clinical measurements, readouts from advanced wearable technologies, and various genomics and proteomics assays.
 

Our laboratory is developing tools to study genetic variants commonly found in Asians within the basic science laboratory including CRISPR mouse models, drug development/design, and protein chemistry. Most of our laboratory uses basic science techniques to study the cardiovascular system and we are funded through the NIH from NIGMS and NHLBI. Our NIGMS funded project focuses on genetic variants in Asians and developing precision medicine strategies for reducing perioperative organ injury and precision medicine strategies for delivering anesthesia and pain relievers such as opioids.