Visceral Pain Circuitry

SPARC5 supports detailed anatomical and functional mapping of neural circuitry mediating visceral organ pain. This Common Fund-supported initiative enhances the objectives of the HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term^SM) Initiative, an aggressive, trans-agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Specifically, SPARC5 is a participant in Translational Devices to Treat Pain (TDTP), a joint effort with NINDS and NIBIB to develop device-based approaches for safe, effective, and non-addictive treatment of pain. SPARC5 delivers scientific discoveries and other SPARC resources into the TDTP pipeline, bridging device design and targeting to clinical study. SPARC5 is funded by the NIH Common Fund, and not the NIH HEAL Initiative^SM, and represents an additional commitment by the NIH to address the opioid public health crisis.

It is expected that SPARC5 teams will leverage ongoing mapping activities in SPARC, employ new technologies developed by the BRAIN initiative, and deliver novel therapeutic targets to other TDTP Initiatives. Applicants are encouraged to use devices made available through the SPARC program and the BRAIN initiative, along with template partnership documents developed to assist applicants for these NIH programs when establishing industry collaborations and use of collaborators’ existing medical technology in proposed studies. Ultimately, it is hoped that the translation of these discoveries into effective stimulation devices for non-addictive pain treatment will improve patient outcomes and decrease or eliminate the need to prescribe opioids.