Current Research

In the end, it may be applied funding in genetics that discovers the cure or prevention that will end migraine disease. I would submit to you the “cure” or “grail” in the search for the ultimate root cause for this affliction may well be found in genetics. Our Excalibur is the science of genetics applied to migraine disease. With the answers found here we shall dispatch this affliction in all its variations, as science has done with other diseases now nearly forgotten. What a blessing bestowed on the human race to be able to say “I remember when migraines…

Washington, DC    September 23-24, 2015

This is a two-day conference with presentations of the latest research and pharmaceutical findings regarding pain management and migraine disease.

Participants: 80 and include representatives from CRO’s (Clinical Research Organizations), pharmaceutical companies and basic researchers – no clinicians

Range of topics

• New animal and human study models

• New clinical measurements of pain

• New directions in pathophysiology

“Here, for the first time ever, is a specific treatment for migraine prevention,”
“It’s an enormous step forward.”
– Peter Goadsby, MD, Chief of the University of California, San Francisco Headache Center, and Chairman of the American Headache Society

The past year shapes up to be a particularly productive one in terms of research, and in some cases product roll-out, for potential relief from migraines and related disorders. Oral triptans have been the first line of treatment for migraines for the past several decades, with precious little to look forward to, until recently. Why the new interest from Big Pharma, among others? I would venture an educated guess that at some level, it occurred to some executives, that a potential market (US alone) of 36 million migraineurs could really bolster a bottom line.

The inaugural Migraine Disorders Symposium was held on Tuesday, February 17 at the Brown Institute for Brain Science. Frederick Godley, MD provided introductory remarks about the new partnership between the Brown research center and the Association of Migraine Disorders. The featured speaker Daniela Pietrobon, PhD of Padova, Italy, an expert on calcium channel physiology was unable to attend due to the blizzard conditions on the East Coast.

This question has haunted migraineurs, clinicians, and researchers for decades: how can such an excruciatingly painful condition not result in some damage to the central nervous system? It appears that some research bolstered by technological advances (MRI, etc.) is shedding some light on this question. In this blog I’ll attempt to condense some of the research and make some sense of this troubling problem.