Skip to content
Project Directory
  • Français
Donate Now
  • Français
  • About
    • What We Do
    • EDI Action Plan
    • Leadership
    • Team
    • Annual Report
    • Publications
    • Careers
  • Brain Conditions
    • One Brain
    • ALS
    • Autism (ASD)
    • Brain Cancer
    • Brain Injury
    • Dementia
    • Epilepsy
    • Mental Illness
    • Multiple Sclerosis
    • Parkinson’s
    • Stroke
    • More
  • Research
    • Programs
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Program Partners
    • Announcements
  • Impact
    • Research Impact Stories
    • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Brain Health in Indigenous Communities
    • Women’s Brain Health
    • Mind Over Matter
  • How You Can Help
    • Ways to Give
    • Start a Fundraiser
    • Workplace Giving
    • The Great Minds

Funded Grants

Back to results

Distinct neuro-immune interactions drive sex differences  in chronic pain

Project Overview

One of the most important advances in our understanding of chronic pain over the last decade or so is the realization that neurons are not the only cells in the central nervous system participating in the processing of pain signals. Immune-like “glial” cells (especially microglia and astrocytes), thought previously to play mere structural supporting roles, are now known to be active players in pain processing, containing and releasing key molecules that themselves represent excellent novel targets for the development of analgesic drugs. As is typical in pain research and biomedical research in general, virtually every one of the studies demonstrating the important role of these “neuro-immune” interactions between glial cells and neurons in the spinal cord was performed on male rats or mice. Jeffrey Mogil and his team have already convincingly demonstrated that spinal cord microglia are not required for the development of chronic pain in female mice as they are in males. This particular project goal is to examine, for the first time, the role of glial molecules in pain in female mice and rats. Furthermore, as they now believe that sex differences in pain are robust and widespread, they will search for sex differences in brain function above the level of the spinal cord in mice using cutting-edge imaging techniques (high-field MRI and serial two-photon tomography). Finally, to establish the likely relevance of these findings to humans, they will conduct experiments in Macaca fascicularis and look for sex differences in gene and protein levels after pain-related nerve damage in this primate species.

Principal Investigator

Jeffrey Mogil , McGill University

Team Members

Michael Salter, The Hospital for Sick Children

Yves De Koninck, Université Laval

Jason Lerch, University of Toronto

Partners and Donors

Université Laval

McGill University

The Hospital for Sick Children

Project Complete

Distinct neuro-immune interactions drive sex differences  in chronic pain

  • Grant Type

    Team grants

  • Area of research

    Central Nervous System

  • Disease Area

    Other

  • Competition

    2014 MIRI Team Grants

  • Province

    Québec

  • Start Date

    2015

  • Total Grant Amount

    $2,294,000

  • Health Canada Contribution

    $1,147,000

Contact Us

1200 McGill College Avenue
Suite 1600, Montreal, Quebec
H3B 4G7

+1 (514) 989-2989 info@braincanada.ca

Please note all online donations will receive an electronic tax receipt, issued by Brain Canada Foundation.

Our Donors

Playing with Marbles Podcast

Join us and take a journey to the real last great frontier – the brain.

Listen

Subscribe to Brain News

Receive our monthly electronic newsletter with updates on funded projects, upcoming events and breakthroughs in brain research.

Sign Up

Territorial acknowledgement

The offices of Brain Canada Foundation are located on the traditional, ancestral territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka Peoples, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. We honour and pay respect to elders past, present and emerging, and dedicate ourselves to moving forward in the spirit of partnership, collaboration, and reconciliation. In our work, we focus our efforts on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, particularly those that pertain to improving health for Indigenous Peoples and that focus on advancing our own learning on Indigenous issues.

© 2025 Brain Canada Foundation

Registration number: 89105 2094 RR0001

  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Design by Field Trip & Co

  • About
    • What We Do
    • EDI Action Plan
    • Leadership
    • Team
    • Annual Report
    • Publications
    • Careers
  • Brain Conditions
    • One Brain
    • ALS
    • Autism (ASD)
    • Brain Cancer
    • Brain Injury
    • Dementia
    • Epilepsy
    • Mental Illness
    • Multiple Sclerosis
    • Parkinson’s
    • Stroke
    • More
  • Research
    • Programs
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Program Partners
    • Announcements
  • Impact
    • Research Impact Stories
    • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Brain Health in Indigenous Communities
    • Women’s Brain Health
    • Mind Over Matter
  • How You Can Help
    • Ways to Give
    • Start a Fundraiser
    • Workplace Giving
    • The Great Minds
Project Directory
Donate Now