Medical science no longer considers it "normal" to suffer during a treatment or an operation. This - now central - parameter is taken into account for the setup of any therapy. However, although current medical science knows how to calm sharp pain, this is not true for chronic pain which is still hard to treat as the available drugs cause numerous side effects.
Since this state of affairs involves the development of new painkilling drugs, the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM, Foundation for medical research) has decided to back the very innovative research conducted by Dr. Patrick Delmas in Marseilles and to grant his team the "FRM Team" Label. Created in 2005 by the Foundation, the label serves to honor and provide long-term funding for small teams united around especially original projects likely to have extensive windfalls for health. The FRM has allocated 260,000 euros in funding to Patrick Delmas, which has allowed him to recruit a researcher and an engineer and develop a technical platform with a fluorescent microscope, dynamic and eletrophysiological imaging that is key for his research project.
At the Marseilles Centre de Recherche en Neurobiologie et en Neurophysiologie (CRN2M, research center in neurobiology and neurophysiology), Dr. Patrick Delmas's team is aware of the major unwanted effects typical of current analgesic treatments, so they are focusing on new targets to develop innovative molecules. The research prompted them to take a closer look at sensitive nerve endings and led them to discover a canal-protein critical for the transmission of pain information to the brain. By testing the means of blocking the new molecular target, the team researchers hope to identify new painkilling drugs with therapeutic efficiency and without harmful actions on the cardiac systems and the central nervous system.
Foundation for Medical Research - Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM) - Valérie Riedinger - Phone: +33 (0)1 44 39 75 57 - email: valerie.riedinger@frm.org
