Project description
Studying opioid response to personalise pain relief
Opioids are powerful painkillers, but addiction is a serious issue. Traditional studies look at average effects and often ignore individual differences. The ERC-funded SpectrO project will investigate why opioids relieve pain for some patients and not for others. It examines the full range of responses to opioids to understand the reasons behind their different effects. By using large data sets, genetic models, and N-of-1 trials with personalised dosing, SpectrO will offer reliable evidence on both extremes of opioid sensitivity. This work seeks to link group studies to clinical practice, improve personalised pain management, and guide public health strategies related to addiction.
Objective
Opioids are irreplaceable and effective analgesics– at the group level. However, clinicians still cannot predict how much pain relief each patient will achieve, nor who will develop addiction. By treating the variability of opioid effects as noise, the group-based efficacy studies fail to explain why opioids relieve pain in some people, but not in others. Here, I will turn the current approach on its head. By harnessing the valuable information inherent in opioids’ variable and diverse effects, I aim to achieve a breakthrough in our ability to predict individual patient responses to opioids and enable effective personalised pain treatment. SpectrO has three main objectives:
1) First, I will employ large-scale data to generate robust and reproducible evidence on the full spectrum of opioid effects and resolve key controversies in the opioid literature (WP1: comprehensive samples).
Next, I will hone in on each extreme of the opioid effects spectrum to:
2) Answer why opioid effects are so variable and diverse. A newly discovered human genetic knockout model affords unprecedented insights into human endogenous opioid function, far beyond the current state-of-the-art (WP2: opioid-insensitive sample).
3) Produce randomised controlled evidence at the individual level through a N-of-1 case series with double-blind dose titration for individual dose efficacy determination. WP3 represents a leap forward in opioid research, promising to close the gap between the group-based trials (which show no benefit of long-term opioids) and the clinical experience that some patients do benefit (opioid-sensitive sample).
My unique track record in leading large interdisciplinary opioid trials and conducting innovative literature syntheses lends feasibility to this ambitious project. SpectrO will set a new direction for opioid research, offering powerful new resources and methods to resolve key mechanistic questions and urgent public health issues on pain and addiction.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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0313 Oslo
Norway
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