Learning Event Support: Wisconsin Pain Research Day 2026

Project Summary:

One in four Wisconsinites experience chronic pain during their lifetime, while 8.5% of people in Wisconsin have high-impact chronic pain that severely limits life or work activities. A major gap in the pain field is understanding how immune cells influence the onset and maintenance of chronic pain. Therefore, the theme of this year’s pain research conference is the neuro-immune interactions that drive pain.

The event's keynote speaker is an expert in neuro-immune interactions. The new focus on the neuro-immune interactions will equip learners with a new dimension that they can use to study chronic pain and discover new treatments to benefit those in Wisconsin. Planned lunch table topics are new this year and they will promote professional development of early-career pain professionals. Organizers will also engage people with lived pain experience from the Milwaukee and surrounding community.

The learning objectives for attendees are: 1) Understand how the various immune cells bi-directionally interact with neurons of the pain pathway to drive and maintain chronic pain; 2) Discover how to research immune cell and neural interactions in preclinical pain models and in human tissues from donors and patients; 3) Connect with other researchers working on the immune system in order to develop collaborations and expand pain research at MCW to the immune system; and 4) Learn how to engage with people who have lived experience with pain for advice and design of grant proposals, manuscripts, and outreach to the lay community.

The majority of the event's anticipated audience will be from Wisconsin. Approximately 70% of the audience will be from MCW or its affiliate hospitals or from community members and people with lived pain experience in the Milwaukee area. Another 15% will come from University Wisconsin Madison, University Wisconsin Milwaukee or Marquette University. Organizers anticipate 15% coming from other states besides Wisconsin. They anticipate a total of 150 registered participants.