Since the 1960s, led initially by the efforts of the late Dr. William D. Willis and his colleagues at UTMB, Texas has led the Nation in Pain Research.

Despite our long-standing prominence in this key research area, pain researchers in Texas had not previously  formalized a state-wide pain research consortium. Over the last decade, continued expansion of pain research and the recruitment of numerous leading pain scientists to the University of Texas (UT) and other University Systems in the state has created the opportunity to finally form a state-wide consortium focused on pain research. In 2015, at a meeting at the UT Dallas campus, the Texas Pain Research Consortium (TPRC) was formed.

The vision of the TPRC is to solidify and strengthen the international prominence of Texas pain research by:

• Fostering collaborative pain research projects among scientists in the state of Texas.
• Developing an integrated, trans-disciplinary research training program through a state of Texas postdoctoral fellowship program.
• Striving to create a state-wide Pain Science trainee summer program that creates a new standard for excellence in pain research education.
• Unifying recruiting functions across campuses to recruit the best and brightest scientists in the pain research area to Texas.
• Using these outcomes to draw additional Federal funding to pain research efforts in the State.
• Developing a Pain Research Foundation that can fund pain research projects within Texas.

See a summary of the Galveston 2017 TPRC meeting.