25/03/2026
New research results. This will be great to see where it leads to
A biological miracle is happening in somatosensory neuroscience labs where Brain Prize 2026 winners Professors David Ginty and Patrik Ernfors have revealed the complete cellular architecture of touch and pain — including the discovery of entirely new pain-sensing terminal Schwann cells that wrap around unmyelinated pain nerve endings and actively amplify or dampen pain signals — a cell type never previously known to participate in pain processing that is now identified as the key gatekeeper of chronic pain.
The discovery explains one of medicine's most frustrating mysteries: why chronic pain persists long after tissue damage heals. These terminal Schwann cells can become permanently sensitized after injury — continuing to amplify pain signals through synaptic mechanisms even when no damage remains. Targeting these cells with drugs that specifically calm their sensitization state — rather than broadly blocking nerve signaling — could eliminate chronic pain in millions of patients suffering from fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, and post-surgical pain syndromes without the cognitive side effects of current painkillers.
