Graduate students who intend to perform their dissertation/thesis research in Washington University Pain Center-affiliated laboratories are provided additional pain education, research training, and program-specific graduate-level training.

  • Student trainees present and actively participate in the “Pain Journal Club”, a gathering of basic, translational, and clinical researchers, residents, and fellows in the pain clinic to discuss recent research findings in pain. This discussion session is conducted every Thursday during the academic year.
  • A clinical shadowing program is also offered to PhD and MD/PhD students in the basic and translational pain research laboratories under WUPC. In this program, the trainees shadow pain physicians in the pain clinic, and attend clinical pain management seminars, journal clubs, and discussion sessions on specific pain syndromes/types in human patients. This program aims to educate and stimulate these trainees’ scientific thought processes, enabling them to connect their basic and translational pain research to specific human and human pain conditions.
  • Similarly, we offer basic and translational research shadowing programs to PhD and MD/PhD students in the clinical pain research laboratories. In this program, the student trainees can spend short-term training durations in basic and translational research laboratories to strengthen their understanding of the science underlying specific human pain conditions, which they investigate in a clinical set-up.

Graduate and MSTP students interested in performing research rotations (and/or joining) in laboratories under WUPC, please visit research, and the individual research groups/investigators pages to know details of specific pain research projects that are currently being conducted in our center. Please communicate with the group leaders and/or lead investigators directly.

Perspective students interested in entering into graduate programs in biological and biomedical sciences, please visit the Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences website, for detailed program information and application procedures.