Dr. Luana Colloca
is an MPower Distinguished professor and the Director of the Placebo Beyond Opinions Center. As an NIH-funded principal investigator, Dr Colloca has established an independent program of research on human pain modulation from both a mechanistic and translational viewpoint. Her team explores the role of neurobehavioral and genetic influences on a newly described model namely expectancy-induced analgesia, in patients suffering from chronic pain.
During her time as an MD student, she discovered her passion for neuroscience while attending the course of neurophysiology, and therefore decided to pursue her path in research as a physician-scientist. She holds an MD, a PhD in Neuroscience and a master degree in Neuroethics from the University of Turin School of Medicine, Italy. She completed a post-doctoral training at the Brain Imaging Center at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
After a five year senior research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, she joined the University of Maryland School of Nursing and School of Medicine in Baltimore serving as a Full Professor. She is the recipient of the UMB Named Inaugural MPower Professorship award.
Virtual Reality for Chronic Pain?
"What if chronic pain relief could come not from a pill bottle, but from a headset?That’s the focus of the groundbreaking research by Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS, at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Colloca, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and director of the Placebo Beyond Opinions Center, is studying how immersive virtual reality (VR) can reduce pain and even replace the need for opioid medications in some patients."
Founders Week 2024: Researcher of the Year
“Dr. Colloca’s research over the past 10 years at UMSON has significantly advanced the field of pain and translational symptom science,” Resnick said in nominating Colloca for the honor. “Her innovative studies on placebo effects, immersive virtual reality, and pain modulation have influenced clinical practice and public policy, providing new approaches to pain management that reduce reliance on opioid medications.”
Are Placebos The Solution? Dr. Colloca's Tedx Talk
"Luana Colloca explores the role of the placebo reflex in the neurobiology of pain. It's not about the popular culture conception of placebos as pills, but rather expectations that can create an array of responses in the brain. such as the release of endogenous opioids. By triggering this response, many patients may be able to avoid opioid medicines and the risk of addiction."
Notable Publications
Placebo effects in osteoarthritis: implications for treatment and drug development
Nature Reviews Rheumatology | Oct 2023
"Placebo responses are prevalent in clinical trials for osteoarthritis, and they hinder the identification of effective new treatments. In this Review, Colloca and Neogi describe various aspects of the placebo phenomenon, and demonstrate how this knowledge can help to improve the design of clinical trials."
News Appearances
The science of using your expectations to relieve pain
PBS NewsHour | Apr 11, 2018
Dr. Colloca discusses the placebo effect and the lab's placebo experiment in an interview with Nsikan Akpan for a PBS NewsHour segment on expectancy-based pain relief.
Scientists are unraveling the mysteries of pain
National Geographic | Jan, 2020
Dr. Colloca is highlighted in a National Geographic article reporting on the newest pain-related scientific discoveries.
IASP’s former Associate Director of Publications, Gregory Carbonetti, PhD, speaks with Luana Colloca about her background in placebo research, how it influences her recent work with virtual reality, and the story behind her feature in a 2020 cover story for National Geographic.
Lab Blog
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Contact Us
PI: colloca@umaryland.edu
Lab coordinator: katiamatychak@umaryland.edu
410-706-8244