The Colloca Lab

Translational Neuroscience | Chronic Pain | Placebo

Dr. Luana Colloca

is an NIH-funded principal investigator who 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.

University of Maryland Profile

Google Scholar Profile

UMSON

Lab Highlights

"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

Journals LWW

Placebo hypoalgesia: racial differences

PAIN | Aug 2020

"This is the first and largest study to analyze racial effects on placebo hypoalgesia and has implications for both clinical research and treatment outcomes."

This Is Your Brain On Pain

WYPR | JAN 23, 2020

Dr. Colloca interviews with Sheilah Kast & Melissa Gerr on placebo effects, nocebo effects, and endogenous opioids, highlighting the lab's research on virtual reality's effects on chronic pain.

Photo Credits: Mary T. Phelan