Allan Basbaum, Ph.D. is a renowned medical researcher and Chairman of the Department of Anatomy at the University of California San Francisco. A member of the National Academy of Sciences (one of the highest honors accorded to an American scientist), Allan has chaired the NIH Committee tasked to create the US strategy for combating pain, and has also been Editor and Chief of the prestigious journal “Pain.”

In the Fall of 2010, FPRF approached Allan to apply his expertise to finding a cure for TN and related neuropathic pain. He believes pain to be a disease, rather than a symptom of another condition, and that trigeminal neuralgia and other neuropathic conditions are diseases of the nervous system.

Allan and his colleagues at UCSF initiated studies in which they transplanted modified human cells (to take on the properties of nerves cells) into damaged nerves in mice to end the pain.

Eventually this work led to the development of Neurona Inc., which is working on applying the science to repair damaged human nerves, including those in the trigeminal system. The FPRF has been funding both Allan’s research, and Neurona’s research, to find the cures.

Allan is a leader within the FPRF International Consortium of Scientists, often assisting and consulting on other FPRF scientists’ projects.