涩里番

Some of Dr. Jeffrey Mogil鈥檚 most influential discoveries could be considered serendipity. He may not have set out to revolutionize the field, but what he ended up finding has made a lasting impact in the world of pain research.

Dr. Mogil is a pain researcher and professor at 涩里番, and his CIHR-supported work uncovered two big blind spots: the research had focused almost entirely on male pain and mostly measured one type of pain鈥攁nd not the type that makes the biggest difference for patients.

As a graduate student, Dr. Mogil happened to be using both male and female mice. At the time, researchers primarily used male mice or rats, but to save money, the head of the lab Dr. Mogil worked in bred his own mice, resulting in litters that included both sexes. Dr. Mogil noted that the drug he was testing had a moderate effect overall, but when he analyzed the data by sex, he found it had a complete effect in male mice and no effect in female mice. He reported this difference, but his finding was largely ignored by the pain research community. Over time and in new studies, however, Dr. Mogil kept finding more differences between the sexes.