Presidential Task Force: Guidelines for the Use of Laboratory Animals in Pain Research

Session Title: Presidential Task Force: Guidelines for the Use of Laboratory Animals in Pain Research

Topic: BASIC SCIENCE

Description: This workshop is anchored to IASP’s Presidential Task Force “Guidelines for the Use of Laboratory Animals in Pain Research” (2024–2026; co-chairs Esther Pogatzki-Zahn and Anne-Marie Heegaard). The Task Force’s mission is to update the 1983 “Zimmermann” guideline, and develop a new set of recommendations, which aim to minimize harm to animals and maximize scientific and societal benefit. The Task Force consists of the two co-chairs, and 28 experts from many different fields related to preclinical pain research including the 3Rs (https://www.iasp-pain.org/group/use-of-laboratory-animals-in-pain-research-presidential-task-force/). The Task Force decided to perform a stepwise approach to generate guidelines based on scoping reviews, group discussions and a modified Delphi approach (preregistration: https://osf.io/pg9w7). After intense discussions about broad content, six working groups were established which span Ethics, Internal Validity, Reporting, Animal Models of Pain, Animal Testing for Pain, Pain Reduction in Animal Studies, and miscellaneous aspects. Patient involvement, dissemination and implementation are topics which are relevant in the process as well. After scoping reviews and subgroup discussions, recommendations were developed within the six working groups, which were again discussed with the full group, before a 3-step Delphi approach was initiated. This Delphi process will align on the final recommendations which will be ready for approval in February 2026.
The aim of this workshop is to introduce the new guidelines and to present and discuss with the pain community three pertinent topics.
Program:
Chairs: Anne-Marie Heegaard and Esther Pogatzki-Zahn (Co-Chairs of the Task Force)
Introduction to the guidelines: New guidelines on laboratory use of animals in pain research: why, how and what? (Esther Pogatzki-Zahn). Short, 15-minute scene-setter— which will delineate the process of developing the new ethical guidelines: why, how, and what has been done, present some of the recommendations and their practical implications for preclinical pain research.
Thereafter, three different topics will be addressed. Each topic will be briefly introduced and then discussed by an interactive panel where audience input via polls, case vignettes, and evidence snapshots sparks dynamic discussion. A focused Q&A then draws out practical consensus and highlights key disagreements for deeper understanding
Topic 1: Analgesia in animal models of pain - challenges and controversies (Sara Hestehave): How can we use analgesia to minimize harm from the model induction and other procedures without compromising the scientific objectives?
Topic 2: Patient involvement in preclinical programs – benefits and controversies (Nader Ghasemlou): How can patient involvement improve preclinical pain research? What constitutes “meaningful” involvement without tokenism, role descriptions across the study lifecycle.
Topic 3: Dissemination and implementation - a global challenge (Jun Sato): How do we get the new ethical guidelines disseminated and adapted to researchers, ethics committees and journals across the world?

Target groups:
Preclinical pain scientists; laboratory veterinarians; animal care and welfare staff.
IACUC/REC/ethics committee members and institutional oversight professionals.
Methodologists, statisticians, and reproducibility/rigor leads.
Journal editors and peer reviewers handling animal pain studies.
Funders and program officers setting expectations for ethical and methodological quality.
Early-career researchers seeking concrete templates for responsible, reproducible work.

Speakers

Jun Sato Chubu University
Japan

EDUCATION
Mar. 1983　Graduation, Tokai University School of Medicine
Mar. 1987　Completion, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine (Physiology)
Jun. 1989　Doctor’s degree of Medicine (Nagoya University)

EPLOYMENT
Sep. 1987　Research Associate, Department of Physiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, USA
Apr. 1991　Assistant Professor, Department of Neural Regulation, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University
Jun. 1999　Associate Professor, Department of Neural Regulation, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine,
Nagoya University
Apr. 2004　Invited Researcher (additional post), Department of Algesiology, Aichi Medical University
Apr. 2006　Associate Professor, Futuristic Environmental Simulation Center, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine,
Nagoya University
Jul. 2007　Doctor of Pain clinic (Additional job), Multidisciplinary Pain Center, Aichi Medical University
Apr. 2008 Director, Laboratory Animal Facility, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University
Jul. 2013　Director and Professor, Center for Animal Research and Education, Nagoya University
Feb. 2018 Professor, Department Collage and Health Sciences, Chubu University
Apr. 2018 Lecturer at Nagoya University School of Medicine (concurrent position)
Apr. 2021 Visiting Professor, Aichi Medical University (concurrent position)

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Honorary member, Japanese Association for Study of Pain
Member, International Association for the Study of Pain
Member, Society for Neuroscience
Director, Japanese Society of Biometeorology
Councilor, Japan Society of Aerospace and Environmental Medicine
Auditor, The Japan Society for the Study of Chronic Pain
Councilor, Japanese Society of Autonomic Neurology

Nader Ghasemlou Krembil Brain Institute, University Health Network
Canada

Nader Ghasemlou, PhD is a Senior Scientist at the Krembil Brain Institute and Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto, where he leads the Pain Chronobiology & Neuroimmunology Lab (www.ghasemloulab.ca) and the CircaHealth Research Network (CHRoNo, www.circahealth.ca). His research team uses a translational approach to study the intersection of pain, neuroimmunology, and circadian biology. Research in the lab uses various animal models of injury and disease, including postoperative wounds, neuropathic nerve injury, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injury, to better understand the molecular, cellular, and behavioural responses underlying human disease. His team takes advantage of circadian rhythmicity to uncover how bidirectional communication between the nervous and immune systems affect health and disease outcomes using behavioural assays, electrophysiology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics approaches, as well as a translational research program that seeks to identify the impact of neuroimmunity on biopsychosocial outcomes in patient populations. The team leads both preclinical and clinical work, including a non-pharmacological clinical trial, to better understand how time of day affects pain outcomes.

Esther Pogatzki-Zahn University of Münster
Germany

EPZ is a certified anaesthesiologist and pain physician working since 30 years in the University of Muenster. From 1998-2003 she was trained in the US, University of Iowa, IA and Johns Hopkins University as a neuroscientist. Today, she works as a full professor (W3) in the Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Management by combining clinician work (as a pain specialist, leading the pain service in the University Hospital Muenster), teaching, and research. As the PI of the “Translational Pain Research Group”, she and her interdisciplinary team aim to provide insight into the neuropathology of chronic postsurgical, pelvic, inflammatory, neuropathic and cancer-related pain. Her special interest lies in the pathophysiological mechanisms, prediction and prevention of pain of different origin as well as treatment of pain. This encompasses preclinical in-vivo and in-vitro experiments (behavioural, pharmacological, electrophysiological, omics, optogenetic, and molecular methods), human experimental studies (multi-omics, psychophysical, psychological, fMRI) and clinical trials (RCTs, observational and large cohort trials and registries). She developed and characterized the incision models in rats, mice and human volunteers and pioneered the research in this area. Based on this background she further developed animal related pain models and behavioural measures, translational approaches to identify the underlying mechanisms, and translated this to clinical practice. Today, she leads initiatives and task forces providing evidence from large trials, developing guidelines and consensus processes and Core Outcome Sets/ PROMs in the field of pain. She is involved in many consortia as PI / Co-PI including IMI-PainCare (www.imi-paincare.eu/), INTEGRATE (https://integrate-pain-domain-meeting.com/about/), Stepp-Upp (https://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmftr.de/de/stepp-upp-untersuchung-der-mechanismen-von-endometriose-bedingten-schmerzen-als-17939.php), PANDOS (www.esaic.org/research/research-groups/pandos/), POET-Pain (https://www.poet-pain.de), IT-Pain (https://itpain.org/), ENTRUST-PE (https://m.entrust-pe.org/), and Pain-Out (https://www.pain-out.eu/painout/), among others. EPZ published >250 full peer-reviewed papers (h index: 64), >10 book chapters, 3 books; supervised >30 doctoral thesis/ PhD thesis successfully to completion. She is a (past) IASP council member, President-elect of the EFIC (presidency starting in 9/2026), and board member of several other national and international societies, is involved in task forces and guideline development, like the IASP Presidential Task Force on ethical guidelines for animal pain research (as a Co-PI) an the ESAIC/EFIC guideline on perioperative pain management (as a Co-PI). She is editorial board member of European Journal of Anaesthesia (deputy editor in chief) and European Journal of Pain (section Editor).

Sara Hestehave University of Copenhagen
Denmark

Sara Hestehave holds a master in Veterinary Medicine and a PhD in In vivo Pharmacology (2019) from the University of Copenhagen. Her PhD-research focused on emotional comorbidities in neuropathic pain models, after which she continued as a postdoctoral researcher at University College London in the lab of S.Geranton, focusing on emotional comorbidities and stress-involvement in preclinical models of joint pain. For her 2nd postdoc, she joined the R.Khanna lab at New York University exploring various pharmacological approaches for pain treatment in different pain-models. In 2024, she returned to University of Copenhagen as an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, where she teaches biomedical research courses for veterinary students, and continues her research-focus on preclinical pain. Her research focus on various approaches for improving the welfare of animals used in pain-research, and optimizing the ways that we assess/measure pain in rodents.

Anne-Marie Heegaard University of Copenhagen
Denmark

Anne-Marie Heegaard, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor at the Department of Drug Design & Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen. Anne-Marie Heegaard’s laboratory focuses on molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying malignant and non-malignant bone pain. Her research is translational and ranges from in vitro studies to animal models and clinical investigations. Previously Dr. Heegaard was Head of in vivo pharmacology at a biotech company. Dr. Heegaard was the coordinator of the European Doctoral Networks: BonePain (2015-2018); BonePainII (2019-2022) and BonePainIII (2024-2027)

Bruno Pradier University of Münster
Germany

Bruno Pradier, PhD, is a neuroscientist and pain researcher at the University Hospital Münster, Germany. His research focuses on understanding how peripheral and central mechanisms of pain translate into clinically relevant pain-related behavior. A particular emphasis of his work in Münster is the multidimensional assessment of pain behavior, including evoked, spontaneous, and movement-related outcomes, and its integration with neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches. Using preclinical models of postsurgical, neuropathic, and inflammatory pain, his work combines behavioral phenotyping with fMRI, electrophysiology, and molecular methods to investigate mechanisms underlying the development and persistence of pain. He is also a member of the IASP Presidential Task Force on Guidelines for the Use of Laboratory Animals in Pain Research.

View More Speakers...