Lakshmi Nair
University of Connecticut, CT·Biomedical Engineering
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) wears down the cartilage and bone of the joint. It affects more than 32 million Americans and is a leading cause of pain flare-ups, chronic pain and disability.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Pharmacology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
osteoarthritis
chronic pain
pain management
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2031
What they work on
- Optimize where around the knee a new local anesthetic formulation is injected (periarticular placement), testing injection locations to find the one that gives the longest and strongest relief of osteoarthritis pain.
- Determine the dose and combination of injections of local anesthetics plus a pain modulator that extend pain relief toward the goal of 6–24 weeks.
- Evaluate whether periarticular injection of the local anesthetic formulation improves joint health in osteoarthritis, beyond relieving pain.
- Identify the mechanism of action in living animals by which the periarticular local anesthetic formulation prolongs and amplifies pain relief.
More about the research
Each common pain treatment has a drawback. Opioids are addictive and can lead to overdose, and steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) cause complications with long-term use. Local anesthetics, the numbing drugs used in medical procedures, are increasingly used for OA pain, but their effect wears off quickly.
Why it matters
People with knee osteoarthritis who now rely on opioids, NSAIDs or steroid injections could benefit from a longer-lasting, non-addictive way to control pain. If the periarticular local anesthetic approach works as proposed, it may relieve pain for weeks to months and help patients take part in physical therapy. It may also improve joint health without the addiction risk of opioids or the long-term side effects of steroids and NSAIDs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Brittany Givens Rassoolkhani
University of Kentucky, KY·Biomedical Engineering
Synthesize bupivacaine-loaded microparticles from PEGDA and hyaluronate acrylate and place them inside a PLGA in-situ forming implant that solidifies after injection.
David Felson
Boston University, MA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Identify proteins in knee synovial fluid and plasma linked to knee pain and MRI-detected cartilage damage, using SOMAScan aptamer-based proteomics in about 500 paired samples from the MOST cohort.
Sanja Novak
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, AR·Physiology
Evaluate how blood vessels in the synovium and subchondral bone change during OA development. Test whether early microvascular damage or later synovial angiogenesis drives cartilage damage, including after mechanical-stress knee injury.
The school
University of Connecticut: 31 labs on PI Pages, $434M a year on research, 360 research doctorates a year.
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