UW News

July 8, 2004

Gunn-Loke Lecture brings pain sensitivity expert to campus

Dr. Gerald Gebhart, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Iowa, will give the 19th annual Gunn-Loke Lecture at 5 p.m., Tuesday, July 13, in room T-733 of the Health Sciences Building. A reception will follow in the foyer.

His lecture, titled “Gut Feelings,” is sponsored by the School of Medicine and the UW Multidisciplinary Pain Center, and supported by an endowment established by Dr. and Mrs. C. Chan Gunn of Vancouver, B.C. It is free and open to the public.

Gebhart has led the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Iowa since 1996. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1971, and began his academic career there in 1973 as an assistant professor, following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Research in Neurologic Sciences at the University of Montreal.

He has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career including the John J. Bonica Award and Lecture at the Eastern Pain Society in 1998, the John J. Bonica Award and Lecture at the American Society of Regional Anesthesia in 2000, the Fredrick W.L. Kerr Award of the American Pain Society in 1994 and the American Pain Society Distinguished Service Award Medal in 2003.

Gebhart’s research interests and numerous publications have focused on the mechanisms of pain and its control. A principal focus of his laboratory research is investigating the mechanisms of sensitivity to pain following tissue injury. He also studies the organization and operation of endogenous systems of pain control and their relevance to chronic pain conditions.