Charles Berde

Charles Berde is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Harvard Medical School, affiliated with Boston Children's Hospital. He leads the Berde Lab, which focuses on pediatric pain and anesthesia research. His clinical and academic work bridges translational science and patient care, with a strong emphasis on neuropathic pain, neurodevelopmental outcomes after anesthesia, and novel analgesic therapies.

• Stanford University School of Medicine - MD, PhD (1980)
• Boston Children's Hospital - Pediatrics Internship (1981), Residency (1983)
• Massachusetts General Hospital - Anesthesia Residency (1985)
• Boston Children's Hospital - Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship (1985)

Dr. Berde’s research interests include pediatric anesthesiology, neuropathic pain mechanisms, clinical pharmacology of analgesics, quantitative sensory testing, and functional brain imaging in children with chronic pain. His lab investigates how general anesthesia affects infant brain development using EEG and NIRS, and conducts clinical trials on drugs like gabapentin and oxcarbazepine for chronic neuropathic pain. He also explores prolonged-duration local anesthetics, including neosaxitoxin-based formulations.

His recent publications reflect a strong trend in pediatric neurodevelopment under anesthesia, pain syndromes like erythromelalgia and CRPS, and innovative trial designs for analgesics in infants and children. His work integrates epidemiology, biostatistics, and advanced signal processing to analyze complex clinical data.

• 2003 Scientific Achievement Award, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association
• Time Magazine 'Hero in Medicine' (1997)

Dr. Berde has led numerous clinical studies and has been instrumental in shaping pediatric pain management guidelines. His lab collaborates with institutions like MGH and MIT, leveraging expertise in optics, neuroscience, and biostatistics. He has mentored many researchers and contributed to the development of pediatric pain treatment services. The Berde Lab continues to advance understanding of pain mechanisms and improve clinical outcomes through rigorous translational research.

The lab operates within Boston Children's Hospital and maintains active collaborations with the Optics Division at MGH and the Neuroscience Statistics Lab at MIT, supporting interdisciplinary research in brain monitoring and signal analysis.