Irina Strigo

Irina Strigo, Ph.D. is Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and Research Biologist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She is affiliated with the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and maintains the ePainLab research group. Her academic journey began with a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physiology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, followed by research training at Columbia University (Radiology), Barrow Neurological Institute (Neurosurgery), and UC San Diego (Psychiatry).

Dr. Strigo's research focuses on brain networks that process pain and emotion in individuals with depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury. Her work seeks to understand how individual differences in pain response relate to pain chronification, with particular emphasis on interoception, pain anticipation, and the neural mechanisms underlying pain-emotion interactions. She has pioneered research connecting traumatic experiences with altered pain processing, particularly in veterans with PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

Analysis of her recent publications (2023-2025) reveals a strong focus on chronic low back pain mechanisms, interoceptive attention training using digital platforms, and the intersection of pain with mental health conditions. Her work increasingly incorporates machine learning approaches for pain phenotyping and shows a growing emphasis on translational applications of neuroscience to develop novel pain interventions, particularly for veteran populations. The research spans multiple disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, pain medicine, and digital health.

Dr. Strigo has secured significant research funding through multiple NIH grants as Principal Investigator, including projects examining mu opioid mediated pain vulnerability in combat mild Traumatic Brain Injury (I01CX001652), neurobehavioral correlates of pain in PTSD (I01CX000816), and neural processes underlying pain perception in depression (R21MH077205). Her work has also been supported by the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Painless Research Foundation.

She leads the ePainLab at UCSF, which investigates the neural basis of pain processing and modulation. Her research bridges basic neuroscience with clinical applications, particularly in veteran populations, and has contributed significantly to understanding the relationship between trauma, mental health conditions, and pain processing. Dr. Strigo has established herself as a leading researcher in the field of pain neuroscience with over 150 publications and extensive collaborations across multiple institutions.