Katherine Martucci

Katherine Martucci, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Duke University. She directs the Human Affect and Pain Neuroscience Lab, focusing on neuroimaging studies of chronic pain, opioid use, and reward mechanisms. Her work integrates fMRI of the brain and spinal cord with behavioral and psychological assessments. She is affiliated with Duke’s Center for Translational Pain Medicine and the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.

Dr. Martucci earned her Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Anatomy from Wake Forest School of Medicine (2011) and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University, where she received an NIH K99 award. Since joining Duke in 2018, she has secured multiple NIH grants, including projects on spinal cord neurobiology in chronic pain and opioid therapy. Her research explores mechanisms linking pain, addiction, and neuroinflammation.

Key research interests include: spinal cord imaging in fibromyalgia and opioid users, neural correlates of reward-driven attention deficits in chronic pain, and neurobiological underpinnings of nociplastic pain conditions like systemic lupus erythematosus.

• Grants: Includes NIH-funded studies on opioid effects, spinal cord gray matter changes, and pain biomarkers in systemic lupus.
• Professional Roles: Associate Editor for Pain Medicine, member of the NIH Study Section, and leader of the ENIGMA-Chronic Pain consortium.
• Labs/Teams: Directs the Human Affect and Pain Neuroscience Lab; collaborates with Duke’s Brain Imaging and Analysis Center and MAPP Research Network.