معرفی
Tamara King is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Maine's College of Medicine. She holds a PhD from Texas A&M University (1997) and completed post-doctoral training in Developmental Psychobiology at Columbia University and Hunter College (City University of New York). Her research focuses on understanding pain mechanisms in chronic conditions such as cancer-induced bone pain, osteoarthritis-induced joint pain, and neuropathic pain caused by nerve injury. She employs preclinical models to evaluate the affective/motivational aspects of pain relief and identifies therapeutic targets to develop safer alternatives to opioids.
Research interests include pain modulation pathways, sex differences in pain susceptibility, and translational approaches to pain management. Her work emphasizes discovering molecules that effectively alleviate pain across multiple models while minimizing side effects.
Selected publications highlight studies on temporomandibular joint pain mechanisms (Pain, 2019), bone/joint pain pathophysiology (Current Osteoporosis Reports, 2018), and IL-6 blockade in bone cancer pain (Pain, 2018). She also explores exercise interventions for osteoarthritis pain (Arthritis and Rheumatology, 2017).
Her lab is affiliated with the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering, located in Orono, Maine.
