Battelle to aid UNC in pain disorder research

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Battelle's Center for Analytics and Public Health will serve as the coordinating center for a new five-year, $16 million research project that will be led by the University of North Carolina. The funding is provided by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) for in-depth pain disorder research.

The program, titled "Orofacial Pain Prospective Evaluation and Risk Assessment II" (OPPERA-II), is the second investment in pain research made by NIDCR to UNC's Regional Center for Neurosensory Disorders. The OPPERA-II program will enroll 3,000 new participants and conduct follow-up assessments of them and of 3,200 adults previously studied in the OPPERA-I program. OPPERA-II is designed to build on the findings in its preceding study, OPPERA-I, and will deepen the understanding of risk factors and genetic markers for chronic pain conditions like temporomandibular disorders (TMD), headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, low back pain, and chronic widespread pain.

Battelle is a global leader in health-care research and development with deep capabilities in statistical analysis, research design, survey operations, field data collection, and program evaluation. "To continue to serve as the data coordination center for this unique and world-class pain phenotypic-genotypic data set is a real feather in Battelle's cap," said Charles Knott, director of survey operations at Battelle. "We value greatly our association with the University of North Carolina and their academic partners."

In addition to creating the information management system for the program and overall data management and coordination, Battelle's survey operations is recruiting the community participants for the prospective cohort addressing progression from acute to chronic TMD as well as the replication phase case-control genome wide association study of chronic TMD.

The funding will be split between the study's four recruitment sites: Participant recruitment sites for OPPERA-II will be located at UNC, the College of Dentistry at the University of Florida in Gainesville, the School of Dental Medicine at the University at Buffalo in New York, and the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in Baltimore. The University of Washington and Harvard University also are involved in OPPERA-II.

About Battelle — As the world's largest independent research and development organization, Battelle provides innovative solutions to the world's most pressing needs through its four global businesses: Laboratory Management; National Security; Health and Life Sciences; and Energy, Environment and Material Sciences. It advances scientific discovery and application by conducting $6.5 billion in global R&D annually through contract research, laboratory management and technology commercialization. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle oversees 22,000 employees in more than 130 locations worldwide, including eight national laboratories for which Battelle has a significant management role on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the United Kingdom. Battelle also is one of the nation's leading charitable trusts focusing on societal and economic impact and actively supporting and promoting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.