Luda Diatchenko

Luda Diatchenko, MD, PhD is a Canada Research Chair in Human Pain Genetics and a Professor at the Faculty of Dentistry and Medicine, at McGill University. Dr. Diatchenko earned her MD and PhD in the field of Molecular Biology from the Russian State Medical University. Dr. Diatchenko started her career in industry, she was a Leader of the RNA Expression Group at Clontech, Inc., and subsequently, Director of Gene Discovery at Attagene, Inc. During this time, Dr. Diatchenko was actively involved in the development of several widely-used and widely-cited molecular tools for the analysis of gene expression and regulation. Dr. Diatchenko’s academic career started in 2000 in the Center for Neurosensory Disorders at the University of North Carolina. Her research since then is focused on determining the genetic mechanisms that impact and shape human pain perception and risk of development of chronic pain conditions, enabling new approaches to identify drug targets, treatment responses to analgesics, and diagnostics. In total, Dr. Diatchenko has authored or co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed research papers in journals, 10 book chapters, and edited a book in human pain genetics. She is a past and current member and an active officer of several national and international scientific societies, including the International Association for the Study of Pain, the American Pain Society, and Canadian Pain Society.