Stephen Coombes directs the Laboratory for Rehabilitation Neuroscience at the University of Florida. His laboratory is focused on pain and motor processing in the human brain. Over the last several decades, the emergent view is that chronic pain has a central component that is characterized by changes in brain function and brain structure in nociceptive and non-nociceptive brain regions. Despite these advances, the translation to objective brain markers of chronic musculoskeletal pain remains an important challenge. The studies proposed in his currently-funded R01 address this challenge using state-of-the-art diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI), advanced analysis methods for tractography and bi-tensor quantification to assess microstructure in white matter pathways, and rigorous machine learning techniques to develop a brain based marker for musculoskeletal pain. Following his PhD in motor control, Stephen completed postdoctoral training in brain imaging and was supported by NIH T32 and F32 awards. Stephen's training and publication record demonstrate extensive experience in multimodal neuroimaging of motor and pain networks. I have published my research in journals that include Cerebral Cortex, Brain, Human Brain Mapping, Journal of Pain, Neuroimage, Pain, and Neuroimage: Clinical.

On his training grant experience, Stephen writes:

My participation in the BNTP taught me a great deal about depression and the relationship with pain, as I had to opportunity to interact with faculty and other trainees who transformed my thinking. Currently, I mentor 1 post-doctoral fellow, 1 doctoral student, 3 masters students, and 3 undergraduate research assistants. He is also a committee member for 7 other doctoral students. He has also supervised 2 undergraduate thesis projects. My current post-doc has published 2 first authored papers, co-authored 2 additional papers, and presented his work at the Society for Neuroscience. My doctoral student has co- authored 3 papers, and also
presented his work at the Society for Neuroscience (in 2 years).