{"id":217,"date":"2011-11-05T18:34:03","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T18:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/?p=217"},"modified":"2026-02-25T20:50:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T20:50:59","slug":"genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From one person to another, or one mouse strain to another, there is substantial variation in individual reporting of pain intensity and frequency as well as in behaviors indicative of pain.\u00a0 Genetics are responsible for some of this variability: some people inherit genetic mutations that drastically affect the protein made by the gene and make them unable to feel pain, or mutations that make them suffer from pain chronically. More subtly, people also inherit single nucleotide polymorphisms\u2014individual differences in just one of the molecules that make up our DNA\u2014which may result in moderate alterations in the structure of the protein produced and make them more or less sensitive to something painful or more or less susceptible to chronic pain. While historically, the field of pain genetics has concerned itself primarily with rare pain conditions resulting from inheritance of a single gene, the past few years have been characterized by significant progress in our understanding of the genetic contributions to \u201ccommon\u201d pain as a result of new methodologies including the genome-wide genotyping approach.\u00a0 The most recent findings in the genetics of pain are summarized and the potential applications of these findings to human health are discussed in our review paper.\u00a0 (<a href=\"http:\/\/jmg.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2011\/11\/05\/jmedgenet-2011-100386.abstract?papetoc\">http:\/\/jmg.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2011\/11\/05\/jmedgenet-2011-100386.abstract?papetoc<\/a> )<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From one person to another, or one mouse strain to another, there is substantial variation in individual reporting of pain intensity and frequency as well as in behaviors indicative of pain.\u00a0 Genetics are responsible for some of this variability: some people inherit genetic mutations that drastically affect the protein made by the gene and make [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young) - JMG Contact blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young) - JMG Contact blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From one person to another, or one mouse strain to another, there is substantial variation in individual reporting of pain intensity and frequency as well as in behaviors indicative of pain.\u00a0 Genetics are responsible for some of this variability: some people inherit genetic mutations that drastically affect the protein made by the gene and make [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JMG Contact blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-05T18:34:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-25T20:50:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hqqu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HuiQiQu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hqqu\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/05\\\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/05\\\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"hqqu\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be0250f8d5b52412c3e7c222dabd591b\"},\"headline\":\"Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young)\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-05T18:34:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-25T20:50:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/05\\\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":222,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/05\\\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/05\\\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/05\\\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\\\/\",\"name\":\"Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young) - 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His research applies human genetics and multi-omics to complex and pediatric diseases, including GWAS, polygenic risk scores (PRS), single-cell transcriptomics, and integrative genomics to support precision medicine and clinical translation.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/HuiQiQu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/jmg\\\/author\\\/hqiqu\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young) - JMG Contact blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young) - JMG Contact blog","og_description":"From one person to another, or one mouse strain to another, there is substantial variation in individual reporting of pain intensity and frequency as well as in behaviors indicative of pain.\u00a0 Genetics are responsible for some of this variability: some people inherit genetic mutations that drastically affect the protein made by the gene and make [...]Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/","og_site_name":"JMG Contact blog","article_published_time":"2011-11-05T18:34:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-25T20:50:59+00:00","author":"hqqu","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@HuiQiQu","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"hqqu","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/"},"author":{"name":"hqqu","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/#\/schema\/person\/be0250f8d5b52412c3e7c222dabd591b"},"headline":"Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young)","datePublished":"2011-11-05T18:34:03+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-25T20:50:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/"},"wordCount":222,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/jmg\/2011\/11\/05\/genetic-basis-of-pain-variability-recent-advances\/","name":"Genetic basis of pain variability: recent advances (Contributed by Erin Young) - 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