Inna Belfer

Dr. Belfer is world-recognized expert in human pain genetics and assessement of clinical pain and pain-related traits. She started her career as a neurologist, and then got extensive training in neurobiology and human genetics. Since 2001, her primary interest has been the relationship between gene polymorphisms and complex phenotypes such as pain, psychiatric disorders, and addictions. Her research focused on biobehavioral aspects of acute and chronic pain, phenomics of human pain and predictors of the transformation of acute pain into chronic condition. Dr. Belfer served at numerous national and international grant review panels, presented at over 60 scientific conferences, organized pain genetic meetings, workshops and roundtables. She published extensively in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and editted several book chapters and books. She also served as clinical reviewer for novel analgisics at Food and Drug Administartion evaluating clinical trial design and safety data and analysing trends and new scientific fields including sex-specific factors controlling pain.
During her clinical and scientific career Dr. Belfer focused specifically on women’s pain and women-specific genetic mechanisms of chronic pain. Currently, she joined the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health to ensure that women’s health research is part of the scientific framework at the NIH—and throughout the scientific community.