PRICE is a multi-college Center of Excellence that serves as the professional home for UF scientists, clinicians and trainees dedicated to improved understanding and treatment of pain. PRICE is affiliated with and supported by the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), and receives strong support from the UF Institute on Aging and the UFHealth Cancer Center. PRICE provides member
investigators with several resources and services in order to facilitate clinical and translational pain research at UF, including assistance with protocol development and assistance with recruitment of research participants. Also PRICE offers facilities and services to assist investigators with collection of pain assessment data in their research protocols, via the Pain Clinical Research Unit (see below). Investigators can conduct their own studies in the PainCRU, or they can request that the PainCRU staff collect the data for their protocol. In addition, PRICE endeavors to enhance the intellectual and professional work environment for the UF pain research community by coordinating training activities related to pain, including our T32 training grant in translational pain research, as well as journal clubs, seminar series, and a monthly Pain Interest Group. In 2013, PRICE occupied its physical home in the new Clinical and Translational Research Building (CTRB), a state-of-the-art research building that serves as the home for clinical and translational research at the University of Florida. The CTRB provides offices for the PRICE Director, multiple PRICE research coordinators and staff, as well as the Director of the Pain Clinical Research Unit (see below). Pain Clinical Research Unit (PainCRU): The PainCRU (Director, Dr. Joe Riley) is a component of PRICE, which provides a patient-oriented research venue designed to facilitate and foster clinical and translational pain research at UF. The PainCRU currently occupies more than 2,000 square feet of space, which includes two CTRB locations, including the Clinical Research Center and the Institute on Aging’s Aging Rehabilitation Research Center (ARRC), as well as an additional location on the second floor of the Dental Tower at the University of Florida Health Sciences Center. Altogether, the PainCRU includes six fully equipped psychophysical testing units, each approximately 150 square feet. The laboratory space also includes multiple clinical examination and interview rooms. Each of the six sensory testing units is equipped for assessing thermal pain and pressure pain (equipment list), and four of the laboratories are also equipped for assessing cold pressor pain. All units include equipment for measuring cardiovascular responses. The PainCRU facilities in the CTRB are contiguous with the greatly expanded UF Clinical Research Center (CRC), which has multiple general use examination rooms, laboratory and sample processing facilities, as well as several infusion and procedure rooms. The UF CRC offers nursing support for PainCRU studies that involve repeated blood draws and/or administration of medications.
