There is a plethora of really helpful and fascinating scientific research on what causes chronic pain. Scientists are digging through the human genome in order to find what causes the chronic pain that is so disruptive to our lives. The Huffington Post recently released an article on some of the latest findings:

Scientists have found a gene that regulates chronic pain, a discovery that could potentially boost the effectiveness of painkilling drugs, according to a new study in the journal Science.

The gene, called HCN2, is located at the pain-sensitive ends of nerves, Reuters reported. Apparently scientists had known about the existence of HCN2 before, but didn't know what role it played in pain.

Researchers found that by removing this gene from the nerve endings in mice, they no longer felt chronic pain, BBC News reported. They measured their pain response by seeing how quickly they reacted to pain.

TED recently had Richard Resnick — the CEO of GenomeQuest, a company that builds software to support genomic medicine — give a presentation on the research his company is doing. GenomeQuest is on the hunt for the specific genes that produce chronic pain:

Read the entire article on HuffingtonPost.com

Click here to learn more about the TED Talk “Richard Resnick: Welcome to the genomic revolution”