UAB Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery Assistant Professor Demario S. Overstreet, Ph.D., has spearheaded the expansion of an ongoing $3.47 million National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded traumatic injury pain study, led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, to establish the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) as an additional performance site.
About the study
Led by Matthew C. Morris, Ph.D., at Vanderbilt University, the NIH/NIMHD R01-funded study (R01MD016838) uses an observational, longitudinal approach to examine biological and psychosocial factors associated with the transition from acute to chronic pain following traumatic injury. By following patients over time, the multisite investigation seeks to identify factors that predict individual differences in pain recovery.
Recruited by Morris to expand the study's clinical research network, Overstreet expanded efforts to establish UAB as an additional performance site and will serve as the institution's site principal investigator. As part of this NIH-funded initiative, UAB will receive a research subaward to support its participation in the multisite study over the next three years. Overstreet's leadership includes developing research infrastructure, coordinating regulatory activities, recruiting clinical collaborators, and establishing strategies for participant recruitment and retention.
To support the establishment of UAB as an additional performance site, Overstreet has recruited UAB-based orthopedic trauma surgeons Joseph Johnson, M.D., and Clay Spitler, M.D., to join the research team as site co-investigators. Overstreet will serve as UAB site principal investigator, overseeing the scientific and research activities, while Johnson and Spitler will lead the clinical components of the study. Together, the team will leverage UAB's Level I trauma infrastructure to recruit and longitudinally follow patients recovering from traumatic injuries.
“Traumatic injury may occur in a single moment, but its impact can shape a patient's life for years to come,” said Overstreet. “This collaboration creates an important opportunity for UAB Surgery to contribute to a national effort to better understand outcomes following traumatic injury. Working alongside Drs. Joseph Johnson and Clay Spitler, we have an opportunity to bridge clinical care and longitudinal research, ensuring that the experiences of patients treated at UAB contribute to a broader scientific understanding of recovery after injury.”
Additional research and project scope
The project complements Overstreet's independently funded research program, supported by a National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA). His NIGMS-funded research focuses on understanding fundamental biomedical mechanisms underlying pain following surgical tissue injury, integrating experimental pain phenotyping, biological markers, and psychosocial assessments to investigate individual differences in pain vulnerability and recovery. In contrast, the Vanderbilt-led R01 emphasizes observational, longitudinal follow-up after traumatic injury. Together, these complementary projects create opportunities for scientific exchange, allowing insights from mechanistic investigations and longitudinal clinical observations to inform one another and advance understanding of pain following tissue injury.
With these complementary awards, Overstreet now contributes to NIH-funded pain research in two distinct leadership capacities – as sole principal investigator of his NIGMS MIRA and as UAB site principal investigator on a collaborative, multisite NIMHD R01. These roles strengthen UAB's research portfolio while expanding opportunities for interdisciplinary team science, scientific discovery, and research training.