Ru-Rong Ji, PhD is the William Maixner Professor in Anesthesiology and Distinguished Professor at Duke University. Additionally, he is a Professor of Neurobiology and Cell Biology at the Duke University Medical Center and the Director of the Center for Translational Pain Medicine (CTPM). Before his tenure at Duke University, he was a faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.
Ru-Rong has dedicated over 25 years dedicated to exploring the mechanisms and treatments for chronic pain. His laboratory focuses on the role of glial and immune cells in the onset and resolution of pain. His research has led to breakthroughs in understanding the involvement of non-neuronal cells in pain, including glial modulation, neuroimmune interactions, and neuroinflammation. His team was the first to demonstrate the significant analgesic effects of specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) in animal pain models and to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying SPMs’ actions. In his early career, his work on the MAP kinase pathways in inflammatory and neuropathic pain paved the way for understanding peripheral and central sensitization in the development of chronic pain. His recent studies have uncovered the critical roles of the STING/interferon pathway and the PD-L1/PD-1 checkpoint pathway in immunotherapies for pain management. His findings are comprehensively detailed in his 2023 Springer publication, Neuroimmune Interactions in Pain: Mechanisms and Therapeutics.
His scholarly contributions include 250 publications in medical and neuroscience journals. These works have been cited 45,000 times, earning him an H-index of 115 on Google Scholar. For five consecutive years, Dr. Ji has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate. His achievements include receiving the NIH Transformative Award, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Research Excellence Award, and the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) Founder’s Award. Over his career, he has mentored more than 100 scientists and currently holds positions on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neuroscience, Anesthesiology, and Pain, as well as serving as Co-Chief Editor of Neuroscience Bulletin.
Ru-Rong earned his PhD from the Shanghai Institute of Physiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He furthered his education with postdoctoral training at Peking University, Karolinska Institute, and Johns Hopkins University.
