Migraine headache is one of the most debilitating disorders in the world and treatments are insufficient. The Sowers laboratory studies the neurocircuitry underlying migraine and post-traumatic headache. Our preclinical laboratory focuses heavily on the sensory abnormalities associated with migraine and post-traumatic headache, including photophobia, spontaneous pain and touch hypersensitivity. Our lab’s research uses functional MRI, optogenetic and DREADD approaches to better understand the circuits contributing to those sensory abnormalities. We recently identified the deep cerebellar nuclei as possible sensory integration centers underlying sensory abnormalities in migraine. We are a VA associated lab and part of the VA Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss with a special emphasis on Veteran related problems in headache. Post-traumatic headache is similar to migraine and affects about 50% of Veterans who saw combat in war zones. Our hope is to one day identify brain regions that can be manipulated in humans to treat headache. Our promotion of a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach to tackle these important questions in headache medicine offers trainees room to grow and become wonderful independent scientists.
Dr. Sowers and colleagues Dr. Russo and Dr. Hultman were highlighted in Medicine Iowa for their combined specialties in migraine research using a precision approach to connect individual patients with treatments. Read the article here: https://medicineiowa.org/spring-2026/headache-resilience
Dr. Sowers was featured in Medicine Iowa, a publication of University of Iowa Healthcare featuring stories of research and education at Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. View the article here: https://medicineiowa.org/fall-2025/levi-sowers-shedding-light-migraine-and-post-traumatic-headache
Iowa Neuroscience Institute Events
Pain Research Program Seminar - Nicole Scheff, PhD
Rethinking Relief: Targeting Sensory Nerves to Combat Cancer
Nicole Scheff, PhD
Assistant Professor
Center for Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh
Neuroscience and Pharmacology Seminar - J. Nicholas Betley, PhD
It is all in your head: Brain-Body interactions and the beneficial adaptations from exercise
J. Nicholas Betley, PhD
Professor
Department of Biology
University of Pennsylvania
Carver College of Medicine Events
Pain Research Program Seminar - Nicole Scheff, PhD
Rethinking Relief: Targeting Sensory Nerves to Combat Cancer
Nicole Scheff, PhD
Assistant Professor
Center for Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh
ACB Seminar Series - Jackson Kilburg
Jackson Kilburg, a Cell and Developmental Biology Graduate Student in Sam Stephen's Lab will present a seminar titled "Inflammatory Remodeling of the Pancreatic β-Cell Surface: Investigating Glycosylation, MHC-I, and Golgi Regulation."
REDCap Intermediate Training
This is the second step in the REDCap training series. In this training we will cover basic and intermediate features such as:
• Outputting data automatically with calculated fields
• Collecting the same data points multiple times with longitudinal and one-to-many data collection
• Standardizing your data to industry standards with ontologies and the REDCap Instrument Library
• Ways to customize your data entry experience with action tags
• Viewing data with reports, dashboards, and charts
• And more
T...
REDCap Surveys Training
This is the third step in the REDCap training series. In this training, we will cover survey configuration and distribution such as:
Allowing potential participants to self-initiate participation in your study with public surveys
Manually and automatically sending surveys
Administering electronic consent (e-consent) forms
Controlling survey access with conditional logic and survey login
This training is a demo and not hands-on. After this training you will have a basic understanding of surveys in...
Molecular Medicine Interdisciplinary Program Thesis Defense Seminar: Jianyu Yu
Jianyu Yu is a PhD candidate in the Biomedical Science (Molecular Medicine) Interdisciplinary Graduate Program. His research has been conducted in Bing Li's laboratory.
If you are not able to attend in person, please consider showing your support by attending via Zoom. Please email [email protected] for the Zoom link.