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
Carver College of Medicine Events
REDCap Basic Training
This is the first step in the REDCap training series. In this training, we will build a new REDCap project from scratch and cover basic features such as:
• Building forms with proper field types and validation
• Assigning user permissions
• Project backup and overview with data dictionary, codebook, pdf, and xml
• Ensuring your project works properly by testing with real world application
• Making mid-study modifications safely after having started data collection in production
• Creating and...
BMB Research Workshop
The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology holds research workshops featuring internal speakers on Tuesdays, 12:30-1:20pm. For Fall 2026, these will occur in 1117 MERF. Presentation titles are not publicly available due to the use of unpublished research. Individuals interested in attending workshops or being added to the email list should contact the office at [email protected].
Aug. 25: CANCELED
Sept. 1: CANCELED
Sept. 8: RESERVED
Sept. 15: Steve Guzman, PhD, Postdoc Fellow, Biomedical...
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...