José M. Castro-Lopes, MD, PhD, is full professor and chair of Histology and Embryology and of Pain Medicine, and head of the Department of Experimental Biology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), where he is also director of the Post-Graduate Course on Pain Medicine. He received his MD and PhD from the FMUP and worked at the Max-Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, the School of Pharmacy in London and the Unit 161 of the INSERM in Paris. The main research field of Prof. Castro-Lopes is the neurobiology of pain, in particular the changes induced in the Central Nervous System by chronic pain, and has published many articles and some books, book chapters and review articles. More recently, he coordinates a research group focusing on the epidemiology of pain in Portugal. Prof. Castro-Lopes was chair of the International Course on Pain Medicine, chairman of the Scientific Program Committee of 12th World Congress on Pain of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), and chairman of the Local Organizing Committee of Pain in Europe VI, and of the IV FENS Forum of European Neuroscience. He served as Treasurer of EFIC and is currently a member of the IASP council. He is on the editorial board of a few journals and was a referee for research projects submitted to the European Commission. At national level, Prof. Castro-Lopes is the President of the National Observatory for Pain -NOPain, was the Coordinator of the National Plan for Pain Control of the Portuguese Ministry of Health and served as President of the Portuguese Association for the Study of Pain.