Eva Kosek

Dr. Kosek received her medical degree (MD) from Uppsala University in 1986 and her PhD from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm in 1996. She is a specialist in rehabilitation medicine since 1998 and pain relief since 2001 and has been clinically active for the most part of her professional carrier. She has carried out her research at the Karolinska Institutet, as Associate Professor since 2004 and full Professor of Clinical Pain Research since 2015. In 2020 she also became full Professor of Clinical Pain Research at the Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, combined with a position as senior consultant at the Pain Center, Uppsala University Hospital. She combines these three positions with the aim to facilitate collaborative research projects.

Prof Kosek chaired the International Association of Pain (IASP) Terminology Task Force, introducing a new pain mechanistic term “nociplastic pain” intended for primary pain syndromes characterized by altered nociception (i.e., dysfunctional pain modulation).

Prof. Kosek’s research focuses on pathophysiological mechanisms in chronic musculoskeletal pain, with special reference to central pain modulation and neuroimmune interaction. She studies common pain disorders such as fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and various specific chronic low back pain conditions. The research is hypothesis driven and profits from a wide variety of techniques such as genetics, analysis of inflammatory substances in cerebrospinal fluid and blood, quantitative sensory testing and neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography). Prof Kosek has several national and international research collaborations and also participates in translational studies, currently mainly focusing on the role of autoreactive antibodies in fibromyalgia.

Link to research group: https://surgsci.uu.se/Forskning/forskningsomraden/klinisk-smartforskning/