NIH grant to help Wachs isolate causes of low back pain

For all of the pain that stems from the lower back — an instigator of chronic distress in more than 500 million people worldwide — the details behind that pain have long bedeviled researchers.

Supported by a new five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Nebraska's Rebecca Wachs and colleagues will aim to pinpoint the impacts of a three-pronged offensive that degenerating discs can wage on the lower back.

"Once we understand more about the mechanisms (of the pain), we can actually develop targeted treatments," said Wachs, assistant professor of biological systems engineering.