UNE researcher Colin Willis was awarded a grant funded by the Migraine Research Foundation

University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine's Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences Colin Willis, Ph.D., was recently awarded a grant from the Migraine Research Foundation to support his research on how the frequent use of medications for the treatment of migraine can themselves induce headache pain.

The recently funded grant was entitled: "Mechanisms of blood-brain barrier dysfunction induced medication overuse headache". Dr. Willis and colleagues propose that the changes in the integrity of the blood-brain barrier may explain the increased likelihood of medication induced headache attack. Understanding the role of the blood-brain barrier is fundamental to understanding how migraine may occur and represents a novel pharmacological target in the development of novel therapeutics.