When Pain Becomes a Catalyst: How Personal Experience Redefined One Scientist’s Mission
- Dr. GPCR Podcast
- Jul 24
- 2 min read
Why We’re Here
What if your own body pushed you into science? For Dr. Alex Serafini, that’s exactly what happened. After years of living with unresolved pain following surgery for a pilonidal cyst, Alex was left without options — and without relief. Denied stronger medication in the midst of the opioid crisis, he turned to the one place that still offered answers: the lab.
This is a story about how chronic pain doesn't just shape lives — it reshapes careers.
From Patient to Researcher
Alex wasn’t always planning to be a scientist. Born in California and raised in Silicon Valley, his early interests were in finance and business. But everything changed when his recurring pain — and the rigid protocols around opioid prescription — forced him to search deeper. “I wasn’t able to get stronger pain meds,” he said. “So I had to understand the biology myself.”
His new obsession led him to Johns Hopkins, where he worked in the lab of Dr. Mike Caterina on pain mechanisms in the peripheral nervous system. There, he learned how to frame pain not just as a symptom, but as a signal — and a scientific challenge.
The Value of Lived Experience in Science
What makes Serafini’s trajectory so compelling isn’t just his technical training — it’s the urgency he brings to the field. His interest in model development, in capturing the lived human experience through preclinical systems, was born out of necessity.
Building a Career from the Inside Out
Now back in med school, Serafini aims to follow the physician-scientist path: part-time clinical work, mostly lab-based research. He’s focused on RGS proteins, pain comorbidities like addiction and depression, and pushing for more accurate model systems.
"When you talk to patients that have an unmet need, you learn things that no one is thinking about in terms of how to solve those problems."
Takeaway
Science isn’t always about curiosity. Sometimes, it’s about necessity. Dr. Alex Serafini’s journey proves how personal pain can lead to professional purpose — and why the next generation of pain researchers needs to start from lived experience, not just literature.
_________________
Comments