Dr. Shad Smith appointed Research Assistant Professor for Endodontics and Faculty at CNSD
Dr. Shad Smith recently joined UNC as a research assistant professor in the Department of Endodontics and holds a faculty position in the Center for Neurosensory Disorders (CNSD). Dr.Smith earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology with minors in chemistry and zoology from Brigham Young University. He then worked for a year as a drug abuse counselor in an addiction treatment facility in Wilmington, NC before beginning graduate school in the laboratory of Dr. Jeff Mogil at McGill University in Montreal. In 2006, he graduated with a doctorate in psychology with an emphasis in behavioral neuroscience.
Following his time at McGill, Dr. Smith accepted a post-doctoral fellowship in the Center for Neurosensory Disorders at the UNC School of Dentistry. He received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award in 2008 to study the role of alpha adrenergic mechanisms in chronic orofacial pain. Dr. Smith also serves as the director of bioinformatics for Algynomics, Inc., a Chapel Hill-based biotech firm spun off from research activities within the UNC School of Dentistry.
In his current position, Dr. Smith will continue his research on the genetic basis of persistent pain disorders with several large cohort studies, including the Program Project of the CNSD and the multi-site Orofacial Pain: Prospective Evaluation and Risk Assessment (OPPERA) study.
