Dr. Flood’s laboratory is interested in the effects of anesthetic drugs on pain transmission. General anesthetic drugs modulate the activity of many targets that are involved in the transmission of a noxious stimulus from a peripheral receptor to the spinal cord and then to the brain. Many anesthetic drugs including volatile anesthetics have biphasic effects where low anesthetic concentrations that can be present for several hours after anesthesia increase sensitivity to pain and higher concentrations (used in anesthesia) cause decreased sensitivity to pain. Dr. Floods lab uses behavioral, pharmacological and biochemical methods to determine which receptors and pathways are modulated by the anesthetic to cause these two effects. The overall goal of this work is to improve the treatment of pain in the immediate postoperative period.