Rate My Professor Laura Stone

Laura Stone, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Twin Cities campus, a position she has held since June 2020 when she joined as the department's first basic scientist. She received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota in 1999, completed postdoctoral training at Oregon Health & Science University, and served on the faculty at McGill University from 2007 to 2020, where she led multiple Canadian Institutes of Health Research projects on chronic pain.

Dr. Stone's research centers on mechanisms of low back and musculoskeletal pain, epigenetic regulation of chronic pain, and optimization of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments through preclinical models and patient studies. An inventor on seven patents with over 70 co-authored manuscripts, her key publications include 'Senolytic treatment for low back pain' (Science Advances, 2025), 'Investigating the epigenetic landscape of symptomatic disk degeneration: a case study' (Pain Reports, 2025), 'Exercise improves load bearing bone structural properties in female secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) null mice but not in males' (Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 2024), 'Sex Differences in the Serum Proteomic Profile During Acute Low Back Pain' (Journal of Pain, 2024), and 'TAK-242 treatment and its effect on mechanical properties and gene expression associated with IVD degeneration in SPARC-null mice' (European Spine Journal, 2022). She has earned the Québec Science Top 10 award and Basic Science Best Paper Awards from the International Society for the Study of Lumbar Spine in 2014 and 2019. Current funding supports her work, including NIH R01 'Epigenetic Drivers of Chronic Low Back Pain' (2024-2029), NIAMS R61 'Development and Validation of a Mouse Model of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration-Induced Low Back Pain' (2024-2026), and prior CIHR and Department of Defense grants. Dr. Stone directs the Stone Lab, serves as Director of Education for the University of Minnesota Pain Consortium, and is affiliated with the Graduate Program in Neuroscience.