Alex Binshtok is Cecile and Seymour Alpert Professor in Pain Research in The Department of Medical Neurobiology at Hebrew University Medical School and Edmond and Lilly Safra Center for Brain Sciences. Alex received his PhD degree from the Hebrew University Summa cum Laude in 2006, under the supervision of Prof. Michael Gutnick. Alex's graduate work focused on the cellular and molecular characteristics of neurons composing the rodent barrel cortex and their synaptic connectivity. Alex then took up a post-doctoral fellowship with Prof. Clifford Woolf at Harvard Medical School, where he started to explore mechanisms of pain and developed approaches for pain-selective anesthesia, using TRP channels as natural drug delivery systems. In 2011 Alex joined The Hebrew University Medical School Department of Medical Neurobiology.  Alex’s lab utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the complex phenomenon of pain. He and his team are studying molecular and cellular mechanisms of normal and abnormal (chronic) pain at all levels, starting from the terminal endings of peripheral neurons at the target organs and all the way up to higher brain centers. Binshtok’s team uses advanced genetic, molecular, electro-optical, and computational methods to study the plasticity of pain-related circuits along pain neuraxis. He and his team are also developing new approaches for pain-selective anesthesia - an effective pain treatment without side effects. He is married to Yael and father to six daughters.