Dr. Clauw oversees a multidisciplinary group that performs both mechanistic studies and clinical trials in overlapping conditions characterized by chronic pain and fatigue, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Gulf War Illnesses. Dr. Clauw has been the P.I. of NIH and Department of Defense grants studying this spectrum of illness continuously since 1994. The Center currently has several million dollars per year in federal funding to study these disorders. Dr. Clauw and his group have been instrumental in establishing that the systemic conditions noted above, and regional pain syndromes such as interstitital cystitis, low back pain, and irritable bowel syndrome all have common pathogenic and clinical features. One of the primary areas of interest of his group has been in studying sensory processing in these conditions, and in demonstrating that many patients with these conditions have a widespread disturbance in pain processing. Current work is establishing the nature of the central pain processing abnormality in these conditions, using a variety of approaches, including functional MRI. Dr. Clauw also directs the Center for the Advancement of Clinical Research (CACR) at the University of Michigan. The CACR provides infrastructure and support for clinical and translational research for the Medical School from protocol development through subject recruitment, performance, and monitoring of study conduct, to data management and analysis.