Taichi Goto, PhD, RN, PHN is an assistant professor in the Department of Research at Cizik School of Nursing, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He is an expert in symptom science, with a focus on pain symptom research in chronic conditions such as wounds and cancer.

Dr. Goto earned his nursing degree from Chiba University School of Nursing in Japan and began his career as a cardiovascular nurse at a university hospital. He later obtained his master’s and PhD degrees in Health Sciences and Nursing from the University of Tokyo in 2018. He completed postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Maryland School of Nursing. He then served as a Research Fellow in Dr. Leorey Saligan’s lab at NINR for three years.Dr. Goto’s research focuses on the mechanisms underlying pain, particularly the transition from acute to chronic pain. His work investigates the molecular and cellular basis of nociceptive hyperexcitability, a key factor in the development of chronic pain in patients with wounds. More recently, his research has expanded to examine pain and associated psychoneurological symptoms in cancer survivors, with the goal of developing novel prevention and management strategies. He has studied the impact of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in brain-derived neurotrophic factor on cancer-related symptoms. His findings revealed the worsening effects of this polymorphism on neuropathic pain and fatigue in female cancer survivors.