During the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, Dr Subhabrata Maiti of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, was diagnosed with a gall bladder stone though he experienced pain in the shoulder and not the abdomen. At the Fortis Hospital in the city, doctors explained that this kind of pain can radiate to other parts of the body. Trained in systems chemistry, Dr Maiti, 40, wondered how pain messengers from a diseased part of the body spread out to different organs. After his surgery, he decided to work on the mystery with his team at IISER.

“We do not always feel the pain at the exact location of the inflamed or diseased body parts. A problem in the heart can be felt in the left arm; inflammation in the liver in the right shoulder. This is because of the signal perce

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