Description/Overview: Chronic pain is a problem for over 40% of the population worldwide and can affect people across the lifespan, from infancy to the old age. The consequences of chronic pain extend across psychological, social and functional outcomes. The costs to the individual with chronic pain and society at large is enormous. While advances have been made in understanding the basic mechanisms of nociceptive pain, there is still significant work to be done in building knowledge about the biological events leading to pain chronicity that may be targeted to prevent or reduce disabling pain. Progress in omic sciences, including genomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics and the microbiome, provide new methods and techniques in which to detect aberrant nociceptive signaling and cellular phenotypic changes that contribute to chronic pain vulnerability. Paired with insights about pain-sensitivity genes and polymorphisms, which can influence analgesic metabolism and efficacy, there are remarkable opportunities to improve how pain is diagnosed and treated. Using an omic approach to describe the phenotypic features of pain holds promise of advancing personalized approaches for pain management. In this symposium, nurse researchers who have integrated omic science in their programs of study will present novel findings in populations across the lifespan, among preterm infants, pediatrics, adolescents, and adults. Recent work in describing the neuroimmune-microbiome interface among preterm infants will provide new data on gender-specific vulnerability to chronic pain. In the area of postoperative pain among pediatrics and adolescents, we will discuss how genetic variability influences pain severity, analgesic efficacy and functional outcomes. Phenotypic data among adults with pain will be linked with genomic and metabolomics data to determine pathways that contribute to persistent pain. Attendees will learn about: innovative designs for incorporating omic science in pain research, the possibilities for developing new pain diagnostic technologies that can be used at the bedside and the implications of this burgeoning pain-omics field for advancing pain management across the lifespan.