About Soma Care
The science existed.
Patients just couldn’t reach it.
Soma Care is a spin-out of a Brown University lab — founded by researchers and clinicians who spent years producing evidence that never made it out of the lab — and into the lives of the people who needed it most.
Our story
The science moves fast. Getting it to patients doesn’t.
Soma Care grew out of research at a Brown University lab. Our founders — neuroscientists, clinicians, and engineers — had spent years working on chronic pain: studying how the brain processes and modulates it, how the brain and nervous system shape the pain experience, and what the evidence says about how to help.
What became clear, working in that space, is that scientific understanding of pain has genuinely shifted in recent decades. Neuroscience has taught us a great deal about why pain persists, how the brain and nervous system adapt, and why those adaptations are not peripheral to the story but central to it. That knowledge exists. What is much harder is getting it into the hands of people who are living with pain right now — most of whom have never encountered it.
In the meantime, those people are often offered options that carry real costs: medications with limited long-term benefit, procedures that may not address the underlying picture, or simply a waiting list. We built Soma Care to put that evidence directly into patients' hands — in a form they can actually use, and in partnership with the clinicians already doing this work.
How we got here
SOMAScience built
Research app developed at Brown University to study real-world chronic pain patterns.
App Store launch
2,500+ users. Net Promoter Score of 84 — validating that patients wanted more than tracking alone.
Soma Care founded
Spin-out launched incorporating user feedback. Moved from tracking to a full evidence-based intervention program.
Active beta
Open enrollment. Building with our first cohort of patients and clinicians.
What we believe
Principles we will not compromise on.
Evidence first.
We build on what has been studied and replicated. Every core intervention is grounded in peer-reviewed evidence. Where the science is still developing, we say so plainly — and proceed with care.
The person over the diagnosis.
Chronic pain is a whole-person experience. We treat it that way — mapping patterns, context, and meaning alongside clinical indicators.
Transparency over persuasion.
We are a beta-stage company. We say that plainly. We do not overclaim outcomes we have not yet demonstrated. Our confidence comes from the science, not from marketing.
Clinicians are partners.
We belong inside the care system, not around it. Every design decision is made with clinical relationships in mind. We extend what clinicians start. We never compete with them.
The team
Neuroscience, AI, and clinical depth — in one team.
Chloe Gunsilius, PhD
Co-Founder / CEO / Clinical Lead
Neuroscientist with MD–PhD training in chronic pain and brain–body therapies. Led multiple clinical studies on recovery and non-pharmacological interventions. Deep experience translating science into patient-facing tools.
Prof. Frederike Petzschner, PhD
Co-Founder / Research Lead
Brown University computational neuroscientist and professor. Expert in mechanistic models of pain, interoception, and decision-making. Director of research programs bridging neuroscience with real-world clinical data.
Jesse Vig, PhD
Co-Founder / AI Lead
Former Lead Research Scientist at Salesforce AI. 15+ years in explainable AI, NLP, and recommender systems. Deep experience at the intersection of AI and human-computer interaction.
Aaron Cohen
Lead Engineer / Product Lead
Former Staff Software Engineer at Google. 20 years of startup experience, including multiple successful exits. Deep product experience with enterprise and consumer applications.
Come build this with us.
Whether you are a patient ready to try something different, a clinician looking to extend your reach, or a researcher interested in collaboration — we want to hear from you.