Neural Circuits for Pain

Our goal is to understand how the brain processes pain.

Group lead: Dr Liam Browne

Tel: 020 7679 6695

Email: liam.browne@ucl.ac.uk

Lab Email Address: brownelab@live.ucl.ac.uk

UCL Profile

Liam

Pain is a protective system that alerts us to potential damage. When this alarm system goes wrong, pain can become highly debilitating and a disease in itself. Chronic pain is a global health issue affecting 1 in 5 people and treatments are inadequate, representing a huge unmet clinical need. We aim to provide a mechanistic understanding of the neural circuit computations that contribute to pain, and how they are altered in disease. This can inform targets for treatments for pain and provide core insights into the operation of the nervous system more broadly.

We take a multidisciplinary approach at the interface between neuroscience, physiology, and engineering, using custom behavioural approaches, in vivo 2P microscopy, optogenetics, electrophysiology, and machine vision and machine learning. We have two areas of focus: (1) probing how pain is encoded and expressed by the cerebral cortex; (2) developing advanced tools for the study of behaviour, from reflexes to learning. These two areas of focus overlap allowing us to map the relationship between pain, emotion, motivation, learning and decision making in health and disease.

activity waves

Publications

  1. Michoud F, Seehus C, Schönle P, Brun N ... Lacour SP (2021). Epineural optogenetic activation of nociceptors initiates and amplifies inflammation. Nature Biotechnology.
  2. Schorscher-Petcu A, Takács F & Browne LE (2021). Scanned optogenetic control of mammalian somatosensory input to map input-specific behavioral outputs. eLife, 62026.
  3. Talbot S, Doyle B, Huang J, Wang J-C ... Woolf, C. J. (2020). Vagal sensory neurons drive mucous cell metaplasia. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
  4. Atkinson B, Chudasama V & Browne L (2019). Controlling Engineered P2X Receptors with Light. Methods in Molecular Biology.
  5. Michoud F, Sottas L, Browne LE, Asboth L ... Lacour SP (2018). Optical cuff for optogenetic control of the peripheral nervous system. J Neural Eng, 15 (1), 015002.
  6. Browne LE, Latremoliere A, Lehnert BP ... Woolf CJ (2017). Time-Resolved Fast Mammalian Behavior Reveals the Complexity of Protective Pain Responses. Cell Rep, 20 (1), 89-98.
  7. Browne LE & Woolf CJ (2014). Casting light on pain. Nat Biotechnol, 32 (3), 240-241.
  8. Stelmashenko O, Compan V, Browne LE & North RA (2014). Ectodomain Movements of an ATP-gated Ion Channel (P2X2 Receptor) Probed by Disulfide Locking. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 289 (14), 9909-9917.
  1. Browne LE, Nunes JPM, Sim JA ... North RA (2014). Optical control of trimeric P2X receptors and acid-sensing ion channels. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 111 (1), 521-526.
  2. Browne LE & North RA (2013). P2X Receptor Intermediate Activation States Have Altered Nucleotide Selectivity. Journal of Neuroscience, 33 (37), 14801-14808.
  3. Browne LE, Compan V, Bragg L & North RA (2013). P2X7 Receptor Channels Allow Direct Permeation of Nanometer-Sized Dyes. Journal of Neuroscience, 33 (8), 3557-3566.
  4. Browne LE (2012). Structure of P2X receptors. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Membrane Transport and Signaling, 1 (1), 56-69.
  5. Browne LE, Cao L, Broomhead HE ... North RA (2011). P2X receptor channels show threefold symmetry in ionic charge selectivity and unitary conductance. Nature Neuroscience, 14 (1), 17-18.
  6. Bradley HJ, Browne LE, Yang W & Jiang L (2011). Pharmacological properties of the rhesus macaque monkey P2X7 receptor. British Journal of Pharmacology, 164 (2b), 743-754.
  7. Browne LE, Jiang L-H & North RA (2010). New structure enlivens interest in P2X receptors. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 31 (5), 229-237.
  8. Browne LE, Clare JJ & Wray D (2009). Functional and pharmacological properties of human and rat NaV1.8 channels. Neuropharmacology, 56 (5), 905-914.