The Molecular Nociception Group focuses on genetic approaches to understanding the biology of nociceptors (damage-sensing neurons), somatosensation, pain and touch.
Our research
The twenty-first century has seen a revolution in our understanding of the receptor systems and regulatory pathways that underlie the responses of nociceptors to the occurrence of tissue damage. This has important implications for human health and disease.
We collaborate with research groups in Europe, the United States, Korea, Japan, and Australia, using transgenic mouse models, natural products, and cloned genes to explore the physiology of pain perception. The systems we study have a broad relevance to understanding how the nervous system works in terms of synaptic plasticity, responses to environmental stimuli, sensation, and behaviour.
Sensory Neurobiology
Lead: Prof. John Wood
Our research team focuses on genetic approaches to understanding the biology of damage-sensing neurons (nociceptors), somatosensation, pain and touch. Pain is still an enormous clinical problem, and new drugs are urgently required for a range of chronic pain syndromes.
Our group combines recombinant DNA technology, electrophysiology, gene targeting and behavioural approaches to explore the channels, receptors, transcription factors and regulatory pathways that control nociceptor excitability.
We collaborate closely with human geneticists and clinicians, using mouse models to unravel molecular mechanisms that underlie pain disorders. We also take part in early-stage drug discovery programmes based on targets we identify in the lab.
As well as providing information about pain pathways, the systems we study have a broad relevance to understanding how the nervous system works, in terms of synaptic plasticity, responses to environmental stimuli, sensation and behaviour.
Our studies are focused on sensory transduction and transmission in the peripheral nervous system, especially in pain signalling. We use gene targeting in and transgenic mice as a model, combining molecular biochemistry, electrophysiology, and behavioural approaches to identify the genes or molecules involved and to understand the molecular, cellular, physiological and pathological mechanisms involved.
We have three main areas of research:
trafficking of sodium channel Nav1.7
BDNF in pain signalling,
microRNAs in pain signalling.
Group members
Ayako Matsuyama (PhD student)
Kieran Miller (Year 3 student, Intercalated BSc)
Mammalian Sensory Genetics
Lead: Prof. James Cox
Prof. Cox investigates the genetic basis of rare human pain disorders, such as:
Channelopathy-associated Insensitivity to Pain (SCN9A/NaV1.7)
Familial Episodic Pain Syndrome (TRPA1)
Marsili Syndrome (ZFHX2)
FAAH-OUT-associated Human Pain Insensitivity.
His team is particularly interested in how long non-coding RNAs regulate key pain genes and the endocannabinoid system. A major goal is to translate genetic findings into new analgesic gene therapies.
Group members
Dr Abdella Habib | Research Associate
Ayako Matsuyama | Research Technician and PhD student
Shengnan Li | PhD Student
Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Control of Pain
Lead: Dr Andrei Okorokov
Pain is a major clinical problem and affects more people than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. Pain is a co-factor in many medical conditions, yet pain medicines are often only partially effective, and the problem is increasing with an aging population. By understanding the cellular and molecular processes that lead to the sensation of pain, more effective targeted therapies can be developed to alleviate suffering.
One way of doing so is analysing genetic conditions in which patients have altered levels of pain sensitivity, in particular the cases where pain sensitivity and perception are diminished. Identifying human genes, which are responsible for such a phenotype and their functional products, allows us to pinpoint the key players in the chain of molecular events providing for pain sensation.
After two decades of work in transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of tumour suppression (p53 field), I am now establishing a new research direction into the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of pain pathways.
Neural Circuits for Pain
Lead: Dr Liam Browne
The goal of the Browne Lab is to understand how the brain processes pain. 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:
Probing how pain is encoded and expressed by the cerebral cortex
Developing advanced tools for studying behaviour, from reflexes to learning.
These areas overlap, allowing us to map the relationship between pain, emotion, motivation, learning and decision-making in health and disease.