Neuron-glia communication in peripheral somatosensory system and its role in nociception and pain

Summary

The School of Biomedical Sciences invites applications from prospective postgraduate researchers who wish to commence study for a PhD in the academic year 2024/25.

This opportunity is open to candidates who have the means to self fund their studies or who have a sponsor who will cover this cost. We especially welcome applications that connect to the School's core research area: Neuroscience.

Pathological pain is an unresolved health problem; it causes suffering and distress to those affected and puts enormous burden on the health services costing world’s economies billions. Despite remarkable progress, understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms of many types of pain is still incomplete and the development of new therapies is inadequately slow. Thus, precise mechanistic understanding of pain signaling is urgently needed.

Peripheral somatosensory nerves detect and transmit sensory signals from bodily organs to the CNS, this is how we sense temperature, shape and texture of objects and also the dangerous/damaging conditions. The latter group of sensations is experienced as pain. Accumulating evidence suggests that peripheral nerves can also modulate the somatosensory transmission and one robust site for such modulation is the dorsal root ganglion (DRG). This project will investigate exciting new phenomenon discovered in the host laboratory (1, 2), whereby DRG’s intrinsic GABAergic inhibitory system was identified as a mechanism controlling peripheral processing of pain. The project will investigate communication between the neurons that give rise to somatosensory fibers with surrounding glia in the DRG and how such communication affects flow of somatosensory information. Successful candidate will use fluorescence imaging, electrophysiology, cell- and molecular biology methods to investigate such communication.

More about neuroscience research at Leeds can be found here: https://neural.leeds.ac.uk

References

1. Du X, Hao H, Yang Y, Huang S, Wang C, Gigout S, Ramli R, Li X, Jaworska E, Edwards I, Deuchars J, Yanagawa Y, Qi J, Guan B, Jaffe DB, Zhang H, Gamper N. (2017) Local GABAergic signaling within sensory ganglia controls peripheral nociceptive transmission. J Clin Invest. 127:1741-1756
2. Hao H, Ramli R, Wang C, Liu C, Shah S, Mullen P, Lall V, Jones F, Shao J, Zhang H, Jaffe DB, Gamper N, Du X. (2023) Dorsal root ganglia control nociceptive input to the central nervous system. PLoS Biol. 21(1):e3001958.

Applicants to research degree programmes should normally have at least a first class or an upper second class British Bachelors Honours degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate discipline. The criteria for entry for some research degrees may be higher, for example, several faculties, also require a Masters degree. Applicants are advised to check with the relevant School prior to making an application. Applicants who are uncertain about the requirements for a particular research degree are advised to contact the School or Graduate School prior to making an application.

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