Wolfson Sensory, Pain and Regeneration Centre MPhil/PhD, MD(Res)

King's College London, University of London

The Wolfson SPaRC (Sensory, Pain and Regeneration Centre) is part of the Division of Neuroscience within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN). Research focuses on the maintenance of a healthy nervous system during aging, by understanding how its activity changes during damage to nerves and the surrounding tissues, and investigating new techniques to repair damaged neurons. Our long-term goal is to improve the quality of life of patients affected by lifelong and age-related diseases of the nervous system. Our research is geared towards i) understanding physiological and molecular mechanisms that drive disease conditions and ii) harness our scientific knowledge to develop new therapeutic strategies to restore normal sensory function and to better repair injury.We specialise in using electrophysiology and imaging techniques (e.g. patch-clamp; fMRI/micro-PET; genetic indicators of neuronal activity; in situ hybridization; in-vivo electrophysiology) with sequencing and bioinformatics (e.g. RNAseq, microarray, machine learning) on translational models of human disease (e.g. neuropathic pain, migraine, stroke, spinal cord injury, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, arthritis, fibromyalgia) to better understand disease processes. The results of these studies then inform a drug discovery process to develop innovative therapeutics.