Our Research

Current projects

  • Investigating the role of the histamine system in chronic pain

    Investigating the role of the histamine system in chronic pain

    Histamine, acting through all four types of histamine H1-H4 receptors, is arguably the most pleiotropic molecule in the human body. Since the cloning of H3R in 1999, there has been an increased interest within the pharmaceutical industry to discover and develop ligands to this receptor to target several diseases including neuropathic pain. However, while evidence…

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  • Seeking treatment for painful TMD

    Seeking treatment for painful TMD

    The experience of jaw pain that lasts for more than a few months can be an uncertain experience both for patients and professionals. Management may fall between the roles of dentist or GP and many people are unclear about who to consult. Self-management is recommended as first-line treatment, possibly alongside other conservative options. In practice…

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  • Can we improve pain education using experiential methods?

    Can we improve pain education using experiential methods?

    The way that people understand pain is important. Typically, believing that pain is caused only by physical factors and using only passive modalities of treatment are both associated with a poorer prognosis. Unfortunately, this is exactly what many people do believe about pain including some health professionals! A recent project carried out by students from…

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Our Research Themes

Mechanisms and pathways of pain

Our work aims to understand how and why acute and persistent pain is experienced in painful conditions such as toothache, persistent facial pain, and neuropathic pain.

Pain therapeutics and clinical trials

In this research theme, our work explores new targets to treat painful conditions and assesses the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of clinical treatments.

Pain diagnostics

This work aims to improve on the current methods that clinicians have to diagnose pain conditions, and to measure and assess people’s experience of pain.

Applied pain research

Our research uses innovative clinical research, integrating multidisciplinary perspectives, to explore how best to help people who suffer from painful conditions.

Our Collaborators

Academic collaborators
  • Osaka University, Japan
  • University of Minnesota, MN, USA
  • Aarhus University, Denmark
  • University of Liverpool, UK
  • University of Sheffield, UK
  • University of Leeds, UK
  • University of Manchester, UK
  • Durham University, UK
Industrial collaborators
  • Companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors