Our Research

Opportunities to be involved in research

The following studies are actively recruiting participants:

MiTiGate Trial

Elucidate Study

Current projects

  • Mechanism of Spinal Cord Stimulation in the management of chronic neuropathic pain

    Mechanism of Spinal Cord Stimulation in the management of chronic neuropathic pain

    Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is used as a safe and effective option for multiple chronic neuropathic pain disorders. While different stimulation paradigms have been implemented into clinical practice, it remains unclear how these paradigms affect the spinal and supraspinal circuits. Evoked compound action potentials (ECAP) have been successfully used as an objective measure to quantify…

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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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  • ELUCIDATE: Exploring pain & autonomic dysfunction in ME/CFS & TMD

    ELUCIDATE: Exploring pain & autonomic dysfunction in ME/CFS & TMD

    We are currently looking for people in the northeast of England with ME/CFS, Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD), or neither of these conditions to take part in this study. If you are interested in taking part, please email james.allison@newcastle.ac.uk for more information. Summary of the study Widespread pain affecting the muscles and joints is a significant problem…

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See all research projects

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

We work with several companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors.