Sydney Pain Consortium
The Sydney Pain Consortium is a multidisciplinary network of scientists, clinicians and educators that provides a leading voice in pain research that translates into optimal clinical service delivery nationally and internationally. The fostering of existing and the creating of new collaborations is a core role of the Sydney Pain Consortium
The Sydney Pain Consortium’s focus is to determine the underlying mechanisms responsible for transient and persistent pain and medication dependency and to translate these findings into clinical practice, education, policy and community awareness.
Research highlights
The University of Sydney is the 7th leading institution internationally in pain related research and number one in Australia.
- All in the mind: what the placebo effect looks like in the brain published in Nature Journal - a pain research collaboration led by Professor Luke Henderson and PhD Lewis Crawford.
- Dr Noemi Meylakh talks to Migraine Australia about her research.
- Professor Elena Bagley and her team awarded $1.3 million to investigate endogenous opioid actions in our brains.
- Professor Luke Henderson, Associate Professor Kevin Keay, Professor Chris Vaugh awarded $3 million to explore the mechanisms responsible for the transition from acute to chronic pain
Network Convenor
Elena Bagley leads a laboratory focused on synaptic dysfunction. She uses patch-clamp electrophysiology, optogenetics, immunohistochemistry and biochemical assays to study synaptic properties involved in physiological or pathophysiological processes. Of particular interest are the synaptic changes or plasticity that may be responsible for chronic pain states, addiction and anxiety disorders.
Featured members
Claire Ashton-James is a Social Psychologist whose research aims to evaluate and improve healthcare delivery for the benefit of both patients (treatment outcomes) and clinicians (wellbeing and job satisfaction).
Susanna Park is an Associate Professor in Neuroscience, School of Medical Sciences based at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney.
She has been awarded competitive research funding in projects across the clinical neurosciences, with research involvement in toxic, metabolic, immune-mediated and painful neuropathies and motor neuron diseases.
She has expertise in multidisciplinary peripheral neuropathy research, leading studies examining clinical translation, assessment strategies, treatment and risk factors for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.
Noemi Meylakh is an early career researcher (ECR) investigating the underlying neurobiology of episodic and chronic migraine.
Her current research projects are focused on central changes associated with chronic migraine, particularly the activity of the hypothalamus and endogenous analgesic circuit.
Of further interest, is the nature of the activity in these regions following successful and unsuccessful CGRP inhibitor treatment
Karin Aubrey is a neurobiologist currently working as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney Pain Management Research Institute.
Karin's research team is currently working on 2 main projects. The first trying to understand how a small population of cells in the midbrain affect responses to pain, and the second focused on a circuit that may link pain and sleep circuits. Both projects are ultimately aimed at finding new ways to improve the lives of people who suffer from chronic pain conditions.
Karin is a co-writer in the recent publication Kappa opioids inhibit the GABA/glycine terminals of rostral ventromedial medulla projections in the superficial dorsal horn of the spinal cord.