Complex regional pain syndromes (CRPSs) are painful disorders with pathophysiological etiologies associated with neuroinflammation, peripheral nerve damage, central sensitization, cortical reorganization and autoimmunity. We postulate that autoimmune disorders against the dorsal root or ganglia will be found in a significant percentage of patients with CRPS and that this will correlate with neurophysiological evidence of root/ganglia pathology
Dr John Parratt, Associate Professor Karl Ng.
North Shore - Northern Clinical School
Masters/PHD
The research project will involve
1. Performing a suite of neurophysiological studies on patients with CRPS -this will be done at the Royal North Shore Hospital, and
2. Immunohistochemical analysis of the patient serum for autoantibodies. - this will be done in the Blackburn Building at the University of Sydney.
The research candidate will be responsible for recruiting, testing and analyzing the patient data. Support will be given to teach the student all techniques required to perform the study. No prior lab experience is required. An interest in pain or neurological disorders will be beneficial.
Project location will be Royal North Shore Hospital and the Neurosciene Laboratory, Blackburn Building- Camperdown Campus.
It is possible to only get involved in either neurophysiology part or neuroimmunology part of the project, although undertaking work in both parts is recommended.
The Neuroimmunology part of the study will be supervised by Dr. John Parratt, and the neurophysiology part will be supervised by Dr. Karl Ng. Further enquiry can be made through:
1. Dr. Yi-Ching Lee : yi-ching.lee@sydney.edu.au , 02 94631867 or
2. Ms Emily Cheung: eche8297@uni.sydney.edu.au
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 56