Laboratory of Neuroglycobiology and Sensation - Honours in 2009

An Honours project undertaken in this lab would be administered by the Discipline of Anatomy & Histology.

Changes to nociceptors in response to nerve injury leading to chronic pain

Supervisor + contact details:

• Dr Michelle Gerke

Work in this laboratory is currently focusing on a population of primary sensory neurons which are responsible for the initial detection of painful stimuli (nociceptors), and their contribution to the onset and maintenance of chronic pain after nerve injury.

Peripheral nerve injury induces a number of changes in the phenotype of primary sensory neurons which may underlie the development of chronic pain states. A discrete group of nociceptors which express binding sites for the plant lectin Bandeiraea simplicifolia I isolectin B4 (BS-IB4) are affected by nerve injury such that they can no longer be visualised using lectin binding histochemistry. Whether this lack of lectin binding is due to actual death of this group of nociceptors or whether they undergo phenotypic change such that they stop manufacturing the glycoconjugate responsible for BS-IB4 binding has not been clearly defined. An understanding of how these nociceptors are affected by peripheral nerve injury is an important step in understanding chronic pain states and necessary for the development of future pain therapies targeted towards primary sensory neuron populations.

In collaboration with Dr Kevin Keay's Neural Structure and Function Laboratory the Honours project offered through this laboratory will involve the combination of neural tracing, behavioural and histochemical techniques, and fluorescent and confocal microscopy to assess what is actually happening to this population of nociceptors under conditions of peripheral nerve injury leading to chronic pain.