Research Projects:

• Neuroimmunopharmacology of alcohol: Acute and chronic alcohol action is now understood to require glial involvement. We wish to understand what alcohol is doing to glia, how alcohol is doing this and the neuronal and behavioural consequences of these immune responses. The end goal is to create a new glial targeted drug to stop alcohol’s unwanted glial actions.

• Neuroimmunopharmacology of opioids: Wanted pain relief and unwanted drug actions of opioids like morphine involve glia. We wish to understand what opioids are doing to glia, how opioids are doing this and the neuronal and behavioural consequences of these immune responses. The end goal is to create a new glial targeted drug to stop unwanted opioid glial actions. 

• Neuroimmunopharmacology of chronic pain: Chronic pain is a debilitating disease, which is at epidemic levels worldwide. Immune signalling within the brain and spinal cord contributes significantly to the creation and maintenance of the disease. Moreover, many unwanted side effects of medications currently used to treat pain are created through central immune mechanisms. Therefore, we

are seeking to better understand the roles of central immune responses in chronic pain and design new drugs and treatment approaches to prevent and cure pain rather than just treating it.

• Neuroimmunopharmacology of sex: Females experience somediseases and disorders of the brain and spinal cord at far greater rates than males. Our approach has been to re-examine many of these diseases from a neuroimmune perspective to understand if sex-dependent glial contributors may be at the heart of these disorders.

Skills

Owing to the mechanistic and translational discovery of our research we rely on a breadth of experimental techniques. These range from computer simulations and bioinformatics analysis, to molecular assays protein design and quantification, to drug formulation and delivery, to neurosurgical and behavioural techniques. If there is a gold standard experimental approach out there, we want to try it in the neuroimmune domain.