How can we treat visceral pain? | Dr David Bulmer | Cambridge Neuroscience

Theme: Beyond the Neuron How can we treat visceral pain? Abstract: Chronic pain is a leading cause of morbidity, common to patients with gastrointestinal diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Most pain killers are largely ineffective against this type of pain or restricted for use in these patients due to gut related complications and risk of addition. A significant unmet clinical need therefore exists to develop novel non-opioid based visceral analgesics. To address the problem work in my lab has used a combination of transcriptomic and functional approaches using human tissue from well stratified patient populations to study the causes of visceral pain in IBS and IBD . In this talk I will describe some of our recent findings which have led to the identification of discrete mediator – nociceptor signalling pathways in IBS patient subtypes and highlight the potential utility of GPCR and ion channels targets for the treatment of visceral pain. Biography: Dr David Bulmer completed his PhD at UCL before joining GlaxoSmithKline as an electrophysiologist and later team leader within the Neurology & GI Centre of Excellence in Drug Discovery. In 2009 David took up a position at Queen Mary University of London on an MRC Skills Gap Fellowship, where he set up a translational neuroscience lab dedicated to the use of human tissue to study visceral nociception in gastrointestinal disease. David has been invited to speak on his work at international meetings such as the World Congress on Pain, Society for Neuroscience, and the Digestive Disease Week. In 2017 he moved to the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge where he is an Associate Professor and continues to research into the causes of pain in IBS and IBD. About this series: The Cambridge Neuroscience Interdisciplinary Seminar Series provides a forum for neuroscientists across Cambridge and beyond to discuss contemporary and interdisciplinary research topics and issues. The seminars are open to both members of the University, external academics and members of the public. We have tried to reflect the diversity of people’s interests at the University with our programme, and the breadth of the research taking place in Cambridge. Registration and more details are available here: http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/125062 For more information on Cambridge Neuroscience, please see www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter @CamNeuro