Defining Neuroimmune Mechanisms of Chronic Pain in the Canine Spinal Cord Using Spatial Transcriptomics
Supervisors:
Dr Andrew Bell, University of Glasgow
Dr Barbara Shih, Lancaster University
Prof Andrew Todd, University of Glasgow
Summary:
Chronic pain is one of medicine's most stubborn problems, and treatments too often fall short, for people and for the animals who share our lives. This project asks what actually changes at the molecular level in the spinal cord when pain becomes chronic. Using cutting-edge spatial imaging and sequencing, you'll help build one of the first detailed maps of how nerve, immune, and glial cells interact in the dog spinal cord, in health and in naturally occurring chronic pain, a model that mirrors human pain biology far more closely than those used in rodents. Using post-mortem tissue from pet dogs euthanised because of pain represents an ethical and innovative approach to pain research.
You'll be trained in advanced imaging, molecular biology, and large-scale data analysis; you don't need to arrive already expert in all three. We welcome backgrounds in neuroscience, immunology, cell biology, veterinary science, or computational biology who are motivated by curiosity and a desire to undertake creative multidisciplinary science. Working across a cross-partner team spanning Glasgow and Lancaster, you'll build a versatile skillset bridging wet-lab and computational bioscience, with translational relevance to both human and veterinary medicine ready for careers in academia, biotech, pharma, or veterinary research.