Success for Early Career Researchers at Leeds

Early career researchers Drs. Shihab Shah and Varinder Lall have successfully secured funding for their pioneering research on pain mechanisms.

Dr Varinder Lall has been awarded funding from the Medical Research Council for a £749,000 project titled  “Investigating peripheral gating of pain using novel preclinical model”. Dr Lall is a Researcher Co-Lead on this new project (Lead: Prof Nikita Gamper).

Chronic pain affects over 40% of UK adults, yet treatments remain ineffective due to gaps in understanding pain mechanisms. This project focuses on the dorsal root ganglion (DRG), a key hub for pain signal processing. Dr. Lall has developed the decerebrate arterially perfused preparation (DAPP)—a groundbreaking preclinical model enabling real-time pain signal recording without anaesthesia interference. Refined in Leeds, this approach offers unprecedented access to peripheral nerves.

Dr. Lall aims to use DAPP to identify new drug targets, optimize neuromodulation for pain relief, and investigate DRG changes in chronic pain. By enhancing our understanding of pain transmission, this research paves the way for more effective treatments.

Dr. Shihab Shah has been awarded a £600,000 BBSRC Discovery Fellowship to investigate endoplasmic reticulum Ca²⁺ refilling in inflammatory pain signaling at its true physiological source.

Current pain research often misfocuses on sensory neuron cell bodies instead of peripheral nerve terminals, where pain signals originate. This misalignment may explain the lack of effective pain treatments. Dr. Shah has developed innovative tools to shift the focus to nerve terminals, including a skin-nerve preparation for real-time Ca²⁺ imaging and microfluidic chambers to study sensory neurons in their full structure. This approach aims to uncover the true molecular mechanisms of inflammatory pain, paving the way for better therapies.