Furness Lab - Autonomic Neuroscience, Pain & Sensory Mechanisms Laboratories

Principal investigators:

• Prof John Furness
• Dr Kulmira Nurgali
• Dr Peter Kitchener
• Dr Karina Needham
• Dr Daniel Poole
• Dr Romke Bron

Major Collaborator:

• Dr Ernie Jennings

Welcome to the Autonomic Neuroscience, Pain and Sensory Mechanisms Laboratories.

We are a research group in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Centre for Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne, Australia

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• The Enteric Nervous System book

Members of the lab: (L to R): R1. Xiaoxia Dong, Lei Yin, John Furness, Tina Cardamone, Michelle Thacker; R2. Lauren Sutherland, Maria Bagyanszki, Leni Rivera, Karina Needham, Romke Bron; R3. Trung Nguyen, Louise Pontell, Caterina Mongardi Fantaguzzi, Emma James; R4. Zhengdong Qu, Billie Hunne, Tanja Jovic; Absent: Dorota Ferens, Peter Kitchener, Kulmira Nurgali

The lab has two main areas of focus:

1. The enteric nervous system and the control of digestive function
2. Pain and sensory mechanisms

Our major research areas include:

• Long-term excitability changes: Neuronal memory, its cellular basis and involvement in Visceral Pain and digestive disease
• Neuropathic Pain
• Integration of activity by intrinsic primary afferent neurons of the intestine
• Single channel recording from enteric neurons
• Sensory mechanisms in the colon and stomach
• Purine receptors
• Investigation of motility reflexes in vivo
• Intestino-intestinal reflexes - The relationship between control of secretion and of motility of the intestine mediated through prevertebral ganglia

Our methods include:

• Patch clamp electrophysiology
• Intracellular microelectrode recording
• Molecular biology of ion channels
• Quantitative confocal microscopy
• Cell culture of transfected cells
• Immunohistochemistry
• Experimental surgery
• Organ bath pharmacology
• Calcium imaging
• Animal physiology

Cellular Neurophysiology Platform (National Neuroscience Facility):

We operate this platform. For more information and access click here: http://www.nnf.com.au/cellneuro