Autonomic Neuroscience, Pain & Sensory Mechanisms Laboratories
Co-directors: Assoc Professor James Brock and Professor John Furness
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Members of the lab: (L to R): R1. John Furness, James Brock, Tina Cardamone; R2. Trent Reardon, Leni Rivera, Hyun-Jung Cho; R3. Steve Pouniotis, Joanna Gajewski, Michelle Thacker, Dorota Ferens, Haruko Hirayama, Niloufer Johansen, Rachael Abela; R4. Brid Callaghan, Tony Frugier, Emma James, Louise Pontell, Romke Bron, Billie Hunne; Absent: Hussain Al Dera, Trung Nguyen, Kirsty Turner, Gene Venables |
| Principal investigators: | Major Collaborators: |
Welcome to the Autonomic Neuroscience, Pain and Sensory Mechanisms Laboratories.
We are a research group in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
The lab has six themes:
- Autonomic dysfunction in spinal cord injury (Spinal cord injury research program)
- The enteric nervous system and the control of digestive function
- The roles of the hormone ghrelin in autonomic control and the biology of ghrelin receptors
- Vascular neurobiology
- Enteric neuropathies
- Pain and sensory mechanisms
- Changed vascular regulation after spinal cord injury
- The effects of spinal cord injury on bladder barrier integrity
- Regulation of digestive function after spinal injury
- Neuropathies of the enteric nervous system that are a consequence of ischemia/ reperfusion injury
- The cardiovascular effects of ghrelin
- The molecular basis for ghrelin receptor heterogeneity
- The structure and function of the enteric nervous system
- The regulation of enteric glial cell function
- Diabetic neuropathy and its effects on vascular control
- Signal transduction at the terminals of primary afferent neurons
- Intracellular and patch clamp electrophysiology
- Molecular biology of ion channels and G-protein coupled receptors
- Quantitative confocal microscopy
- Cell transfection
- Pharmacological analysis
- Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridisation
- Experimental surgery
- Animal models of spinal cord injury
- Vascular myography and isolated organ pharmacology
- Calcium imaging
- In vivo animal physiology
- Analysis of histopathology in animal models
Our major research projects include:
Our methods include:
Australian Phenomics Network (APN)
We operate the University of Melbourne node of the APN. For more information and access click here.
Cell Physiology, Histology and Imaging (Neurosciences Victoria Platform):
We operate this platform. For more information and access click here.