Jennings Lab ~ Trigeminal Pain

Principal investigator: Dr Ernest Jennings

Synaptic Plasticity In Pain Pathways -relevance to trigeminal pain e.g. Migraine, toothache & jaw pain

Understanding how neurons communicate is fundamental to a better understanding of how the nervous system functions.  We study synaptic transmission and the function of ion channels and other receptors in modulating the manner in which neurons communicate. Our model is the trigeminal pain pathway, which conveys information from structures in the head to the brainstem (central nervous system), so the results are directly relevant to pain, but likely to be relevant to the manner in which neurons communicate generally.  We use a variety of methods to address the aims of the projects below, including; immunohistochemistry, Western blot and patch-clamp electrophysiology.  The projects below illustrate the type of work carried out in the lab. Other related projects are possible.

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This laboratory investigates the mechanisms of pain from the head.  Examples of such pain are toothache, and migraine.  The group use a variety of experimental tools in this pursuit.

3 dimensional confocal microscope reconstruction of a neuron in the medullary dorsal horn following whole cell patch clamp electrophysiological recording.		Current induced in response to different voltage steps in a sensory neuron.

Collaborations:

• Prof Barry Sessle (University of Toronto)
• Prof John Furness (University of Melbourne