News from the Hughes Laboratory
June 2025
Very happy to have been part
of an engaging Panelists' Dialogue
session on "The Future Contribution
of Basic Science to the Understanding
and Relief of Paediatric Pain" organised
by Simon Beggs and Maria Fitzgerald
for the International Symposium on
Paediatric Pain, presenting alongside
Astra Arendt-Tranholm and Elena Dreosti.
April 2025
A great few days in Liverpool
with members of the University
of Glasgow's Spinal Cord Group
and Centre for Neuroscience
presenting work at the BNA's
February 2025
What better way of spending
St Valentine's Day than by giving
a talk at the University of Cambridge's
Department of Pharmacology?
June 2024
A very enjoyable afternoon
delivering a talk with Craig Daly
about how virtual reality landscapes
help us understand real world clinical
problems to the Glasgow West End
u3a Science and Technology group.
The u3a is a UK-wide movement of
locally-run interest groups. These
groups provide a wide range of
opportunities for around 4000
members to come together to
explore new ideas together, develop
new skills, engage in new activities
and to learn for fun.
May 2024
The excellent meeting on Pain
Mechanisms and Therapeutics, held
over six days in the beautiful city of
Verona, was enlightening and also a
fabulous opportunities to catch up
with friends from around the world.
Here's looking forward to the next
one in 2026....
February 2024
Great to be involved in the
resounding success that was the
British Neuroscience Association's
inaugural Careers and Talent
Recruitment Fair. This is one of the
many benefits that being a member
of a vibrant, forward-thinking
community of neuroscientists.
January 2024
A very enjoyable visit to Stanford
University to meet Lu Chen and
Bing Cao (Lu Chen lab; pictured)
and to give a departmental seminar
about our work on presynaptic
inhibition of cutaneous afferents.
Thank you all for the very warm welcome!
January 2024
A fun four days attending the
Keystone Symposium on
"Mammalian Somatosensation:
Mechanisms of Itch, Touch, Pain
and Interoception in Health and
Disease" in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
September 2023
An exciting day contributing to the
fun-packed Explorathon 2023 event
at the University of Glasgow's
Advanced Research Centre. This
video clip gives you an idea of the
VR project we've been working on
with Craig Daly and XRLifeScience.
March 2023
It's always a real pleasure spending
time on the beautiful West Coast of Ireland.
Delighted to contribute to the University of Galway's
Centre for Pain Research Symposium.
December 2022
Overjoyed to share news of Brett Graham's
promotion to Professor. Celebrated in style with
coffee, cannoli and champagne at Brunetti's in
Melbourne, Australia. Well done BAGster!
September 2022
Truly honoured to have secured a
Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust
to fund a long-term collaborative project with
Ewan St John Smith (University of Cambridge).
This award will support our work up to 2031.
August 2022
Exciting day working alongside Craig Daly
and students from the Sutton Trust Summer
School, demonstrating the beauty and
complexity of the spinal cord connectome
using virtual reality scenes.
August 2022
Delighted to have secured BBSRC-funding
for a project with Andrew Todd and
Junichi Hachisuka from the Spinal Cord Group.
Very exciting times ahead for all concerned.
December 2021
Delighted to contribute a talk to the NIH Pain
Seminar Series (on-line).
October 2021
Extremely proud, and very honoured, to give
an "in-person" talk to the Instituto Cajal
in Madrid during the Institute's centenary
celebration - my first (and theirs!) since the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Also very privileged to have been given time
to study some of Cajal's work on display at
the beautiful Museo Nacional de Ciencias
Naturales at close quarters.
September 2021
Congratulations to Olivia Davis on the
successful defence of her thesis - great job Dr D!
April 2021
Enjoyed chairing the session on
"Neural Circuits for Pain" with additional
talks from Carole Torsney, Kirsty Bannister
and Liam Peck at the BNA Festival of
Neuroscience.
March 2021
Pleased to give a talk (on-line!) at
the British Pain Society's BritSpine 2021.
November 2019
Delighted to give a talk at the Crohn's and Collitis.
November 2019
Delighted to give a talk at the Nuffield
Department of Clinical Neurosciences,
University of Oxford.
August 2019
Great fun being part of the inaugural
Montreal Pain Circuits Congress.
May 2019
Co-speaker at the panel workshop with
Sarah Ross and Becky Seal at the
7th International Congress on Neuropathic
Pain (NeuPSIG).
March 2019
Congratulations to Olivia Davis for winning
the poster prize at the Challenge of Chronic Pain
meeting, Wellcome Genome Campus.
March 2019
Congratulations to Marami Mustapa on the
successful defence of her thesis - very well
done Marami, great job!
September 2018
Co-speaker at the panel workshop on
"Unlocking the molecular and functional
organization of the spinal dorsal horn in
healthy and injured states" with
Becky Seal and Patrik Ernfors at the
17th World Congress on Pain.
June 2018
Great being part of the Pain Mechanisms and
Therapeutics Conference in beautiful Taormina.
November 2017
Delighted to contribute to the University
of Pittsburgh's Centre for Pain Research
Seminar Series.
November 2017
I'm proud to have contributed to the seminar
series at McGil University's Department of Physiology,
and thrilled to have walked along Dr Penfield Avenue.
October 2017
A very warm to welcome Olivia Davis to the group.
Olivia will start her PhD studying the neuroanatomical
features of calretinin-expressing inhibitory interneurons.
March 2017
Start of a new BBSRC-funded grant.
Very exciting times ahead for all concerned.
January 2017
Follow this link to the Research Highlights
article in Nature Neuroscience discussing
the Abraira et al., 2017 paper.
January 2017
Great start to 2017! Paper published in
Cell defining the neuronal organisation to the
LTMRr zone. Follow this link to access.
September 2016
Our workshop on advances in studies
of dorsal horn circuitry was well received
at the IASP's 16th World Congress on Pain
in Yokohama, Japan.
January 2017
Follow this link to the Research Highlights
article in Nature Neuroscience discussing
the Abraira et al., 2017 paper.
January 2017
Great start to 2017! Paper published in Cell
defining the neuronal organisation to the
LTMRr zone. Follow this link to access.
September 2016
Our workshop on advances in studies of
dorsal horn circuitry was well received at the IASP's
16th World Congress on Pain in Yokohama, Japan.
Hughes Laboratory
Supported by the BBSRC, the Wellcome Trust, NC3Rs and HMRC (Australia)
