News from the Hughes Laboratory
January 2026
Delighted to announce that a collaborative
grant submitted to the European
Commission's neuron ERA-NET call for
Joint Translational Research Projects with
Luke Henderson and Kevin Keay at the
University of Sydney, and Michelle Roche
and David Finn at the University of Galway
has been awarded.
November-December 2025
The long trip to Australia is always well
worth the effort. Time was short but
managed to cram in a visit to meet up
with Luke Henderson and Kevin Keay
at the University of Sydney, join friends
Jason Ivanusic, Andrea Harrington, and
Tyler Browne to speak at a symposium
organised by Brett Graham on Sensory
Circuits of the Spinal Cord and Peripheral
Nervous System at the Australasian
Neuroscience Society's 44th Annual
Scientific Meeting in Hobart (ANS 2025),
and also head up to University of Newcastle
to hook up with long-term collaborators
and friends.
October 2025
Great time visiting Linkoping University
to act as an Opponent in John Chen's
successful PhD defence, and also to give
a seminar on presynaptic inhibition of
cutaneous sensory neurons.
Going on to visit Patrick Ernfors at
Karolinska Institutet was a fabulous way
to cap my first trip to Sweden.
October 2025
A very warm welcome to Alaa Yousef,
who joins our group to study for her PhD.
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
If you can't be with your loved one, 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 honoured, and very proud, 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
Colitis UK's Pain Collaborative Network meeting
at The Shard, London.
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
organised by Frank Porreca and Steve McMahon.
November 2017
Delighted to visit Sarah Ross and Rebecca
Seal at the University of Pittsburgh, and to
contribute to 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
Research Highlights article in Nature
Neuroscience discussing the
Abraira et al., 2017 paper. Follow this
link to access.
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)
