Probing G protein coupled receptor signaling networks in trigeminal nociception

疼痛的两个最常见的原因是牙痛和头痛，但科学家不？I don’我真的不明白神经是如何聚集和交流的？痛苦吗从嘴、脸和大脑中获取信息。如果他们这样做了，这将为缓解疼痛的新方法打开大门。我们的研究集中在我们如何感觉牙齿和头痛的问题上，这种感觉在炎症中是如何改变的，以及我们如何才能停止这种疼痛。为了解决这些复杂的问题，我们将使用一系列尖端的技术工具和方法，这些工具和方法可以通过利兹大学和我们在圣安东尼奥的德克萨斯大学健康科学中心的合作者获得，该中心是美国最好的牙科学校之一。这些工具将包括活神经细胞的电子记录、成像（深入观察细胞内部）和分子生物学。例如，我们将使用最新一代的仪器称为？光学荧光显微镜(the欧洲？我们在利兹的实验室正在组装第一台这种机器，它可以看到如此精细的细节，我们将能够制作将疼痛传递到大脑的单个分子的视频。最终，这项工作应该会带来全新的方法来理解和治疗疼痛，这些疼痛不仅会导致令人难以置信的不适，而且会花费卫生服务和社会数十亿英镑。在我们的团队中，我们是公众参与科学的强烈倡导者。公众对生物医学研究非常感兴趣（尤其是因为他们为之付费），我们必须更多地参与向非科学受众传播我们的基础研究。作为一项持续的活动，我们最近获得了合作惠康？人物奖？与科罗拉多州的艺术家吉姆·帕蒂森（Jim Pattison）合作，开发一个展览，展示神经细胞中的信号蛋白如何工作，以及技术变革如何改变我们表现这些信号蛋白的方式。我们也计划有一个实验室？开放日？为学童及有兴趣的家长而设，我们预期他们会极有兴趣目睹尖端科技应用于疼痛研究。我们的机构认为公众参与非常重要，我们已入围公众参与的最佳选择，新的#8m倡议哦HEFCE，研究委员会和惠康信托基金，旨在促进卓越的公众参与。

Two of the most common causes of pain are toothache and headache, but scientists don?t really understand how nerves collect and communicate ?painful? information from the mouth, face and brain. If they did, it would open the door to new methods for pain relief. Our research is centered on the question of how we sense tooth- and headache, how this sensation is altered in inflammation and how can we stop such pains. To tackle these intricate questions we are going to use an array of cutting-edge technological tools and approaches available through Leeds University and through our collaborators at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio which hosts one of the best dental schools in USA. These tools will include electrical recordings from living nerve cells, imaging (to look deep inside cells) and molecular biology. For example, we will use a latest generation of an instrument called an ?optical fluorescent microscope? (the Europe?s first machine of this kind is now being assembled in our lab at Leeds) which can see in such fine detail that we will be able to make videos of the individual molecules that transmit pain to the brain. Ultimately this work should lead to brand new ways to understand and treat pains which not only cause incredible discomfort, but cost the Health Services and society billions of pounds.In our group we are strong advocates of Public Engagement in Science. The general public are incredibly interested in biomedical research (not least because they pay for it), and we have to get more involved in communicating our basic research to non-scientific audience. As an ongoing activity, we have recently obtained a collaborative Wellcome ?People Award? with the Glasgow-based artist Jim Pattison to develop an exhibition to show how signalling proteins in nerve cells work, and how technological changes have altered the way how we represent these. We also plan to have a lab ?Open Day? for schoolchildren and interested parents once a year; we envisage that they will be extremely interested in seeing cutting edge technology applied to pain research. Our institution considers public engagement highly important, and we have been shortlisted for the Beacons of Public Engagement , the new #8m initiative oh HEFCE, Research Councils and the Wellcome Trust, which aims to promote excellence in public engagement.