Understanding how toxins interact with lipid membranes and ion channels

慢性疼痛影响五分之一的澳大利亚人，目前的治疗效果有限，只有大约三分之一的患者得到有意义的疼痛缓解。目前项目的目的是为疼痛创造替代疗法，这可能会减少许多澳大利亚人的痛苦，改善他们的生活质量。为了实现这一目标，我们建议研究蜘蛛毒素如何与细胞相互作用，并使负责慢性疼痛的传感器靶点失活。

Chronic pain affects one in five Australians and current treatments have limited effectiveness, with only about one third of patients getting meaningful, pain relief. The aim of the current project is to create alternative treatments for pain that can potentially lead to the reduced suffering and improvement of life quality of many Australians. To achieve this aim we propose to study how spider toxins interact with cells and deactivate sensor targets responsible for chronic pain.