GROUP MEMBERS

Miss Jennifer Brawn (DPhil student)

Dr Archana Ranganathan (Clinical Research Fellow)

Miss Lisa Buck (EndoPain/WIPSOx Research Nurse)

Miss Danielle Hewitt (EndoPain 2 Research Assistant)

EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS

Prof Irene Tracey, Prof Charlotte Stagg & Dr Katie Warnaby, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford

Prof Philippa Saunders & Prof Andrew Horne, MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh

Prof Tonia Vincent & Dr Fiona Watt, Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford

Prof Idhaliz Flores, Ponce Health Sciences University, Puerto Rico 

Oxford University - Bayer HealthCare Translational Alliance in endometriosis and uterine fibroids

BIOGRAPHY

I graduated from King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London in 2000, having also obtained an intercalated BSc in Biomedical Sciences & Anatomy (1997). I completed my early clinical training in Cambridge and Worthing before obtaining a NTN in the Oxford Deanery in 2004. During this time I undertook a DPhil using fMRI to investigate the influence of hormones on pain processing in humans (Supervisors: Prof Irene Tracey, Prof Stephen Kennedy & Miss Jane Moore). I was appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in 2009 and then as the NDOG Pain Fellow in 2014. Both these posts have allowed me to continue my research whilst completing my clinical training and developing specialist skills in the management of women with chronic pelvic pain.

RESEARCH

Chronic pain is common. In the UK  alone approximately 7.8 million people live with chronic pain and, at any time, over a third of households contain someone in pain. Women suffer with almost all chronic pain conditions to a much greater extent than men. Additionally, they also suffer from female-specific pains; particularly in their pelvis, including period pain (dysmenorrhoea) and the pains associated with diseases such as endometriosis. My research focuses on the role that the central nervous system (CNS) plays in generating and maintaing pain in women. I am particularly interested in the interactions between pain and steroid hormones.