I am a neuroimmunology researcher studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of pain using humanised approaches.

My research training began as a neuroscience undergraduate with A/Prof Paul Austin at the University of Sydney, where I wrote my Honours thesis on an inflammatory model of Parkinson’s disease. I continued in the Austin lab along with co-supervisor A/Prof Helen McGuire to attain my PhD in 2023, during which I used mass cytometry to immunophenotype blood immune cells in people with diabetic neuropathic pain, migraine, and spinal cord injury.

As an early postdoc, I moved to the lab of A/Prof McGuire and Prof Barbara Fazekas de St Groth at the Charles Perkins Centre, where I applied mass cytometry to human immune cells in the context of cancer.

Since 2024, I have been a postdoctoral researcher with Prof Ted Price in the Center for Advanced Pain Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. Here, I combine transcriptomics and in situ tissue characterisation with in vitro functional assays using primary human peripheral and central nervous system tissues. I focus on studying interactions between sensory neurons and non-neuronal cells in humans and how these contribute to osteoarthritis and painful diabetic neuropathy.

Research Interests

1. Chronic pain

I investigate similarities and differences in the cellular and molecular drivers of pain in neuropathic, inflammatory, and musculoskeletal pain conditions so that we can develop mechanism-informed, pain-resolving therapies.

2. Humanised models of neuroimmune and neurostromal signaling

My approach leverages ex vivo models using primary human sensory neurons, immune cells, and mesenchymal cells to determine how we can switch the activity of non-neuronal cells from pain-promoting to pain-resolving.

3. T cell-neuron bidirectional communication in chronic disease

I am interested in how dysregulated interactions between T cells and sensory neurons may drive systemic chronic disease and comorbidity.

4. High dimensional phenotyping in patients

I use single-cell and spatial technologies such as transcriptomics, mass cytometry, and mass spectrometry in tissues derived from patient populations to uncover cellular drivers of pain that we can target therapeutically.