Monash University, Melbourne

Dr Wendy Imlach is an NHMRC career development fellow and head of the Pain Mechanisms group at Monash University in the Department of Physiology and Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute.  Her research is focused on neural circuits in the spinal cord that are activated in chronic pain, in an effort to identify new therapeutic targets. 

University of Melbourne

Jason Ivanusic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms that contribute to pain derived from skeletal tissues, or of trigeminal origin, with a view to identifying targeted ways to treat it. He enjoys overcoming the significant challenges that arise when working with skeletal tissues, and heads the only group in the world that is currently using electrophysiology to record directly from sensory neurons that innervate the bone marrow cavity. He is also actively engaged in a program of work that explores mechanisms of pain management using ultrasound-guided nerve blocks, and which directly informs clinical practice in anaesthesia. When he’s not in the lab, he spends a lot of his time sharing his passion for teaching anatomy, and has recently been recognised for this by an Australian government teaching award (Citation for outstanding contribution to teaching and learning).  

University of Sydney

Emily completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney, majoring in Neuroscience and Anatomy. These majors, coupled with an interest in pain, led to her joining the Neural Imaging Laboratory for an Honours project under the supervision of Prof. Luke Henderson. With the added supervision of Dr Flavia Di Pietro, Emily is undertaking a PhD in the same lab, and uses functional MRI to study the neural mechanisms behind chronic neuropathic and non-neuropathic orofacial pain. Her research is currently focused on the links between chronic pain and altered functioning of brainstem endogenous pain modulation circuitry, and she has presented her research at several national and international conferences organised by the Australian Pain Society (APS) and International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).

Flinders University