Contact information
01865 231512
These are academic contact details and should not be used for clinical correspondence.
Helen Johnson (Academic)
pa@ndcn.ox.ac.uk
Clinical contact information
Research groups
Colleges
David Bennett
Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology
- Head of the Division of Clinical Neurology
- Senior Wellcome Clinical Scientist
- Honorary Consultant Neurologist
- Research Fellow of Green Templeton College
Pain, channelopathy, sensation, neuroscience
Research Summary
My research aim is to gain a better understanding of the response of the nervous system to injury in order to develop strategies to promote peripheral nerve repair and to prevent the development of neuropathic pain. This is complementary to my clinical interest in peripheral neuropathy and pain management.
I administer a specialist neuropathy and channelopathy clinical service at the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust. I employ a multi-disciplinary approach including electrophysiology, cell culture, preclinical transgenic models and transcriptional profiling as well as biomarker, psychophysical and genetic studies in patients.
This research programme is leading to a better understanding of the signaling events which lead to neuropathic pain, improved means of patient stratification and led to new drug targets which are undergoing clinical trials.
I have been involved in understanding the genetic basis of inherited painful channelopathies (for instance familial episodic pain syndrome due to TRPA1 mutations as well as rare variants in Nav1.7) and in the description and validation of novel pain mediators such as NGF and CXCL5.
I am a member of the London Pain Consortium and I lead DOLORisk a Horizon 20.20 initiative with 11 participating centres which is investigating the risk factors and determinants of neuropathic pain. Iwas awarded an honorary Skou Professorship at the University of Aarhus 2019.
Recent publications
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Serum levels of endocannabinoids and related lipids in painful vs painless diabetic neuropathy: results from the Pain in Neuropathy Study.
Journal article
Bäckryd E. et al, (2023), Pain
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GluCl.CreON enables selective inhibition of molecularly defined pain circuits
Journal article
Middleton SJ. et al, (2023), Pain, Publish Ahead of Print
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Joint European Academy of Neurology-European Pain Federation-Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain guidelines on neuropathic pain assessment.
Journal article
Truini A. et al, (2023), Eur J Neurol
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New perspectives in diabetic neuropathy.
Journal article
Eid SA. et al, (2023), Neuron
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Long-term tactile hypersensitivity after nerve crush injury in mice is characterized by the persistence of intact sensory axons
Journal article
Kim HW. et al, (2023), Pain