Doctor Peter Shortland

Peter Shortland gained his BSc. in Zoology from BristolUniversity in 1985 and did his PhD at Uinversity College London under the tutelage of Professors Pat Wall, Clifford Woolf and Maria Fitzgerald and his research focussed on the neuroplasticity of primary afferents following peripheral nerve injury. He graduated in 1990. From 1990-94 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in plasticity of primary afferents after in various models of neuropathic pain following peripheral nerve injury in the UK, the USA (St. Louis University and Washington University). Ifrom 1994-1996 he was the receipient of an International postdoctoral fellowship in Neuroscience from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. In 1996 he became a lecturer in Anatomy at Queen Mary University of London, part of the Bart's & London School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 2004, he was promoted to a Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience. In 2013 he was recrited to the School of Science and Health as an Associate Professor in Human Anatomy.

My research interests are centred on chronic pain, primarily of cutaneous origin, but also of musculoskeletal, trigeminal and visceral origin. For the past decade Peter has been investigating the effects of spinal root avulsion injuries (both dorsal and ventral root) and how they contribute to avulsion injury pain such as occurs in brachial plexus or cauda equina injuries. The emphasis is on the synaptic rearrangements, phenotypic plasticity, glial and vascular responses and neuronal survival mechanisms that contribute to the functional rewiring of central nervous system circuits after such injuries. The ultimate aim is to be able to identify the molecular mechanisms/factors that are responsible for the abnormal responses to injury, to reduce/alleviate the associated neuropathic pain and to try to restore normal function after such injuries using growth factor or other pharmacological agents alone or in combination with surgical strategies.  He continues to work on the functional consequences of peripheral nerve the mechanisms involved in the chronic neuropathic pain that results from these injuries.

This information has been contributed by Doctor Shortland.