Or at least, that’s what it does when things are as they should be. He zeroed in on a cell in the ventral nerve cord that acts as ‘brake’ to set the pain threshold. Having mapped out the mechanism behind acute pain with the help of his fruit flies, Neely turned his attention to what happens after injury – and that’s when the initial breakthrough came. In fruit flies, sensory nerves plug into the ventral nerve cord, which works in a similar way to the spinal cord in humans, giving scientists an excellent proxy for the real thing. They are the perfect ‘guinea pigs’ – and not just because they have clear genetic markers and a super-fast 10-day lifecycle. Neely’s lab has been working with fruit flies for well over a decade, studying their genetics to understand how they sense and respond to pain. The whole story began with the humble fruit fly – an invaluable test subject for medical researchers. “People were impressed with the work and the fact that we have solid funding to develop this towards humans. “I presented at the 2018 International Association for the Study of Pain meeting in Boston, and got lots of positive responses,” says Neely. Researchers at the University of Sydney are using stem cells taken from human skin to create pain-inhibiting cells that shut down or reverse the process that can lead to constant pain following nerve injury – including the ‘phantom pain’ that exists where a limb has been removed.Īssociate Professor Greg Neely and his team want to start human trials in the next three years, which would see Australia take a leadership role in one of the fastest growing areas of medical research in the world.
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