Touch, Pain and Interoception in Somatosensory and Cancer Neuroscience

Speaker: Andrew Bell, PhD 

School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK; School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, UK 

Biography of the speaker:  

Andrew Bell is a Wellcome Early Career Fellow at the University of Glasgow and a veterinary surgeon specialising in anaesthesia and analgesia. His research focuses on the molecular and functional diversity of spinal projection neurons within the anterolateral system (ALS), a key pathway for pain and other sensory modalities. Using single nucleus RNA sequencing and transgenic approaches in mice, Andrew investigates how distinct neuronal subsets contribute to pain perception and sensory processing. His work also incorporates comparative insights from veterinary species to inform translational strategies for analgesia across species. 

Description of the general focus of the symposium:  

Sensory systems of the body inform the brain on the multitude of different stimuli that come from the environment as well as from the inside. Somatosensory neuroscience is currently going through a transformative period in which we witness the emergence of technologies that allow for precise dissection of neural pathways transmitting sensory information. This is possible due to unprecedented ability to integrate anatomical, genetic and functional data on primary afferents as well as central neurons that together form circuits of touch, pain and internal feelings. Moreover, we are beginning to pinpoint mechanisms by which different elements of these circuits are able to modulate one another as a mean of maintaining homeostasis. The goal of this symposium is to highlight research that uncovers the organizational logic of painful and innocuous bodily sensations and how neural systems that process different sensory modalities affect internal states and behavior. Studies discussed here utilize state-of-the-art physiological and anatomical approaches in transgenic mouse models in pursuit of in-depth investigations on structure and function of painful, interoceptive and tactile signalling pathways. This allows for new insights on important topics, such as identity of neurons forming ascending pain pathways in the spinal cord, top-down modulation of bone cancer pain and tumor progression, hierarchical organization of peripheral nociceptive and interoceptive pathways and assessment of neurons of touch regulating sexual behavior. 

Brief description of the talk: 

The anterolateral system (ALS) is a major ascending pathway from the spinal cord that projects to multiple brain areas. Activity in the projection neurons of the ALS underlies the perception of pain, itch, and skin temperature, and this tract therefore represents an attractive target for novel analgesics. Despite its importance, our understanding of this system has been hampered by the considerable functional and molecular diversity of its constituent cells. In particular, we have a poor understanding of how different classes of neuron within this heterogeneous pathway transmit diverse sensory modalities and drive the dimensionality of pain. Dr Andrew Bell will present recent work using single nucleus RNA sequencing to reveal the molecular architecture of the ALS in mice. The session will explore how to target specific neuronal subsets of these cells in transgenic mice and how this can permit investigation of their distinct projectome and function.