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Department of Pharmacology

 
Dr Sampurna Chakrabarti

Dr Sampurna Chakrabarti awarded Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship

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During her Gates Cambridge funded PhD at the Department of Pharmacology in the lab of Dr Ewan St. John Smith, Sam studied mechanisms of inflammatory knee pain, which is a major symptom of arthritis. Findings from Sam’s thesis highlighted the role of nerves supplying the knee joint in causing pain, including that the joint lubricating synovial fluid from arthritic patients can excite nerves supplying the knee, and that silencing of these nerves by a new gene therapy strategy decreases joint pain in mice. Regarding her next career step, Sam said, “the scientific and creative thinking skills learnt during this project in the collegial and collaborative environment of the Department and the Smith Lab was an important factor in obtaining a postdoctoral fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to work with Prof. Gary Lewin at the MDC in Berlin where I will work on identifying novel proteins mediating touch sensation.” Congratulations Sam and good luck with your research!