Abstract

Speaker: Nikita Gamper, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds

Talk Title: Peripheral Gate in Somatosensory System

Biography: Nikita is a neuroscientist and biophysicist with interests in neuronal communication, intracellular signalling and mechanisms of pain transmission. He graduated in Biology/Biochemistry from the St. Petersburg State University (Russia) in 1995. In 1999 he obtained a PhD in Physiology from the Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry (Russian Academy of Science; St Petersburg, Russia). After postdoctoral work at Tubingen University, Germany (laboratory of Florian Lang; 1999-2001) and at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, USA (Laboratory of Mark Shapiro; 2001-2005) he joined Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds (lecturer: 2005-2011; associate professor: 2011-2014; professor since 2014). In 2011 he accepted a position of Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at the Hebei Medical University (Shijiazhuang, China) where he currently lead a small research group as well. His research (both in Leeds and in Shijiazhuang) is focused on biophysical principles of neuronal communication and on the regulation of ion channels that control or influence excitability of the peripheral ‘pain’ neurons. He is also interested in the modulation of different neuronal ion channels by G protein coupled receptors (GPSRs) and in localised GPCR signalling in sensory neurons.