Editor’s note: Kirsty Bannister, PhD, is an associate professor at King’s College London, UK, and was recently awarded the Patrick D. Wall Young Investigator Prize for Basic Science from the IASP. This prize recognizes an individual who has achieved a high level of independence as an outstanding scholar in the field of pain in basic science. Bannister focuses on bench-to-bedside pain research by conducting exploratory experiments that seek to define descending control pathways molecularly, anatomically, and functionally in rodents and humans using electrophysiology and human psychophysics, respectively.
In the podcast below, recorded in December 2021, Bannister speaks with PRF Correspondent Bhushan Thakkar, a PhD student at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, US. They discuss Bannister’s recent funding from Parkinson’s UK, the role of descending control in chronic pain focusing on the brainstem pathways, as well as its measurement using conditioned pain modulation and the challenges involved in this area. Additionally, Bannister discusses her research goals and focus in the areas of translational chronic pain research. This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts here.
PRF would like to thank Kirsty Bannister for sharing her personal relationship with the late Stephen McMahon, PhD, and the impact he had on her career.
More information about Kirsty Bannister can be found here, and you can follow her on Twitter: @bannister_lab.