Professor John Wood

University College London

Professor John N. Wood, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc., FRS, graduated from Leeds University and studied Virology at Warwick University. He moved to the Institut Pasteur in 1976 to work as a postdoctoral fellow with Luc Montagnier on Interferons, before transitioning to Neuroscience thanks to meeting Tom Jessell. He worked for 12 years in Industry (Wellcome Foundation and Sandoz Institute). He identified a number of new analgesic targets in studies of transgenic mice. An ATP-gated channel (P2X3) is the target of a drug called Gefapixant in honour of Geoff Burnstock. With Armen Akopian, he also cloned a sodium channel named Na_V1.8 that is important for human pain. Vertex have produced an orally active channel blocker - Journavx or Suzetrigine that is a useful analgesic. John founded Ionix Pharmaceuticals, to make Na_V1.8 channel blockers in 2002 without success. In 2009 he was elected to the Royal Society and won the Grand Prix Scientifique of the Institut de France. More recently, he and others showed that Na_V1.7, another sodium channel, plays a key role in human pain, and explained the mechanism behind this, but the genetic basis of pain loss (with compensatory expression of other channels) does not translate into useful therapeutics because of bad side effects. His recent work focusses on chemogenetic studies of cancer pain. 

Dr Samantha Salvage

University of Cambridge

Samantha Salvage’s research primarily focuses on cardiac ion channel regulation in the context of cellular and molecular determinants of conduction and arrhythmia. During her PhD at the University of Surrey she investigated the effects of intracellular Ca²⁺ and calcineurin regulation of cardiac gap junction resistance. This was followed by post-doctoral research on ryanodine receptor (RyR2) dysfunction on conduction and arrhythmogenesis in the labs of Dr James Fraser and Prof Chris Huang at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at Cambridge, and RyR2 gating properties with Prof Angela Dulhunty on a visiting fellowship at the Australian National University. More recently, she has been studying the structural and functional regulation of cardiac Nav1.5 by beta subunits, small molecules and fragment antibodies in the lab of Dr Tony Jackson, Dept Biochemistry, Cambridge. She has recently taken up a post as lecturer in cardiovascular sciences at City St George’s, University of London where she will continue her research in cardiac ion channel regulation and beyond.   

Dr Oliver Acton

AstraZeneca

To follow

Dr Gary Clark

Metrion

Dr Gary Clark is Metrion’s Director of Ion Channel Screening and has over 25 years of experience in ion channel drug discovery, including more than 20 years in contract research. At Metrion, Gary is responsible for overseeing screening strategy and delivery, with a particular focus on ion channel assay development, automated electrophysiology, and high-throughput screening platforms.

Gary began his career in biotech, where he was closely involved in the early development and adoption of automated patch-clamp technologies. In 2005, he joined BioFocus (now Charles River) as a Team Leader, where he successfully implemented automated electrophysiology capabilities for contract research applications.

During his time at BioFocus and Charles River, Gary led numerous client ion channel programmes across the preclinical pipeline, including assay development, cell line generation, high-throughput screening, and hit-to-lead/lead optimisation. His work has spanned several therapeutic areas, with a particular emphasis on pain and respiratory indications.

Gary holds a BSc (Hons) in Zoology and Physiology from Royal Holloway, University of London, and earned his PhD in cardiac electrophysiology from Coventry University. He is the author of peer-reviewed publications in the field.

Dr Jim Hockley

GSK

To follow

Dr David Bulmer

University of Cambridge

Dr David Bulmer has led translational research groups investigating drug targets for the treatment of abdominal pain in gastrointestinal disease for over 20 years, working in both academia and industry. Most recently his group has combined the use of human tissue assays, single cell transcriptomics and nociceptor recordings to identify and validate mechanisms regulating visceral pain.

Dr Ali Obergrussberger

Nanion

To follow

Dr Alex Pinggera

Metrion

To follow