Research interests - I am currently a Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Pharmacology, working on a Wellcome Trust Discovery Award project, ENDASCOP. As a neuroscientist specialising in pain, my current research centres on the neural mechanisms of chronic pain, with a particular focus on osteoarthritic (OA) pain. The project aims to elucidate the role of distinct knee-innervating afferent neuronal subpopulations in the development and maintenance of OA pain, as well as to map the spinal circuits these afferents innervate under both normal and pathological conditions.
I obtained my PhD in 2024, supported by an FNRS scholarship at Université Libre de Bruxelles and an FWA scholarship during my time as a visiting PhD student at the University of Cambridge. My doctoral research focused on PRDM12, a transcriptional regulator associated with congenital insensitivity to pain. I explored PRDM12’s role in the development and signalling of nociceptors (pain-sensing neurons), with the goal of advancing our understanding of pain pathways and offering new opportunities for therapeutic interventions.Additionally, I hold an MSc in Physiology from the American University of Beirut, where my thesis explored the mechanistic pathways of intermittent fasting and its impact on prediabetes-induced neuropathy, proposing a novel mechanism involved in its pathogenesis and complications.
