News

July 2020

Click on the following links for Parts 1 and 2 of a recent podcast featuring Professor Anthony Jones and Dr Will Gregory, for 'Primary Care Knowledge Boost' -  a podcast with Sara and Lisa, 2 GP's in Greater Manchester Area.

Part 1: In this week’s episode Lisa and Sara speak to Professor Anthony Jones and Consultant Physiotherapist William Gregory from Salford Royal Foundation Trust to learn more about Fibromyalgia. In part 1 we cover what the condition involves, the central sensitisation theory, useful examination tips and differentials to consider. We also talk about simple ways of explaining a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia to your patients: https://primarycareknowledgeboost.podbean.com/e/fibromyalgia-part-1-manchester-based/

Part 2:

 

And, Congratulations to Professor Monty Silverdale who has been appointed MAHSC Honorary Professor at The University of Manchester.

See the following link for further information:https://www.ncaresearch.org.uk/news/leading-nca-consultants-become-professors/

 

October 2020

Please see following link to BBC Radio 4 radio broadcast on 'Long Covid' featuring Professor Manoj Sivan: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mzms

 

June 2019

See the following links for further information following the press release for our Smart Neurotherapies Platform:

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/trial-starts-for-phone-app-which-uses-light-sound-and-brainwaves-to-treat-pain/

https://youtu.be/whx8ajNGaGo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJSrxGhGLZM

https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/new-smartphone-app-uses-flashing-light-to-treat-chronic-pain/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd_pz9nhj3o&feature=youtu.be

http://painconcern.org.uk/airing-pain-112-measuring-pain-reading-the-brain/

 

July 2018

Congratulations to Marie Shorrock who achieved a First in her MNeuro Masters Project Dissertation "Auditory binaural beat stimulation as a novel, non-pharmacological therapy for chronic pain: a pilot study". Marie was supervised by Dr Chris Brown and Professor Anthony Jones

May 2018

In May, The Human Pain Research Group workd with Windfall Films, to film a section for BBC Documentary 'Horizon', looking at the placebo effect. Please check back here for further information on when this documentary will be aired.

Sept 2017

Dr Manoj Sivan has been appointed as Clinical Associate Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Leeds and Leeds NHS Hospitals. This is an exciting new post, the first of its kind in the country, to lead a research programme in musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation. He has worked at Salford Royal for the past five years as a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine and won the Trusts Jill Simpson award for clinical excellence in 2016. He is also a member of the Human Pain Research Group, led by Professor Anthony Jones. Manoj was the UKs first NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Rehabilitation Medicine (and Musculoskeletal Medicine) and winner of the European Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine prize in 2014. His research interests are neuromusculoskeletal medicine and the use of rehabilitation technologies to improve function in chronic disability. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Rehabilitation Medicine. www.salfordresearch.org.uk/news/associate-professor-rehabilitation/

March 2016

Please see following link to the press release for 'Pain, The Brain and a Little Bit of Magic: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/pain-the-brain-and-a-little-bit-of-magic-as-research-goes-from-lab-to-stage/

April 2016

Professor Anthony Jones will also be appearing in 'Wanted' at the West Yorkshier Playhouse 22 & 23 April 2016. Please see https://www.wyp.org.uk/events/transform16/ for further details

October 2015

Press Release for coverage for publication 'Striatal opioid receptor availability is related to acute and chronic pain perception in arthritis: does opioid adaptation increase resilience to chronic pain? Pain October 2015'.

Daily Mail Online: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3286646/Scientists-discover-turn-pain-Threshold-raised-altering-chemistry-brain.html (PDF, 560kb)

Times of India: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Pain-threshold-rises-with-altered-brain-chemistry/articleshow/49527926.cms (PDF, 460kb)

BBC World Service: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p035smn7

Summary on University of Manchester Media page: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/people-can-raise-pain-threshold-by-altering-brain-chemistry-arthritis-patients-study-shows/

 

December 2014

Congratulations to Dr Manoj Sivan, Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine and Honorary Lecturer with University of Manchester who has won the prestigious EARM European Academy Prize for his MD thesis for the 'Best original work in Rehabilitation Medicine'

November 2014

Parkinsons UK grant of £88,090.22 awarded to Dr Monty Silverdale, Dr Chris Kobylecki, Professor Anthony Jones and Professor Wael El-Deredy - "A neurophysiological investigation of pain in Parkinson's disease"

PhD awarded: Congratulations to Dr Kathy Ecsy for being awarded a PhD degree for her work titled “Analgesic effects of EEG alpha-wave entrainment on acute and chronic pain”

October 2014

Matthew Leung as been awarded a distinction for his MRes project titled "Variations in electrophysiological response to different placebo analgesic modalities" - Well done!

March 2014

Front page splash in the Daily Express and coverage on BBC North West TV, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Somerset, Daily Mail and Manchester Evening News - press release on Professor Anthony Jones; Professor Wael El-Deredy and Dr Chris Brown's new research points to talking-therapy treatments to manage osteoarthritis pain.

Article | Medical News Today: "New research points to talking-therapy treatments to manage osteoarthritis pain"
New findings by Arthritis Research UK-funded researchers at The University of Manchester

Article | Mail Online: "Could Buddhism help treat ARTHRITIS? Worrying about illnesses makes them worse because 'most pain is in the mind'
A new study claimed positive thinking - such as Buddhist meditation techniques - will be a major step forward in helping sufferers.

September 2012

The Independent on Sunday: 'New study warns cases of gout on the rise'.

May 2011

Article in The Independent newspaper: "It's time for your meditation "
Our research in the effects on meditation on pain has been publised.

January 2010

Press Release: "Meditation reduces the emotional impact of pain "
Research from our group has shown that "mindfulness meditation" can dull the experience of pain.

January 2010

Ph.D. awarded
Congratulations to Dr Debbie Morton for being awarded a Ph.D. degree for her work within the Human Pain Research Group.

November 2008

Seminar: "Placebos: How do they work?"
The Neuroscience Research Institute hosted a seminar on mechanisms of the placebo effect, with keynote speakers Irving Kirsch and Tor Wager. Follow the above link for further details and slide presentations.

August 2008

BBC radio 4 Interview
Prof Anthony Jones is interviewed for a radio programme on pain control.

August 2008

Article published in Manchester Evening News: "Is Pain all in the Brain?"
Prof Anthony Jones is interviewed for an article on the role of the brain in the experience of pain.

June 2008

New research grant awarded
Prof Anthony Jones and Dr Wael El-Deredy have teamed up with Prof Karl Herlholtz and Dr Peter Talbot from the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre (WMIC) to win a research grant of £757,887 from the Medical Research Council. They will be researching how psychological and physiological factors influence the release of the brain's own pain-killing chemicals in patients with chronic pain.

June 2008

New research grant awarded
Prof Anthony Jones has been awarded £317,705 from the Arthritis Research Campaign to research top-down modulation of pain in patients with chronic pain over the next three years.

April 2008

Ph.D. awarded
Congratulations to Dr Alison Watson for being awarded a Ph.D. degree for her work within the Human Pain Research Group.

February 2008

Ph.D. awarded
Congratulations to Dr Christopher Brown for being awarded a Ph.D. degree for his work within the Human Pain Research Group.

January 2008

New research grant awarded
Prof Anthony Jones has been awarded £119,271 from the Dr Hadwen Trust to research endogenous pain control mechanisms in patients with chronic pain over the next two years. The Trust aims to reduce the amount of animal research required in order to understand and treat human disease.

October 2007

New research grant awarded
In collaboration with Dr Hugh McCann at the University of Manchester, Prof Anthony Jones has been awarded £11,000 from the Manchester CIMIT Small Grants Award Scheme to test whether a new brain imaging technology (Electrical Impedance Tomography, EIT) may be useful for understanding how the brain processes the experience of pain.

March 2007

Press release: Arthritis pain processed in brain's 'fear zone', first PET scans reveal
Researchers in The Human Pain Research Group have discovered that arthritis pain, unlike that induced as part of an experiment, is processed in the parts of the brain concerned with emotions and fear. Please click on the title above for this press release.

January 2007

Student awarded research grant
Christopher Brown has been awarded a Varela grant by the Mind and Life Institute to research neurophysiological mechanisms of a mindfulness-based treatment for chronic pain.

January 2007

Ph.D.s awarded
Congratulations to Dr Bhavna Kulkarni and Dr Yvonne Boyle for being awarded Ph.D. degrees for their work with the Human Pain Research Group.

September 2006

Pain in Europe V: 5th Congress of EFIC
Prof Anthony Jones will be providing a workshop at the European Federation of IASP Chapters (EFIC) this year in Istanbul. Yvonne Boyle will also be presenting 2 posters.

March 2006

Student awarded grant
Yvonne Boyle is awarded a Wellcome Trust Value in People grant.

February 2006

Student nominated for University award
Yvonne Boyle is nominated for student of the year award by the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences. In recognition of her high calibre work, the Faculty has awarded her with £50 in book tokens.

January 2006

Student takes on new role
Yvonne Boyle begins her new role as treasurer and membership secretary for the British Association for Cognitive Neuroscience (BACN).

August 2005

IASP 11th World Congress on Pain
We will be represented at this year's international pain conference in Sydney by Dr. Anthony Jones, who will be providing a refresher course on the role of the cerebral cortex in pain perception, and PhD students Yvonne Boyle and Christopher Brown who will be presenting their research findings. In total, 9 research posters from a number of our group members will be presented. Chris and Yvonne have both received travel bursaries from the IASP organisers to attend this years conference.

15th September 2004

Student wins poster prize
PhD student Christopher Brown won the poster prize at the British Psychophysiology Society (BPPS) conference in Manchester, for his poster entitled 'The expectancy of pain in Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis and healthy volunteers: preliminary results'.

13th -15th September 2004

32nd Annual Conference of the British Psychophysiology Society (BPPS)
Deborah Bentley, Yvonne Boyle and Alison Watson organised the BPPS Annual Conference, which was held in Manchester this year.

3rd September 2004

Student wins poster prize
PhD student Alison Watson won a prize for her poster entitled 'Placebo induced reduction of pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings of a laser stimulus' at the Touch, Temperature, Pain and Pleasure Conference held at The University of Manchester.

2nd - 3rd September 2004

Touch, Temperature, Pain and Pleasure Conference
In collaboration with Unilever, our research group ran a conference on the subject of Touch, Temperature, Pain and Pleasure. This conference was held at The University of Manchester and attracted speakers from around the world.

4th June 2004

Article in Manchester Evening News
The Manchester Evening News published an article covering our research, entitled 'Pill to break pain barrier'.

3rd June 2004

Human Pain Research Group Showcase
Our research group held a day of presentations on our work, for faculty members, funding bodies and patients.