Visceral Neurophysiology Laboratory

One of the greatest healthcare crises facing humanity at present is the opioid overdose epidemic, which unfortunately has only worsened over the past decade

Research in the Visceral Neurophysiology Laboratory involves development of novel techniques using wireless optogenetic technology to selectively silence visceral pain pathways, without using conventional, non-specific opioid pain killers. Many of the techniques used in the Visceral Neurophysiology Laboratory were developed in this laboratory and are still only active in this laboratory. This allows us to address fundamental core questions that have eluded scientific investigation until now.

OUR RESEARCH

Research in our laboratory is directed to understanding the neurophysiological basis of pain pathways in visceral organs, and the neural control mechanisms that underlie control of the gut to brain axis.

Research projects

Wireless optogenetics
Calcium imaging of enteric neural networks
Anterograde tracing from sensory neurons (DRG)
In vivo pain models
In vivo motility models

Featured publications:

Optogenetic Induction of Colonic Motility in Mice - Read
Identification of a Rhythmic Firing Pattern in the Enteric Nervous System That Generates Rhythmic Electrical Activity in Smooth Muscle - Read
Identification of spinal afferent nerve endings in the colonic mucosa and submucosa that communicate directly with the spinal cord: The gut-brain axis - Read

Resources

Optogenetics Australia

ResearchLink

Twitter

GROUP MEMBERS

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Professor Nick Spencer

Nick Spencer completed his BSc(Hons) in 1995 and then his PhD in Neurophysiology in 1998 at the Department of Physiology, Monash University, Australia. In 1998, Nick then moved to The University of Nevada School of Medicine, where he spent 10 years. In 2002, Nick obtained a five-year grant with the NIH, to study intrinsic neural reflex circuitry in the gastrointestinal tract.

Since arriving at Flinders University 14 years ago, Nick has been a balanced teaching/research academic, with 40 per cent time for research. Over this time, he been a Chief investigator on 15 NHMRC project grants and four ARC Discovery grants ($10 million). He was Chief Investigator-A on 11 of these 19 federally-funded grants. In 2022, he is Chief investigator-A on two NHMRC project grants and two ARC discovery grants on gut-brain axis.

In 2018, he published with Dr. Hongzhen Hu, the first wireless optogenetic control of the gut, in the leading journal Gastroenterology. Nick is interested in developing techniques that have been previously unavailable to the field to address major questions that have eluded scientific investigation. He has published more than 150 peer reviewed articles on autonomic neuroscience.