The NHMRC program for Dissecting Pain Pathways is a joint project between the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Qld, The School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Qld and the Pain Management Research Institute at the University of Sydney.

The Program plans to discover and use highly selective venom peptides to identify the pharmacology of peripheral pain pathways and their projections into the central nervous system, and to identify and characterise new targets suitable for drug intervention.

The long-term goal of the Program is to discover new targets in pain pathways and develop peptides that act on these targets in animal models of chronic pain. These molecules will be optimised within the Program to the point where they can be considered for pre-clinical development in collaboration with commercial partners.

Marine and terrestrial animal venoms represent a vast array of toxins that may be used in the treatment of pathological disease states or neurological conditions. A major aim of this project is to identify and characterise novel venom peptides from Australia’s venomous creatures, especially the cone snails, which may hold therapeutic potential.