King's College London

Dr Kirsty Bannister has received the 2022 Patrick D. Wall Young Investigator Prize for Basic Science from the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), making her the first woman from the UK to receive this international accolade. The prize, awarded every two years since 1987, honours early career researchers who have achieved a high level of independence as an outstanding scholar in the field of pain in basic science.

Dr Bannister is Senior Lecturer within the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases. She leads the Bannister lab group, which seeks to bridge the gap between bench and bedside pain research, with a focus on the biological, pharmacological and anatomical basis of pain pathways and their plasticity in chronic pain states.

Chronic pain affects up to 20% of the adult population and can occur in the presence or absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Comprising of post-doctoral researchers, PhD students and a research assistant, Dr Bannister’s lab conduct exploratory experiments that seek to molecularly, anatomically and/or functionally define descending control pathways in healthy rodents and rodent models of chronic pain as well as in healthy human volunteers and chronic pain patients including those with Parkinson's and Inflammatory Arthritis. Funders include the Academy of Medical Sciences, MRC, NC3Rs and Parkinson's UK.

Dr Bannister will receive her award and present her research at the IASP 2022 World Congress on Pain in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 19-23 September 2022.

The IASP is the leading global organization supporting the study and practice of pain and pain relief. IASP brings together scientists, clinicians, health care providers, and policymakers from around the world in pursuit of their mission to bring relief to those who are in pain.