Optimising Openness and Transparency in Pain Research

Professor Markus Ploner investigates how the human brain generates the experience of pain. His interdisciplinary research group employs methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and non-invasive brain stimulation to understand how the brain processes pain in healthy individuals and in people with chronic pain. The aim is to develop new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain. His research is guided by the principles of open, reproducible science and actively involves people with chronic pain in the research process.

Professor Ploner studied medicine in Cologne and Vienna and received his doctorate from the University of Cologne. He began his research career at the University Hospital Düsseldorf, where he also completed his specialist training in neurology. In 2007/2008, he conducted research at the University of Oxford as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Since then, he has been working at the Department of Neurology at TUM. In 2014, he was appointed Professor of Human Pain Research, and in 2024, he became Head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Pain Medicine at the TUM University Hospital.

Dr. Franziska Denk leads the Denk lab, which studies the peripheral nervous system and its involvement in chronic pain conditions. Her group is particularly interested in why pain persists over long periods of time and is exploring the role of neuroimmune interactions and epigenetic mechanisms in this context. Their favourite tools include transgenic models and high-throughput molecular analyses on sorted cell populations (scRNAseq, ChIP-seq, CUT&Tag, ATAC-seq). They also work with induced pluripotent stem cell derived models of peripheral neurons.

She is also Co-Director of a Wellcome Trust PhD Training Scheme in Neuroimmune Interactions and in general, her team is looking to promote interdisciplinary research in an open and positive environment. They enjoy sharing data, and engage with other researchers and the public on a regular basis. 

An Honorary Life Member of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Dr. Branney excels at challenging projects that have an impact. Dr. Branney has undertaken a programme of award winning, internationally leading work exploring how to improve experiences of healthcare through interventions that are local, proximal and distal to patients' interactions with services. Dr. Branney co-authored the UK Department for Health report, ‘The Gender & Access to Services Study’ and led the first national study of Patients’ Experiences of Penile Cancer (PEPC), which is published on the award winning www.healthtalk.org and featured on BBC Radio 4s Inside Health, the BPS Impact Portal, and The Guardian. Dr. Branney has over 100 peer-reviewed outputs and in the field of penile cancer and quality of life, four of his papers are in the top ten by citations per year. Dr. Branney is leading work exploring the possibilities of open science for qualitative methods, which includes one of the earliest studies into the topic, keynotes at the Qualitative Methods in Psychology section of the British Psychological Society biennial conference and the UK Research Integrity annual conference, videos and a paper introducing key issues, a special issue in the British Journal of Social Psychology and a number of invited seminars, one of which was recorded and has been viewed of 1,500 times. A student-focused educator, Dr. Branney has received awards from student bodies for his teaching in social psychology. Additionally, Dr. Branney has been an external examiner for undergraduate single and joint honours psychology programmes in the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore, and regularly receive invites to be an external expert for periodic reviews and an external examiner for doctorates.

Dr. Soliman is a Research Fellow at the EPPI Centre, University College London. Her background is in pharmacology and her PhD focused on improving the feasibility, efficiency and accuracy of systematic reviews while asking questions of neurobiological importance. She is now working on DESTINY - a Wellcome funded consortium - developing digital evidence synthesis tools for the responsible use of AI and automation for evidence synthesis and policy making in climate and health. A proponent of open research practices, her research has provided empirical evidence that highlights the impact of the lack of open and transparent reporting, and she is committed to improving the integrity and trustworthiness of pain research. She is a UK Reproducibility Local Network Lead and serves on the Journal of Pain as an Openness and Transparency Editor. She also has an interest in sharing her military experiences and knowledge of leadership development to engender a more positive research culture. 

Dr Aidan Cashin (PhD, BExPhys) is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, Deputy Director of the Centre for Pain IMPACT at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at the University of New South Wales. Prior to commencing research, Aidan pursued a successful clinical career as an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, practicing primarily in the field of chronic musculoskeletal pain.