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Dr Alex Clark, PhD

Alex

Lecturer in Neuroscience

Email: Alex.j.clark@qmul.ac.uk
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-clark-6018b955/

Profile

Dr Alex Clark completed an MSCi degree in Neuroscience at University of Nottingham. Following this he started a PhD at University College London where he established a microfluidic culture device to study the axons of sensory neurons in isolation. He then undertook a post-doc in Prof David Bennett’s lab at University of Oxford where he studied inherited pain conditions using induced pluripotent stem cells. Whilst in Oxford he also earned a Research Fellowship in 2019 and subsequently began researching the pathophysiology of Hereditary Sensory Neuropathy type 1.  He was appointed Lecturer in Neuroscience in 2022.

Teaching

I am co-module lead for ICMM930 – Chronic Pain and Epilepsy. This module aligns very well with my research interests and expertise. I have been involved in pain research for nearly 20 years, working with some world leaders in pain and neuropathy research during this time. My experience directly influences the content taught during this module, as well as the careful recruitment of other excellent pain and epilepsy lecturers.

In addition to this MSc module, I am also co-module lead for 2 undergraduate modules – Repair and Regeneration in the Nervous system (Year 3 Neuroscience) and Developmental Biology and Cell Signalling (Year 3, Biomedical Sciences, Nanchang Joint Programme).

  • ICMM930 – Chronic Pain and Epilepsy – Co-module lead
  • BMD361 – Repair and Regeneration in the Nervous System - Co- Module lead
  • SNU307 – Developmental Biology and Cell Signaling - Co-module lead

Research

Research Interests:

Pain arises as a direct consequence of injury or disease to the somatosensory system. There are many causes of pain and sometimes this results in neuropathic pain which can last many months to years or even a whole lifetime. I am particularly interested in researching inherited pain conditions; these are often highly debilitating and have a profound impact on the quality of life. I specialize in differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to sensory neurons to model and study these conditions.

These are a fantastic opportunity to study human neurons in culture and by doing so we can interrogate potential disease mechanisms. I have been successful in developing the first ever myelinating coculture of human iPSC-derived neurons with rodent Schwann cells which we used to study a demyelinating neuropathy, this coculture platform is now being used as a diagnostic screening tool. More recently I led a large investigative project to study the pathophysiology of a Hereditary Sensory Neuropathy, where we uncovered a previously unknown cause for this disease. iPSCs are an incredibly powerful tool for researchers to study disease and it is my intention to use both iPSC and in vivo models to continue researching painful sensory neuropathies

Publications

Supervision

  • Kira Werder – Joint primary supervisor
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