L Hébert

Biography

Harry is a postdoctoral research assistant with the chronic pain research group and was appointed to his current post in September 2015. Prior to this he graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2009 with a BSc(Hons) in Genetics and then completed an MSc at Imperial College London in Human Molecular Genetics. Having gained an interest for investigating genetic risk factors of complex disorders from the research component of his MSc, he then undertook a PhD at Arthritis Research UK, Centre for Genetics and Genomics at the University of Manchester, studying the genetic basis of late-onset psoriasis under the supervision of Dr Richard Warren, Professor Anne Barton and Dr John Bowes. Following the completion of his PhD at the end 2014, he of took up a short Research Associate position, contributing to a genome-wide association study in psoriatic arthritis and the analysis of age of onset as a quantitative trait in psoriasis. Harry is currently working with Professor Blair Smith, Professor Colin Palmer and Dr Weihua Meng, to develop a risk model for the development of (severe) neuropathic pain. 

Research Interest

Harry is currently working on DOLORisk, which aims to understand the risk factors and determinants for neuropathic pain. Around 8% of the population live with neuropathic pain, with varying degrees of severity, response to treatment and poor quality of life. The risk factors that contribute to neuropathic pain onset are currently unknown, but involve a combination of heritable and environmental components. Therefore, discovering these risk factors will benefit patients by identifying people at increased risk of developing neuropathic pain, informing pathways for target by therapeutic intervention and ultimately decreasing the burden of healthcare on the NHS. The aim of the Dundee arm of DOLORisk is to develop a risk model for the development of (severe) neuropathic pain. This will be carried out using two population cohorts, Genetics of Diabetes Audit Research Tayside Scotland (GoDARTS) and Generation Scotland: The Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS). GoDARTS will be used to analyse the association of genetic and environmental risk factors with the presence, absence and progression of neuropathic pain at three different time points. This will then be used to develop a genetic, environmental and gene-environment interaction model for neuropathic pain which will be tested on GS:SFHS.