David Bennett
David L. H. Bennett MD PhD
Bennett is Professor of Neurology, Senior Wellcome Clinical Scientist and Honorary Consultant Neurologist within the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. He completed his neurology specialist training at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and regional centers within London and moved from King’s College London to Oxford in 2012. He has 18 years research experience studying the pathophysiology of nerve injury and the etiology of neuropathic pain. He has a key role in a number of consortia studying persistent pain: He is a member of the Wellcome Trust funded London Pain Consortium. He is a member of the IMI ‘Stembancc’ initiative with a particular focus on sensory disorders, and from 2015 Director of the EU consortium DOLORisk. Bennett initiated the Pain In Neuropathy Study (PINS) the aim of which is to understand the pathophysiology of neuropathic pain in the context of neuropathy. Patients with diabetic neuropathy undergo detailed clinical phenotyping (symptom profiles, clinical examination and quantitative sensory testing), neurophysiology and skin biopsy for determination of anatomical changes in sensory fibers. In addition blood for genotyping, serum and skin for transcriptional analysis is stored in a bio bank. These patients are followed prospectively and more than 300 have currently been recruited. This will therefore act as a resource for studies of clinical profile (WP4) and metabolomics (WP5) as part of the IDNC. In addition Bennett has been using human induced pluripotent stem cells differentiated into sensory neurons as a model system. This will enable us to investigate pathophysiology of diabetic neuropathy by using structural and electrophysiological outcomes in this cellular system.