Dr Richard Berwick, PhD student at the Institute of Pain Relief (within ILCaMS) as well as CIMA, was recently awarded a substantial grant from Versus Arthritis (formerly Arthritis Research UK) to support his research into the possible treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome via links to autoimmune triggers.
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The Versus Arthritis Fellowship Award will run for three years, and will allow Richard and his team to pursue potentially life changing research, addressing the issue of pain in Fibromyalgia patients, and hopefully provide relief from the pain that accompanies it.
Richard said “This award has come as fantastic piece of positive news for myself, my supervisor, Dr Goebel and our wider network of collaborations and will progress our research in new and exciting ways.”
His research focuses on exploring the autoimmune basis of fibromyalgia syndrome which is a primary chronic pain condition affecting 4% of the population. The condition is poorly understood with no currently known treatments bringing about meaningful pain relief for patients.
Following some ground-breaking work by Dr David Andersson at Kings College London, evidence of auto-antibodies in disease aetiology is now mounting. Dr Berwick, understanding the importance of this breakthrough, will use this VA grant to pursue new research pathways to work toward the first effective treatment for the condition.
Dr Berwick is a clinical academic currently engaged as a registrar in anaesthetics and pain medicine (ST7) in the Royal Liverpool Hospital, while also studying for a part time PhD with Dr Andreas Goebel.