Nader Ghasemlou, PhD

Nader Ghasemlou, PhD, is a Senior Scientist at the Krembil Brain Institute (University Health Network) and Associate Professor of Immunology at the University of Toronto. He leads the Pain Chronobiology & Neuroimmunology Lab (www.ghasemloulab.ca) and CircaHealth Research Network (CHRoNo; www.circahealth.ca). where his research team uses a translational approach to study the intersection of pain physiology, neuroimmunology, and circadian biology. Preclinical research in the group uses various animal models of injury and disease, including postoperative wounds, neuropathic nerve injury, multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injury to better understand the molecular, cellular, and behavioural responses underlying human disease. Clinical research takes advantage of ecological momentary assessment to better understand rhythms of disease, coupled with intra-day biomarker discovery at the molecular and cellular level. Thus, his team takes advantage of circadian rhythmicity to uncover how bidirectional communication between the nervous and immune systems affect health and disease outcomes using behavioural assays, electrophysiology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics approaches, as well as a translational research program that seeks to identify the impact of neuroimmunity on biopsychosocial outcomes in patient populations. Work from his group has been published in leading journals including Nature, Science Translational Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and others.