Rate My Professor Shafaq Shafaq

Professor Shafaq Sikandar holds the position of Professor of Sensory Neurophysiology and leads the Sensory Neurophysiology laboratory at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry's Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology. Her research centers on the neuronal mechanisms that drive the transition from acute to chronic pain, emphasizing musculoskeletal pain conditions and neuro-immune interactions. She utilizes in vivo electrophysiology, mouse models, molecular biology, and back-translational approaches, complemented by clinical investigations into post-surgical pain, arthritis, cancer-induced bone pain, and fibromyalgia in patients.

Sikandar earned her PhD in the Department of Pharmacology at University College London, followed by postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego, and the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at UCL. Awarded a Versus Arthritis Fellowship in 2018, she joined Queen Mary as a Lecturer in Sensory Biology, advancing to Professor. Notable publications include 'Analgesia through FKBP51 inhibition at disease onset confers lasting relief from sensory and emotional chronic pain symptoms' (2025, PNAS), 'Synovial fibroblast gene expression is associated with sensory nerve growth and pain in rheumatoid arthritis' (2024, Science Translational Medicine), 'Chemogenetic Silencing of NaV1.8-Positive Sensory Neurons Reverses Chronic Neuropathic and Bone Cancer Pain in FLEx PSAM4-GlyR Mice' (2023, eNeuro), 'Novel therapies for cancer-induced bone pain' (2024, Neurobiology of Pain), and 'The mechanisms and management of persistent postsurgical pain' (2023, Frontiers in Pain Research). With 1,760 citations on ResearchGate, her contributions have advanced pain research significantly. She teaches BSc modules on repair and regeneration and disconnected pathways, and serves as the FMD Equality Diversity and Inclusion Lead for Communications and Engagement.