The 21st and 22nd of January 2016 PhD candidate Ognjen Bojovic from the Neuroscience group defended his thesis ”Spinal sensitization and expression of immediate early genes”. The thesis includes not less than three published papers and it is impressive that it was complete during the time-frame of the 3-year PhD program. Ogi has done a very thorough work and started with defining the spatial and temporal distribution of immediate early proteins (IEGs) in the spinal cord after central sensitization. Using the knowledge from the first study, the effect of chronic opioid treatment and neuropathic pain on IEG expression was investigated. The collected insights from the thesis will give guidelines for future researchers and clinicians interested in nociceptive sensitization and pain modulation. Ogi is a MD and is currently doing his training at Haraldsplass hospital in Bergen.
By Karin Wibrand