Ilona Obara

Ilona Obara is a Reader in Pain Pharmacology and Neuroscience and Director of Research in the School of Pharmacy at the Newcastle University.

She received an MSc in Biology from the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (2000) and earned a PhD in Medical Sciences (with distinction) from the Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland (2007). During her PhD training, she was awarded a START scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) and The Konorski Award-National Neuroscience Highlight of the Year from the Polish Neuroscience Society. She then conducted post-doctoral research at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA (2007-2009), at the University College London, London, UK (2009-2012) and at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK (2012). In 2012, she joined the faculty in the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health at the Durham University, Durham, UK (UK) as a Lecturer in Pharmacology and became a Senior lecturer in 2017 just prior to joining the Newcastle University. She was awarded a Readership in 2023 at the Newcastle University.

Her scientific interests involve understanding the etiology and neurobiology of the symptoms and processes of chronic pain. Her studies employ a combination of pharmacological, behavioural and immunochemical approaches in the understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neuroplasticity induced by nerve/tissue injury in chronic pain. She aims to bridge the gap between newly identified molecular mechanisms involved in pain processing and effective and safe (without side effects) strategies for the control of pain, including improvement of opioid effectiveness. Currently on-going projects focus on the understanding of the contribution of the peripheral histamine system in the regulation of neuropathic pain as well as she is interested in the development of pre-clinical models of spinal cord stimulation and chronic pain to identify novel stimulation methods for rodents that would better reproduce clinical SCS procedures. She collaborates with Saluda Medical, an international medical device company offering highly innovative and one-of-a-kind technology based on the closed-loop stimulation in the field of neuromodulation and treatment of chronic pain. She serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Saluda Medical. Saluda Medical, an international medical device company offering highly innovative and one-of-a-kind technology based on the closed-loop stimulation in the field of neuromodulation and treatment of chronic pain. She serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Saluda Medical. 

She is a discipline lead for pharmacology provision within MPharm, focusing on implementing a philosophy of research-led integrated curriculum, where future pharmacists apply their knowledge and skills to complex clinical scenarios. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.