My clinical and research interests focus on perioperative medicine, acute and chronic pain management, regional anaesthesia, and critical care. I am particularly interested in improving multimodal and opioid-sparing analgesic strategies, the prevention and treatment of persistent postsurgical pain, as well as the translation of evidence-based pain management approaches into daily clinical practice. My work also includes emergency medicine and the optimisation of clinical pathways for patients with acute pain and complex perioperative needs.

Neuropathic pain, low back pain, neuromodulation for chronic pain, and the clinical management of chronic pain

Musculoskeletal pain, with a particular focus on low back pain, return to work, multidisciplinary rehabilitation, and telehealth in working populations.

Biomarker research on pain following cancer treatment, including persistent pain after surgery and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (blood-based biomarkers, bioelectrical impedance analysis, and brain MRI)

Investigating high intensity training in the chronic low back pain population, specifically on psychosocial factors and work ability.

Chronic non-specific low back pain, high intensity training, and pain neuroscience education.

Groin hernia repair; chronic postoperative inguinal pain (CPIP); patient satisfaction; prediction modeling

My research investigates how the brain makes perceptual decisions about temperature and pain, in both physiological and pathological conditions. In this context, I am interested in the factors influencing the strength and precision of thermonociceptive signals; the computations used by the brain to interpret these signals; how the brain learns from prior experiences and uses the resulting expectations to shape its interpretation of these signals (placebo/nocebo effects); and how the brain leverages cues from other sensory modalities to optimize the treatment of these signals. To do so, I combine psychophysics, EEG, fMRI, and hierarchical Bayesian computational modeling to probe the computations underlying these processes and relate them to neural markers of thermosensory and nociceptive processing.

Bridging clinical practice and research, focusing on the interaction between chronic musculoskeletal pain and psychological factors, particularly anxiety. Exploring how these factors can be better identified and addressed by integrating psychologically informed approaches into evidence-based physiotherapy, with the aim of developing more personalized, effective, and clinically relevant rehabilitation.

My research focuses on the role of lidocaine in chronic pain, with particular interest in its potential modulation of NMDA receptor–mediated signalling. I investigate how lidocaine may influence glutamatergic neurotransmission, central sensitization, and pain processing beyond its established voltage-gated sodium-channel blockade. Through experimental and translational approaches, my work aims to clarify the mechanisms underlying lidocaine’s analgesic effects and to identify clinically relevant strategies for improving the prevention and treatment of chronic pain.

Exercise-induced hypoalgesia and hyperalgesia in patients with chronic pain; neuromodulation and non-invasive brain stimulation for chronic pain; pain biology; and epigenetic mechanisms underlying pain.

My research investigates the use of non-pharmacological approaches, particularly virtual reality hypnosis, to modulate pain, anxiety, and subjective experience in oncology settings. My broader interests include altered states of consciousness, the experiential mechanisms underlying analgesia, and contemplative neuroscience.