Susan Brain

Brain completed a PhD in pharmacology at University College London in 1981.

Brain held a postdoctoral post at the Institute of Dermatology. In 1989 she took up a lectureship at King's College London, where she was promoted to Reader in 1993^[2] and in 1998 she was made Professor of Pharmacology at the School of Cardiovascular Medicine, where since 2005 she has been Head of the Vascular Biology and Inflammation Section.^[3] She was also Head of the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Education Department between 2011 and 2018.

Brain's research investigates the role of sensory nerves in vascular inflammation.^[4] In her early career she discovered the Calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonist (CGRP) as a potent microvascular vasodilator.^[5] More recently her research found that the gene TRPC5 can help protect against pain in arthritis^[6] and that the gene TRPA1 is essential for the vascular response when being exposed to cold environments.^[7]

In 2018 she was elected as honorary fellow of the British Pharmacological Society.^[8]