Control of body temperature: molecular basis of sensory and effector mechanisms

Every time you feel too hot or too cold, a protein called TRPM2 is switching on in your nerve cells to tell your brain about it. This project aims to work out exactly how mammals—including humans—sense temperature and then act to keep their bodies stable. The problem is that despite decades of research, scientists still do not fully understand the molecular machinery behind basic thermoregulation. We know that fever, for example, involves the molecule PGE2 resetting the body’s thermostat, but the precise sensors and nerve pathways that detect warmth and cold remain unclear. This project will fill that gap by studying the properties of warmth-sensitive nerve fibres in living animals, identifying the molecular basis of strong cold sensation, and determining which thermal sensors in the hypothalamus defend core body temperature. If successful, this work could lead to better treatments for fever, improved management of hypothermia in surgery or trauma, and a deeper understanding of conditions where thermoregulation fails, such as in some neurological disorders. The research is fundamentally curiosity-driven—it asks how a basic physiological system works. But past discoveries in thermoregulation have already led to drugs targeting ion channels for pain relief, and a clearer molecular picture here could open similar unexpected avenues for medical devices or therapies.