Luke Henderson

Professor Luke Henderson serves as Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Histology, School of Medical Sciences, at the University of Sydney, and is a member of the Brain and Mind Centre. He obtained his BSc and PhD from the University of Sydney, completing the latter in 1999 under the mentorship of Professors Richard Bandler and Kevin Keay. After his PhD, Henderson pursued postdoctoral training at Northwestern University in the United States with Professor A. Vania Apkarian. In 2005, he returned to the University of Sydney to take up a lectureship in Anatomy and Histology, founding the Neural Imaging Laboratory. He advanced to the position of Professor in 2018.

Henderson's academic interests center on the neuroscience of pain, particularly the central brain mechanisms that govern acute and chronic pain states. His research employs high-resolution functional MRI, including 7T imaging, to map brainstem and thalamocortical pathways involved in pain modulation, placebo effects, conditioned pain modulation, offset analgesia, and the neurobiological transition from acute to persistent pain. He investigates conditions such as spinal cord injury-induced chronic pain, migraine, and complex regional pain syndrome. With over 223 publications and more than 10,000 citations according to Google Scholar, his work has significantly influenced the field. Key publications include "Functional reorganization of the brain in humans following spinal cord injury: evidence for underlying changes in cortical anatomy" (2007), "Anatomical Changes at the Level of the Primary Synapse in Migraine" (2015, Journal of Neuroscience), and "Brainstem Mechanisms of Pain Modulation: A within-Subjects 7T fMRI Study" (2021, Journal of Neuroscience). Recent findings from his laboratory, including a 2025 Nature study on spatially organized placebo pain relief, have provided critical insights into brain control of pain.

Throughout his career, Henderson has obtained major funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), including a $1 million Project Grant in 2016 to study chronic pain development, $2.9 million in 2020, and recent awards exceeding $4 million for international chronic pain collaborations. He also secured $1.7 million from NSW Health in 2020 for a clinical trial evaluating medical cannabis for chronic pain following spinal cord injury. As a leader in the Sydney Pain Consortium and Translational Psychopharmacology team, his research bridges preclinical and clinical applications, enhancing treatments for debilitating pain disorders.

Professional Email: luke.henderson@sydney.edu.au