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Saad Nagi

Associate Professor

I am a neuroscientist with a background in sensory physiology, and I am interested in the peripheral mechanisms of pain and touch in humans.

Lab for the Study of Unpleasant Sensations

My laboratory’s interests revolve around understanding the peripheral nervous system’s role in acute and persistent pain using microneurography (single-unit afferent recordings in awake humans) combined with targeted pharmacological and psychophysical approaches.

A recent focus area is understanding how the nervous system creates and modulates perceptions linked to the activation of very fast-conducting myelinated nociceptors in health and disease.

Current lab members are Otmane Bouchatta (postdoc), Kevin Ng (postdoc), Oumie Thorell (PhD candidate), and Emma Kindström (research engineer).

 

Our Research

Learn more about our lab's current research through this promotional interview I did with the European Pain Federation.


Video

 

Lab members

Current lab members

Photo of Otmane Bouchatta

Otmane Bouchatta

Postdoc

Kevin Ng
Photo of Oumie Thorell

Oumie Thorell

Emma Kindström

Research Engineer

Publications

Publications in DiVA

2024

Oumie Thorell, David Mahns, Jan Otto, Jaquette Liljencrantz, Mats Svantesson, Håkan Olausson, Saad Nagi (2024) Experimental nerve block study on painful withdrawal reflex responses in humans PLOS ONE, Vol. 19, Article e0309048 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Shan Xu, Steven C. Hauser, Saad Nagi, James A. Jablonski, Merat Rezaei, Ewa Jarocka, Andrew G. Marshall, Håkan Olausson, Sarah Mcintyre, Gregory J. Gerling (2024) Mechanoreceptive Aβ primary afferents discriminate naturalistic social touch inputs at a functionally relevant time scale IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, p. 1-15 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Oumie Thorell, David Mahns, Jan Otto, Jaquette Liljencrantz, Mats Svantesson, Håkan Olausson, Saad Nagi (2024) Experimental nerve block study on painful withdrawal reflex responses in humans PLOS ONE, Vol. 19, p. e0309048-e0309048 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Håkan Olausson, Andrew Marshall, Saad S. Nagi, Jonathan Cole (2024) Slow touch and ultrafast pain fibres: Revisiting peripheral nerve classification Clinical Neurophysiology, Vol. 163, p. 255-262 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Kevin Ng, Odai Waleed Mohammad Lafee, Otmane Bouchatta, Adarsh D. Makdani, Andrew G. Marshall, Håkan Olausson, Sarah Mcintyre, Saad Nagi (2024) Human Foot Outperforms the Hand in Mechanical Pain Discrimination eNeuro, Vol. 11, Article 0412232024 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

News

a coarse brush is applied to the back of the hand

SEK 64 million to research in medicine and health

Fourteen researchers at LiU have received grants totalling more than SEK 64 million. This is the result when the Swedish Research Council has awarded nearly SEK 1.1 billion in research grants for the medical and health sciences.
A researcher is holding an instrument and examining an arm.

Research about skin sensation gave insights into pain

Håkan Olausson’s breakthrough research has partially upset the textbook description of the nervous system. His research group recently discovered a previously unknown component of the human pain-signalling system.
a coarse brush is applied to the back of the hand

Pain signalling in humans more rapid than previously known

Pain signals can travel as fast as touch signals, according to a new study. The discovery of a rapid pain-signalling system challenges our current understanding of pain.

Education

BMedSci (Hons), PhD

School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Australia

About me

Academic merits

  • Western Sydney University Medal for Outstanding Scholarship (2009)
  • Western Sydney University Dean’s Merit List for Academic Excellence (2006–2008)

Other

  • Best Abstract Prize, European Pain Federation Congress, Spain (2019)
  • Society for Investigative Dermatology Eugene M. Farber Travel Award for “outstanding abstract” at the 65th Montagna Symposium on the Biology of Skin, US (2016)

Teaching experience

  • I have extensive experience in conducting problem-based learning tutorials for medical students in their foundation (pre-clinical) years. I also deliver occasional lectures.

More

  • Adjunct Fellow, Western Sydney University

Organisation

A researcher is looking at encased samples in a lab.

Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience - CSAN

Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience (CSAN) integrates knowledge and methodology from different areas of basic and clinical neuroscience.

Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV)

What characterizes the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences (BKV) is the wide breadth of research and education. BKV is one of the largest departments at LiU with affiliation mainly to the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

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