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12 Headlines Meet a researcher Dr Jack Flanagan Each year your generous donations fund approximately 50 researchers (and increasing!), all of whom are undertaking neurological research within many different areas, with the shared intention of changing lives. And change lives they do. As part of our quarterly Headlines magazine, we would like to start introducing you to these heroes in white lab coats. You may know about their research, sure, but this is also an opportunity to learn more about them and why they do what they do. To kick things off, we interviewed Dr Jack Flanagan, who has recently been funded by the Neurological Foundation for a Small Project Grant to research new mechanisms of pain relief for Multiple Sclerosis. Dr Jack Flanagan started his scientific life with a BSc from Victoria University of Wellington, then gained his PhD from the Australian National University. There he had the opportunity to learn about the computer-based molecular modelling methods that he still uses today. He then went on to a research position at the University of Dundee in Scotland where he studied enzymes important in drug clearance. After that, he set out to explore an idea for a new asthma treatment at the University of Queensland. Now he is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Auckland, and a member of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre and Maurice Wilkins Centre for Biodiscovery. His research is on the discovery of molecules that regulate proteins badly behaved in disease. The methods used in his lab include a combination of computer-based drug discovery applications, biochemical and cell biology methods.