Kirsty Bannister is an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator of the Central Modulation of Pain research group, King’s College London. Bridging bench and bedside pain research, her team investigates the functionality (anatomy and pharmacology) of brain and spinal cord sensory circuits in health and disease. Kirsty’s pre-clinical work is concerned with defining pain circuitry in health and disease while her clinical work focuses on paradigms used to assess pain in humans and appropriate cohort stratification of patients. Kirsty is part of the Marie Curie Horizon 2020 consortium, and her funders also include the Medical Research Council, Parkinson’s UK, and NC3Rs. She fulfils editorial roles for Pain, Pain Reports, British Journal of Pharmacology and Current Opinion (Palliative Care) journals and was on the Scientific Programme Committee for the World Pain Congress 2022 and upcoming World Pain Congress in 2024. In 2022 Kirsty was awarded the IASP Patrick D. Wall prize for basic science research in pain.