Dr Peter Goadsby’s pioneering work has changed our understanding of migraines.
Eva Wiseman, who has endured them since she was a child, hears how he found his way to the source of the pain – and what can be done about it.
... In 1985, Goadsby met a Swedish physician named Lars Edvinsson who shared his interest in a molecule called "calcitonin gene-related peptide" (CGRP), which neurons use to communicate. Edvinsson suspected it had a key role in migraine; Goadsby agreed. They formed a partnership that continues today. And this year, along with Edvinsson and two other scientists, Goadsby won the prestigious Brain Prize. Their discovery that a biological mechanism triggers an attack, where blood vessels surrounding the brain open up causing pain, led to a new group of drugs that stop CGRP getting to its receptor, either by blocking the receptor or binding to CGRP itself.
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