Prof Irina Vetter is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the University of Queensland where she heads the Sensory Neuropharmacology lab since 2014. She directs a program of research spanning fundamental, applied and translational themes at the intersection of ion channel pharmacology and toxinology. Prof Vetter’s multi-disciplinary team uses peptides and venom-derived toxins as pharmacological probes and drug leads to understand pain mechanisms, discover novel pain targets and develop innovative pain therapeutics. Her group have extensive expertise with high-throughput screening, fluorescence microscopy, automated and manual patch-clamp electrophysiology, and venom peptide drug discovery. Prof Vetter also has a strong track record of industry collaboration and translation, including on the use of human stem cell-derived sensory neurons and development of novel preclinical behavioural assays. She has published more than 200 papers attracting >12,000 citations and has won several notable awards, including the International Association for the Study of Pain Patrick Wall Young Investigator award in 2018.