Rainer Haberberger is the Head of Department for Anatomy & Histology and the Head of the Pain & Pulmonary Neurobiology Lab, within the Flinders Medical Science & Technology cluster of the School of Medicine.

He studied Human Biology (Medical Research) at the Philipps-University in Marburg, Germany and was a senior scientist and lecturer at the Institute for Anatomy & Cell Biology, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany. In 2005 he was awarded  the Mary Overton Neuroscience Fellowship and set up the Pulmonary Neurobiology Lab (now Pain & Pulmonary Neurobiology Lab) at Flinders University.  Since 2009 he has been an Associate Professor for Neuroscience within the Dept of Anatomy & Histology. In 2012 he also took on the role of Convenor of the Centre for Neuroscience and heads the CNS Executive Committee. He was appointed Professor and Head of Anatomy & Histology in 2014. Since 2019, he is Co-Director of the Orama Institute for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Neuroscience. 

His areas of interest are pain and peripheral nociceptor signalling, control of gene expression in peripheral nociceptive neurons and the control of peripheral airway function.

• Function and dysfunction of peripheral nociceptors.
• The sphingosine kinase/sphingosine 1-phosphate system and its presence and role in peripheral nociception.
• Exosomes, microRNAs in sensory neurons.
• Bio-nanochip interfaces as tools to develop a pain-o-meter.
• The peripheral lung: The cholinergic system, muscarinic receptors and control of peripheral airways. The sphingosine kinase/sphingosine 1-phosphate system in COPD and asthma.

• Neuroscience (4)