Dr David Bulmer

Dr David Bulmer

BSc PhD

David Bulmer is a pharmacologist and neuroscientist with a longstanding interest in Gastrointestinal Pharmacology. David's research is focused on understanding the causes of pain in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and the development of novel treatments.

Dr David Bulmer

David Bulmer has a BSc in pharmacology from the University of Manchester and a PhD in autonomic neuroscience from University College London. He is an Associate Professor and Part II Course Organiser in the Department of Pharmacology. David is also a Visiting Lecturer in Neuroscience at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).
David has nearly 20 years experience researching in gastrointestinal pharmacology within both academia and industry, working to develop new drug treatments for IBS and IBD at GlaxoSmithKline before leaving on an MRC Skills Gap Fellowship to establish his own translation neuroscience lab focused on the use of human tissue to study visceral pain at QMUL. David left QMUL in 2017 to join the Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge.
David continues to enjoy strong links with industry, having research collaborations with Astra Zeneca, Sosei-Heptares and GlaxoSmithKline looking at novel pain treatments, and funding from leading charities such as Crohn's and Colitis UK, devoted to improving the lives of people with IBD.

David's research interest are the mediators and mechanisms which give rise to pain by activating visceral nociceptors in IBD and IBS patients. To do this he uses a combination of electrophysiological, imaging and sequencing approaches alongside tissue samples from well phenotyped patient cohorts to identify how different mediators stimulate pain-sensing nerves in differ disease states.
Most recently David was part of a consortium of researchers awarded funding from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation to investigate the causes of chronic pain in IBD patients in remission.

What's on

Aerial view of a winding river with green banks and small villages cutting through a vast, arid desert landscape.

From Perception to Prediction: Modelling human (im)mobility in the Sahel region

10/06/2026 at 13.00

This talk explores whether data-driven methods can explain the relationship between climate change and large-scale pastoralist movements in the Sahel.

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Dona Torr: Historical Materialism and the Communist Historians

10/06/2026 at 17.30

Professor Mary Davis will talk about her new book on Dona Torr: Historical Materialism and the Communist Historians.

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A Choral Celebration

10/06/2026 at 18.15

Wolfson College Choir is joined by Inspirational Chorale, a gospel choir from the University of Arkansas.

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WolfWords Launch and Poetry Reading

11/06/2026 at 11.00

Please come and join us for the launch of this year's WolfWords poetry anthology, which brings together poems from the entire Wolfson community.

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Proofreader Swap Workshop

12/06/2026 at 09.30

The Library is holding a workshop this Friday for students to proofread each other's work. Bring along a piece of work you want proofed, in return for proofing someone else's! 

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