Professor Rainsford’s research interests are principally on the mode of action and adverse reactions of the NSAIDs; the actions of natural products in relation to their therapeutic and adverse reactions; clinical and analytical procedures for studying novel therapeutic actions and the side effects of NSAIDs/analgesics; and the development of in vitro and in vivo assay systems for studying inflammation and anti-inflammatory/analgesic drugs.
Professor Rainsford developed several research groups devoted to pharmacology of inflammatory diseases and established new medical, biomedical and pharmacy educational programmes in several countries. Among these he established the Pharmacology of Rheumatic Diseases research programme at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in the late 1980s-early 1990s. He established the BMRC and became its founding Director at Sheffield Hallam University from rudimentary beginnings over 32 years ago as a research centre devoted to the study of chronic inflammatory and degenerative diseases (arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions, and gastrointestinal, muscular, and female reproductive diseases) and their therapy. He was involved in the Manchester Medicines Network programmes involving Conferences on Clinical Trials in the NHS and Distance Learning Programmes in Clinical Trials and Toxicology (2006-2008). Professor Rainsford has also dedicated much of his career to the development, planning, and execution of new research programs, clinical trials, and pre-clinical developments in collaboration with several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Prof Rainsford has consulted for an extensive number of large and small pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in Europe, USA,. Canada and Australia in the areas of new drug development/formulation design of anti-inflammatory-analgesic agents and new biological agents. He has also been an active advisor in medico-biological cases and at FDA, EMA and other regulatory agency hearing as an ‘expert witness’.