publications

Remote automated delivery of mechanical stimuli coupled to brain recordings in behaving mice.
Burdge J, Jhumka A, Khan A, Ogundare S, Baer N, Fulton S, Kaplan A, Bistis B, Foster W, Thackray J, Toussaint A, Li M, Morizawa YM, Nazarian J, Yadessa L, George AJ, Delinois A, Mayiseni W, Loran N, Yang G, Margolis DJ, Abraira VE, Abdus-Saboor I.
eLife 13:RP99614 (2025)

Entangled cellular and molecular relationships at the sensory neuron–cancer interface. Sur D, Zeng Y, Kobayashi H, Zhi X, Goetz MR, Müller CM, Zavitsanou AM, Picoli CC, Martel Matos AA, Pareja J, Savita BK, Lee T, Cunha-Junior JP, Amorim JH, Nikpoor AR, Dory A, Thanabalasuriar A, Galante PAF, Ma VT, James AW, Shepherd AJ, Oudin MJ, Bunimovich YL, Scheff NN, D’Silva NJ, Dixon KO, Abdus-Saboor I, Wang TC, Talbot S, Birbrair A.
Neuron 113(17):2760-2790 (2025)

Dopamine release effects on striatal blood oxygenation and whole brain plasticity underlying associative learning. Lawen A, Succi I, Lichtman D, Peterka D, Abdus-Saboor I, Kahn I.
bioRxiv (2025)

Major-depressive-disorder-associated dysregulation of ZBTB7A in orbitofrontal cortex promotes astrocyte-mediated stress susceptibility. Fulton S, Bendl J, DiSalvo G, Fullard J, Al-Kachak A, Lepack A, Stewart A, Singh S, Poller W, Bastle R, Hauberg M, Fakira A, Patel V, Chen M, Durand-de Cuttoli R, Gameiro-Ros I, Cathomas F, Ramakrishnan A, Gleason K, Shen L, Tamminga C, Milosevic A, Russo S, Swirski F, Slesinger P, Abdus-Saboor I, Blitzer R, Roussos P, Maze I.
Neuron 6273(25)00394-0 (2025)

The dorsal column nuclei scale mechanical sensitivity in naive and neuropathic pain states. Upadhyay A, Gradwell M, Vajtay T, Conner J, Sanyal A, Azadegan C, Patel K, Thackray J, Bohic M, Imai F, Ogundare S, Yoshida Y, Abdus-Saboor I, Azim E, Abraira V.
Cell Reports 44(4):115556 (2025)

A hypothalamic circuit underlying the dynamic control of social homeostasis. Liu D, Rahman M, Johnson A, Tsutsui-Kimura I, Pena N, Talay M, Logeman BL, Finkbeiner S, Choi S, Capo-Battaglia A, Abdus-Saboor I, Ginty DD, Uchida N, Watabe-Uchida M, Dulac C.
Nature 640(8060):1000-1010 (2025)

Social touch shapes communication and animal recognition in naked mole-rats. Schwark R, Ogundare O, Sheng P, Foster W, Chang P, Tsai Y-YW, Arnold A, Abdus-Saboor I.
bioRxiv (2024)

Sex organs sense vibrations through specialized touch neurons. Zavitsanou A, Abdus-Saboor I.
Nature 630(8018):822-823 (2024).

MrgprA3 neurons drive cutaneous immunity against helminths through selective control of myeloid-derived IL-33. Inclan-Rico JM, Napuri C, Lin C, Hung LY, Ferguson A, Wu Q, Pastore CF, Stephenson A, Femoe U, Rossi HL, Reed D, Abdus-Saboor I, Luo W, Herbert DR.
Nature Immunology  25(11):2068-2084 (2024).

Impaired pain in mice lacking first order posterior medial thalamic neurons. Sgourdou P, Schaffler M, Choi K, McCall N, Burdge J, Williams J, Corder G, Fuccillo M, Abdus-Saboor I, Epstein D.
Pain 166(1):130-143 (2024).

Opposing, spatially-determined epigenetic forces impose restrictions on stochastic olfactory receptor choice. Bashkirova EV, Klimpert N, Monahan K, Campbell CE, Osinski J, Tan L, Schieren I, Pourmorady A, Stecky B, Barnea G, Xie XS, Abdus-Saboor I, Shykind BM, Marlin BJ, Gronostajski RM, Fleischmann A, Lomvardas S.
eLife 12:RP87445 (2023)

Mapping the neuroethological signatures of pain, analgesia, and recovery in mice. Bohic M, Pattison L, Jhumka A, Rossi H, Thackray J, Ricci M, Foster W, Ogundare S, Twomey C, Hilton H, Arnold J, Mossazghi N, Yttri E, Tischfield, MA, Smith ESJ, Abdus-Saboor I.*, Abraira V*.
Neuron 111(18):2811-2830 (2023) (*joint senior authors)

Touch neurons underlying dopaminergic pleasurable touch and sexual receptivity. Elias L, Succi I, Schaffler M, Foster W, Gradwell M, Bohic M, Fushiki A, Upadhyay A, Ejoh L, Schwark R, Frazer R, Bistis B, Burke J, Saltz V, Boyce J, Jhumka A, Costa R, Abraira V, Abdus-Saboor I.
Cell 186, 577–590 (2023).

Next generation behavioral sequencing for advancing pain quantification. Anissa Jhumka, Abdus-Saboor I.
Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 76:102598 (2022).

Bridging skin, brain, and behavior to understand pleasurable social touch. Elias LJ, Abdus-Saboor I.
Current Opinion in Neurobiology 73:102527 (2022).

Chronic paternal morphine exposure increases sensitivity to morphine-derived pain relief in male progeny. Toussaint A, Foster W, Jones JM, Kaufmann S, Wachira M, Hughes R, Bongiovanni AR, Famularo ST, Dunham B, Schwark R, Karbalaei R, Dressler C, Bavley CC, Fried NT, Wimmer M, Abdus-Saboor I.
Science Advances eabk2425 (2022).

A critical role for touch neurons in a skin-brain pathway for stress resilience. Schaffler M, Johnson M, Hing B, Kahler P, Hultman I, Srivastava S, Arnold J, Blendy J, Hultman R, Abdus-Saboor, I.
bioRxiv (2022)

Beyond somatosensation: Mrgprs in mucosal tissues. Inclan-Rico JM, Kim BS, Abdus-Saboor I.
Neuroscience Letters 11;135689 (2021).

Taking a deep breath: How a brainstem pathway integrates pain and breathing. Burdge J, Jhumka ZA, Bravo I, Abdus-Saboor I.
Neuron 2;110(5):739-741(2022)

A machine-vision approach for automated pain measurement at millisecond timescales. Jones J, Foster W, Twomey C, Burdge J, Ahmed O, Pereira T. Wojick J, Corder G, Plotkin J, Abdus-Saboor I.
eLife 9:e57258 (2020).

Evoked and spontaneous pain assessment in a dental pulp injury model. Rossi HL, See LP, Foster W, Pitake S, Gibbs J, Schmidt B, Mitchell CH, Abdus-Saboor I.
Scientific Reports 17;10(1):2759 (2020).

Improving pain assessment in mice and rats with advanced videography and computational approaches. Fried NT, Chamessian A, Zylka MJ, Abdus-Saboor I.
Pain 161(7):1420-1424 (2020).

Mechanisms of tactile sensory phenotypes in autism: current understanding, and future directions for research. Schaffler M, Elias L, Abdus-Saboor I.
Current Psychiatry Reports 5;21(12):134 (2019).

Inflammation induced sensory nerve growth and pain hypersensitivity requires the N-type calcium channel Cav2.2. Pitake S, Middleton LJ, Abdus-Saboor I, Mishra SK.
Front Neurosci 19;13:1009 (2019).

Ishmail’s postdoc work

Development of a mouse pain scale using sub-second behavioral mapping and statistical modeling. Abdus-Saboor I., Fried N.T., Lay M., Burdge J., Swanson K., Fischer R., Jones J., Dong P., Cai W., Guo X., Tao Y.X., Bethea J., Ma M., Dong X., Ding L., Luo W.
Cell Reports 6;28(6):1623-1634 (2019).

Sparse genetic tracing reveals regionally specific functional organization of mammalian nociceptors. Olson W., Abdus-Saboor I., Cui L., Burdge J., Raabe T., Ma M., Luo W.
eLife 12;6:e29507 (2017).

Identification of early RET+ deep dorsal spinal cord interneurons in gating pain.  Cui L., Miao X., Liang L., Abdus-Saboor I., Olson W., Fleming M.S., Ma M., Tao Y.X., Luo W.
Neuron 91, 1-17 (2016).

An expression refinement process ensures singular odorant receptor gene choice. Abdus-Saboor I., Al Nufal M.J., Agha M.V., Ruinart de Brimont M., Fleischmann A., Shykind B.M.
Current Biology 26, 1083–90 (2016).

Functional interrogation of an odorant receptor locus reveals multiple axes of transcriptional regulation. Fleischmann A., Abdus-Saboor I., Sayed A., Shykind B.
PLoS Biology 11 (5):e1001568 (2013).

Ishmail’s doctoral work

The Nkx5/Hmx homeodomain protein MLS-2 is required for proper tube cell shape in the C.elegans excretory system.  Abdus-Saboor I., Stone C.E., Murray J.I., Sundaram M.V.
Developmental Biology 366, 298–307 (2012).

Notch and Ras promote sequential steps of excretory tube development in C.elegans.  Abdus-Saboor I., Mancuso V.P., Murray J.I., Palozola K., Norris C., Hall D.H., Howell K., Huang K., Sundaram M.V.
Development 138, 3545–3555(2011).