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, 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, 113, 2760-2790 (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, 44:115556 (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, 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 YY, Arnold A, Abdus-Saboor I.
bioRxiv (2024)

Sex organs sense vibrations through specialized touch neurons.
Zavitsanou A, Abdus-Saboor I.
Nature, 630, 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, 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, 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, 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 L, 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, 110, 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: 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, 161,1420-1424 (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, 21:134 (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 NT, Lay M, Burdge J, Swanson K, Fischer R, Jones J, Dong P, Cai W, Guo X, Tao YX, Bethea J, Ma M, Dong X, Ding L, Luo W.
Cell Reports, 28, 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 MS, Ma M, Tao YX, Luo W.
Neuron, 91, 1-17 (2016).

An expression refinement process ensures singular odorant receptor gene choice.
Abdus-Saboor I, Al Nufal MJ, Agha MV, Ruinart de Brimont M, Fleischmann A, Shykind BM.
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: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 CE, Murray JI, Sundaram MV.
Developmental Biology, 366, 298–307 (2012).

Notch and Ras promote sequential steps of excretory tube development in C.elegans. 
Abdus-Saboor I, Mancuso VP, Murray JI, Palozola K, Norris C, Hall DH, Howell K., Huang K, Sundaram MV.
Development, 138, 3545–3555(2011).