publications
Research Papers
Bohic M, Salamone PC, Zuo W, Negm A, Fulton SL, Du S, Jayakumar S, Keating J, Soubeyre V, Gradwell MA, Upadhyay A, Duvernoy B, Inoue-Ueno Y, Mensch B, Peirs C, Gaetan Poulen G, Lonjon N, Vachiery-Lahaye F, Bauchet L, Bourinet E, Olausson H, Abdus-Saboor I, Tao Y, Boehme R, Abraira VE. (2026). Oxytocin modulation of spinal circuits drives therapeutic benefits of massage. bioRxiv. pdf
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. (2025). Remote automated delivery of mechanical stimuli coupled to brain recordings in behaving mice. eLife, 13:RP99614. pdf
Lawen A, Succi I, Lichtman D, Peterka D, Abdus-Saboor I, Kahn I. (2025). Dopamine release effects on striatal blood oxygenation and whole brain plasticity underlying associative learning. bioRxiv. pdf
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. (2025). Major-depressive-disorder-associated dysregulation of ZBTB7A in orbitofrontal cortex promotes astrocyte-mediated stress susceptibility. Neuron, 113, 2760-2790. pdf
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. (2025). The dorsal column nuclei scale mechanical sensitivity in naive and neuropathic pain states. Cell Reports, 44(4):115556. pdf
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. (2025). A hypothalamic circuit underlying the dynamic control of social homeostasis. Nature, 640(8060):1000-1010. pdf
Schwark R, Ogundare O, Sheng P, Foster W, Chang P, Tsai Y-YW, Arnold A, Abdus-Saboor I. (2024). Social touch shapes communication and animal recognition in naked mole-rats. bioRxiv. pdf
Schwark R, Ogundare S Weinreb C, Sheng P, Foster W, Toussaint A, Chang P, Tsai W, Comfere M, Arnold A, Guadagnino A, McCloskey D, Schaffer E, Rajan K, Datta SR, Abdus-Saboor, I. (2024). Behavioral fingerprinting of the naked mole-rat uncovers signatures of eusociality and social touch. bioRxiv. pdf
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. (2024). MrgprA3 neurons drive cutaneous immunity against helminths through selective control of myeloid-derived IL-33. Nature Immunology, 25(11):2068-2084. pdf
Sgourdou P, Schaffler M, Choi K, McCall N, Burdge J, Williams J, Corder G, Fuccillo M, Abdus-Saboor I, Epstein D. (2024). Impaired pain in mice lacking first order posterior medial thalamic neurons. Pain, 166(1):130-143. pdf
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. (2023). Touch neurons underlying dopaminergic pleasurable touch and sexual receptivity. Cell, 186, 577–590. pdf
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*. (2023). Mapping the neuroethological signatures of pain, analgesia, and recovery in mice. Neuron, 111(18):2811-2830. pdf
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. (2023). Opposing, spatially-determined epigenetic forces impose restrictions on stochastic olfactory receptor choice. eLife, 12:RP87445. pdf
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. (2022). Chronic paternal morphine exposure increases sensitivity to morphine-derived pain relief in male progeny. Science Advances, eabk2425. pdf
Schaffler M, Johnson M, Hing B, Kahler P, Hultman I, Srivastava S, Arnold J, Blendy J, Hultman R, Abdus-Saboor, I. (2022). A critical role for touch neurons in a skin-brain pathway for stress resilience. bioRxiv. pdf
Jones J, Foster W, Twomey C, Burdge J, Ahmed O, Pereira T. Wojick J, Corder G, Plotkin J, Abdus-Saboor I. (2020). A machine-vision approach for automated pain measurement at millisecond timescales. eLife, 9:e57258. pdf
Rossi HL, See LP, Foster W, Pitake S, Gibbs J, Schmidt B, Mitchell CH, Abdus-Saboor I. (2020). Evoked and spontaneous pain assessment in a dental pulp injury model. Sci Reports, 17;10(1):2759. pdf
Reviews
Abdus-Saboor I. (2026). Neurobiology of social touch. Annual Review of Neuroscience. 49:61–78. pdf
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. (2025). Entangled cellular and molecular relationships at the sensory neuron–cancer interface. Neuron, 113, 2760-2790. pdf
Anissa Jhumka, Abdus-Saboor I. (2022). Next generation behavioral sequencing for advancing pain quantification. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 76:102598. pdf
Elias LJ, Abdus-Saboor I. (2022). Bridging skin, brain, and behavior to understand pleasurable social touch. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 73:102527. pdf
Fried NT, Chamessian A, Zylka MJ, Abdus-Saboor I. (2020). Improving pain assessment in mice and rats with advanced videography and computational approaches. Pain, 161,1420-1424. pdf
Schaffler M, Elias L, Abdus-Saboor I. (2019). Mechanisms of tactile sensory phenotypes in autism: current understanding, and future directions for research. Current Psychiatry Reports, 5;21(12):134. pdf
Ishmail’s postdoc work
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. (2019). Development of a mouse pain scale using sub-second behavioral mapping and statistical modeling. Cell Reports, 6;28(6):1623-1634. pdf
Olson W., Abdus-Saboor I., Cui L., Burdge J., Raabe T., Ma M., Luo W. (2017). Sparse genetic tracing reveals regionally specific functional organization of mammalian nociceptors. eLife, 12;6:e29507. pdf
Cui L., Miao X., Liang L., Abdus-Saboor I., Olson W., Fleming M.S., Ma M., Tao Y.X., Luo W. (2016). Identification of early RET+ deep dorsal spinal cord interneurons in gating pain. Neuron, 91, 1-17. pdf
Abdus-Saboor I., Al Nufal M.J., Agha M.V., Ruinart de Brimont M., Fleischmann A., Shykind B.M. (2016). An expression refinement process ensures singular odorant receptor gene choice. Current Biology 26, 1083–90. pdf
Fleischmann A., Abdus-Saboor I., Sayed A., Shykind B. (2013). Functional interrogation of an odorant receptor locus reveals multiple axes of transcriptional regulation. PLoS Biology 11 (5):e1001568. pdf
Ishmail’s doctoral work
Abdus-Saboor I., Stone C.E., Murray J.I., Sundaram M.V.(2012). The Nkx5/Hmx homeodomain protein MLS-2 is required for proper tube cell shape in the C.elegans excretory system. Developmental Biology 366, 298–307. pdf
Abdus-Saboor I., Mancuso V.P., Murray J.I., Palozola K., Norris C., Hall D.H., Howell K., Huang K., Sundaram M.V. (2011) Notch and Ras promote sequential steps of excretory tube development in C.elegans. Development 138, 3545–3555. pdf