Virtual Seminar Speaker Series with
​Dr. Ishmail Abdus-Saboor
Touch Neuron Populations Necessary and Sufficient for Stress Resilience
February 9, 2026  |  8 am PT , 11 am ET
Join by Zoom: https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/9100990790?pwd=dWNFdTZ2UXBEUTZlR0lQOFdQTnhoUT09?

Dr. Ishmail Abdus-Saboor earned his B.S. in animal science from North Carolina A&T State University in 2006 and his Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. He completed postdoctoral training at Weill Cornell and University of Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in the Biology Department in 2018 as the Mitchell and Margo Blutt Presidential Assistant Professor. ​
He joined Columbia University in 2021, was promoted to associate professor in 2023, and awarded tenure in 2025. Harnessing mouse genetics, his lab is integrating the peripheral and central nervous systems, seeking to uncover genes and neural circuits for pain and somatosensation from the skin to the spinal cord and interconnected networks across the brain. They are elucidating the “skin-brain axis” – taking a holistic approach that combines high-resolution behavioral mapping, brain and peripheral neuron imaging, and neural circuit manipulations. He is also a recipient of many awards including the Sloan Research Fellowship, Pew Biomedical Scholar Award, McKnight Scholar Award, One Mind Rising Star Award, NIH New Innovator Award, NIH Pioneer Award, and recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience. ​
 

Past events
​Click on the Resources tab to view a list of speakers and recordings from previous events, available on our YouTube channel.
2025 NeuronS_MATTR Summer Workshop 
Linkoping University, Sweden | June 22-26
​This intensive workshop provided participants with practical experience in specialized methodologies including microneurography, sensory evoked potentials, non-invasive autonomic measurements, and tissue analysis techniques. The workshop facilitated knowledge transfer and technical skill development for researchers interested in conducting rigorous human mechanistic studies investigating how massage and other mechanotherapies influence pain, autonomic function, and tissue healing. 
​​2024 Force Based Manipulation (FBM) Annual ​Meeting,
June 28, 2024, 10am-noon EST
The purpose of this meeting was to provide opportunities to share advances across three National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded force-based manipulation research networks, promote collaboration, and avoid duplication of network efforts. Many joined us online for the meeting’s open session featuring updates from the trans-network scientific working groups and a keynote presentation from a prominent researcher. The keynote presentation was delivered by Valeria Vásquez, Ph.D. from McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston on Fine-Tuning Mechanosensitive Ion Channels: From Basic Science to Translational Research.

​Hands On! ​Summer School! The Neurophysiology of Soft Tissue Manipulation in Musculoskeletal Pain Conditions, June 20-24, 2023, Indiana University
Our inaugural summer school disseminated scientific and technical knowledge to enable investigators to perform rigorous, mechanistic research on the neurobiology of soft tissue mechanotherapies.  See the agenda here and all meeting materials here.

​9th Annual Regenerative Rehabilitation Symposium
October 27-29, 2022 (Austin, Texas)

NeuronS MATTR Network Reception, September 20, 2022 
​IASP 2022 (Toronto)
Stratus Restaurant 

NeuronS_MATTR