Professor Cliff Abraham

Professor Cliff Abraham has played a leading role in promoting neuroscience research and teaching at the university. In 1997, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and in 2007 he was awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand James Cook Fellowship. He chaired the Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research, New Zealand's annual neuroscience meeting for 12 years. He is the Otago-based Co-Director of Brain Research New Zealand, a national centre for research excellence.

Professor Abraham is interested in the neural mechanisms of memory and the rules and mechanisms governing synaptic plasticity and memory formation in the brain. His particular focus is on the cellular and molecular events in the hippocampus, a brain structure important for certain kinds of learning and memory. His lab has expertise in electrophysiological, behavioural and immunofluorescent microscopy approaches to studying the mechanisms mediating the induction and persistence of synaptic plasticity in vivo and in vitro, and their relevance to memory.

One of the most likely neural mechanisms mediating memory storage is long-lasting plasticity in the strength of synaptic transmission between neurons. This plasticity includes long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) of synaptic efficacy. In collaboration with Professor Warren Tate and Dr Joanna Williams, he is studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of LTP and LTD in the hippocampus. His investigations of the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity have focused on the roles that gene expression and changes in synaptic proteins, such as glutamate receptors, play in the maintenance of LTP and LTD across time. A further major focus is the mechanisms by which prior neural activity controls the subsequent induction of synaptic plasticity, a set of phenomena he has termed “metaplasticity”.

Professor Abraham also has growing interest in the mechanisms of plasticity disruption in neurological disorders characterized by memory deficits, such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. The work on Alzheimer's focuses on neuroprotective molecules such as secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha and agmatine. In a related project, he is involved in research aimed at identifying blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's to help with early diagnosis of the disease

His work is highly collaborative, with partners based locally, nationally and internationally, and he is funded by the New Zealand Health Research and Marsden Councils.

Find out more about Professor Abraham's research.