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Cliff Abraham

Email cliff.abraham@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 479 7648

Professor Cliff Abraham has research interests in the neural mechanisms of memory. He has played a leading role in promoting neuroscience research and teaching at the University of Otago, and has promoted neuroscience at a national level by serving as chair of the Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research, New Zealand's annual neuroscience meeting in Queenstown, for 12 years.

In 1997 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and in 2007 was awarded a James Cook Fellowship. He was awarded the University of Otago Distinguished Research Medal in 2009 and the Division of Sciences Researcher of the Year in 2018. Currently he is Director of a major HRC-funded research programme investigating biomarkers and therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's Disease.

Cliff received a BA with Distinction in Psychology from the University of Virginia, and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Florida. He then undertook five years of postdoctoral research at the University of Otago and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, before taking up a Lectureship in Psychology at Otago. He chaired the Department in 2003–2005.

Research interests

  • Mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and metaplasticity
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Limbic system function and dysfunction

Find out more about Emeritus Professor Abraham's research

Downloadable list of publications

Download a complete list of Professor Abraham's publications (PDF)

Publications

Abraham, W. C. (2008). Metaplasticity: Tuning synapses and networks for plasticity. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(5), 387-399. Journal - Research Article

Singh, A., Jones, O. D., Mockett, B. G., Ohline, S. M., & Abraham, W. C. (2019). Tumor necrosis factor-α-mediated metaplastic inhibition of LTP is constitutively engaged in an Alzheimer's disease model. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(46), 9083-9097. doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.1492-19.2019 Journal - Research Article

Abraham, W. C., Jones, O. D., & Glanzman, D. L. (2019). Is plasticity of synapses the mechanism of long-term memory storage? npj Science of Learning, 4, 9. doi: 10.1038/s41539-019-0048-y Journal - Research Other

He, Y., Mockett, B. G., Schoderboeck, L., McDonald, K. O., Logan, B. J., Sateesh, S., Jones, O. D., Hughes, S. M., & Abraham, W. C. (2026). Virus-mediated gene transfer of soluble amyloid precursor protein-alpha via systemic injection in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Gene Therapy. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1038/s41434-026-00602-8 Journal - Research Article

Sateesh, S., Logan, B. J., Suzuki, M., Stellwagen, D., & Abraham, W. C. (2026). Transregional astrocyte-dependent metaplasticity in the hippocampus. PNAS, 123(28), e2536065123. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2536065123 Journal - Research Article

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