Rate My Professor Stephen Abbott

Stephen Abbott serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Psychology from the University of Sydney and a PhD in Medicine from Macquarie University. Abbott completed postdoctoral training at the University of Virginia and at Harvard University, focusing on sleep-wake systems and autonomic neurobiology. He returned to the University of Virginia as a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology in 2017.

Abbott’s research examines the neurobiology of the autonomic nervous system with emphasis on the homeostatic control of breathing and cardiovascular function. His laboratory investigates neural networks that regulate cardiorespiratory responses to sensory feedback, employing optogenetics, electrophysiology, calcium imaging, RNA sequencing, and rodent genetic models. Research interests include central mechanisms that link cardiorespiratory physiology with affective state and emotion, as well as disruptions associated with conditions such as neurogenic hypertension and Parkinson’s disease. Selected publications include “Breathing regulation and blood gas homeostasis after near complete lesions of the retrotrapezoid nucleus in adult rats” (2018, The Journal of Physiology), “Selective optogenetic activation of rostral ventrolateral medullary catecholaminergic neurons produces cardiorespiratory stimulation in conscious mice” (2013, The Journal of Neuroscience), and “Regulation of breathing by CO₂ requires the proton-activated receptor GPR4 in retrotrapezoid nucleus neurons” (2015, Science). Abbott contributes to the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Virginia.