Update Your ProfileAcademic Title:
Assistant Professor
Primary Appointment:
Anatomy and Neurobiology
Additional Title:
Assistant Professor
Phone (Primary):
410-706-7307
Education and Training
University of Maryland College Park, BS, Physics, 2001
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Neuoscience, 2007
Cornell University, Postdoctoral Study, 2009
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Postdoctoral Study, 2013
Biosketch
I am UMB alumnus who joined the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology as an Assistant Professor in February 2019. My research focuses on maladaptive responses of the central nervous system to injury and environmental/psychological stressors. I am particularly interested in factors that contribute to chronic pain and how stress influences its perceived severity. I use a variety of behavioral, imaging, and electrophysiological techniques to study the relationship between stress and pain in rodent models.
Research/Clinical Keywords
nociception, pain perception, stress
Highlighted Publications
Morais-Silva, G., Campbell C., Nam H., Basu M., Pagliusi Jr, M.O., Fox M., Chan, S., Iñiguez, S., Ament S., Cramer N.P., Marin M., and Lobo MK (2022) Molecular, circuit, and stress response characterization of Ventral Pallidum Npas1-neurons J. Neurosci; 2022 Nov 28
Nguyen, E., Smith, K. M., Cramer, N. P., Holland, R. A., Bleimeister, I. H., Flores-Felix, K., Silberberg, H., Keller, A., Le Pichon, C. E., & Ross, S. E. (2022). Medullary kappa-opioid receptor neurons inhibit pain and itch through a descending circuit. Brain, 145(7), 2586-2601.
Alipio, J. B., Haga, C., Fox, M. E., Arakawa, K., Balaji, R., Cramer, N. P., Lobo, M. K., & Keller, A. (2021). Perinatal fentanyl exposure leads to long-lasting impairments in somatosensory circuit function and behavior. J Neurosci, JN-RM.
Cramer, N. P., Silva-Cardoso, G., Masri, R., & Keller, A. (2021). Control of synaptic transmission and neuronal excitability in the parabrachial nucleus. Neurobiol Pain, 9, 100057.
Uddin, O., Jenne, C., Fox, M. E., Arakawa, K., Keller, A., & Cramer, N. P. (2020). Divergent profiles of fentanyl withdrawal and associated pain in mice and rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav, 200, 173077.
Raver, C., Uddin, O., Ji, Y., Li, Y., Cramer, N. P., Jenne, C., Morales, M., Masri, R., & Keller, A. (2020). An Amygdalo-Parabrachial Pathway Regulates Pain Perception and Chronic Pain. J Neurosci, 40(17), 3424-3442.
Research Interests
My research focuses on how the responsiveness of the parabrachial nucleus (PB) is controlled by neuromodulators. This brain region plays a key role in encoding the affective aspect of pain by integrating and processing aversive signals from multiple modalities, and hyperexcitability of PB neurons is closely linked to chronic pain behaviors in rodent models. I use a combination of behavior optogenetics, fiber photometry, and electrophysiology in vivo and in vitro to understand the mechanisms that contribute to this hyperexcitability. Of particular interest is how noradrenaline alters nociceptive processing in PB and how stress-induced in these interactions contribute to chronic pain.
Grants and Contracts
University of Maryland, Baltimore; Center to Advance Chronic Pain Research Seed Grant (2022)
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE (R01NS127827): Interoception and Pain: Noradrenergic Modulation of Nociceptive Transmission in the Parabrachial Nucleus (mPI with Dr. Radi Masri, 2023)
Lab Techniques and Equipment
Slice patch clamp electrophysiology and fiber photometry, rodent in vivo calcium imaging, fiber photometry and electrophysiology, rodent behavior, RNAscope