Stephanie Cragg

Stephanie Cragg
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
University of Oxford
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford

Stephanie J. Cragg (MA DPhil MAE) is a British physiologist who is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford.[1] She holds a joint appointment[2][3] as Professor in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford and as a Fellow (Official Student), Director of Studies and Tutor for Medicine at the college Christ Church, Oxford.[2]

Early life and education

Cragg studied Natural Sciences at Clare College, University of Cambridge, followed by a DPhil in neuropharmacology at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford and Lincoln College, Oxford.[3] Her graduate supervisors were Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield (Oxford) and Dr Margaret Rice (New York University).[4]

Research and career

Cragg is a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford. In her early postdoctoral research career, she was an E.P. Abraham Junior Research Fellow at St. Cross College, then an E.P. Abraham Research Fellow at Keble College, then received a Beit Memorial Fellowship followed by a Paton Research Fellowship from the Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford.[3] She was a visiting scientist at New York University Depts of Physiology & Biophysics, and Neurosurgery, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She took up post as Associate Professor in Biomedical Sciences in DPAG, in association with a Tutorial Fellowship at Christ Church in 2006, before being made full Professor in 2014. She received the honour of election to Membership of the Academia Europaea in 2026.

Her work focusses on understanding the functioning in health and disease of the brain's dopamine circuits and related cell types that become dysregulated in Parkinson's disease, addictions and other neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.[2][3] This work focusses particularly on the regulation of dopaminergic transmission.

Cragg's work includes the study of how dopamine release in the striatum is regulated by other neuronal circuits, non-neuronal cells (astrocytes),[5] and neuromodulators, including the neurotransmitters acetylcholine,[6][7][8] GABA,[9] adenosine, and dysregulation in Parkinson's disease.[10] Some of her most cited work relates to the axonal regulation of dopamine transmission by acetylcholine, cholinergic interneurons[11] and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). In 2025, she co-edited with Prof. Mark E. Walton The Handbook of Dopamine, a defining volume capturing current understanding of dopamine biology in the brain.

Scientific leadership

Scientific journals

  • Addiction Neuroscience[12]
  • ACS Chemical Neuroscience[13]
  • npj Parkinson's Disease[14]

Societies

Engagement with scientific societies include:

Keynote lectures

  • European Journal of Neuroscience Special Feature Plenary Lecture, FENS Forum 2018, Berlin, Germany[17]
  • Keynote Speaker, ViDA 2020 - Virtual Dopamine Conference[18]
  • Swedish Basal Ganglia Society 2022[19]
  • Plenary Lecture, Dopamine 2022, Montreal, Canada[20]
  • 18th International Conference on Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience 2022, Lyon
  • Doris Cecelia Levy Memorial Seminar on Brain Disease 2023, Jerusalem
  • NeuroFrance 2025 Plenary Lecture, Montpellier, France

References

  1. ^ "Recognition of Distinction: Successful applicants 2014" Archived 16 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, The University of Oxford Gazette, no. 5076, 6 November 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "Professor Stephanie Cragg | Christ Church, University of Oxford". www.chch.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d "Stephanie Cragg". www.dpag.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  4. ^ Helmreich, Dana L. (July 2018). "Profiles of Women in Science: Prof. Stephanie Cragg of the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK". European Journal of Neuroscience. 48 (2): 1723–1727. doi:10.1111/ejn.14058. PMID 29968289. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  5. ^ Stedehouder, Jeffrey; Roberts, Bradley M.; Raina, Shinil; Bossi, Simon; Liu, Alan King Lun; Doig, Natalie M.; McGerty, Kevin; Magill, Peter J.; Parkkinen, Laura; Cragg, Stephanie J. (2024-11-19). "Rapid modulation of striatal cholinergic interneurons and dopamine release by satellite astrocytes". Nature Communications. 15 (1): 10017. Bibcode:2024NatCo..1510017S. doi:10.1038/s41467-024-54253-7. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 11577008. PMID 39562551.
  6. ^ Rice, Margaret E; Cragg, Stephanie J (June 2004). "Nicotine amplifies reward-related dopamine signals in striatum". Nature Neuroscience. 7 (6): 583–584. doi:10.1038/nn1244. PMID 15146188.
  7. ^ Threlfell, Sarah; Lalic, Tatjana; Platt, Nicola J.; Jennings, Katie A.; Deisseroth, Karl; Cragg, Stephanie J. (July 2012). "Striatal Dopamine Release Is Triggered by Synchronized Activity in Cholinergic Interneurons". Neuron. 75 (1): 58–64. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.04.038. PMID 22794260.
  8. ^ Zhang, Yan-Feng; Luan, Pengwei; Qiao, Qinbo; He, Yiran; Zatka-Haas, Peter; Zhang, Guofeng; Lin, Michael Z.; Lak, Armin; Jing, Miao; Mann, Edward O.; Cragg, Stephanie J. (April 2025). "An axonal brake on striatal dopamine output by cholinergic interneurons". Nature Neuroscience. 28 (4): 783–794. doi:10.1038/s41593-025-01906-5. ISSN 1546-1726. PMC 11976267. PMID 40082616.
  9. ^ Roberts, Bradley M.; Doig, Natalie M.; Brimblecombe, Katherine R.; Lopes, Emanuel F.; Siddorn, Ruth E.; Threlfell, Sarah; Connor-Robson, Natalie; Bengoa-Vergniory, Nora; Pasternack, Nicholas; Wade-Martins, Richard; Magill, Peter J.; Cragg, Stephanie J. (2 October 2020). "GABA uptake transporters support dopamine release in dorsal striatum with maladaptive downregulation in a parkinsonism model". Nature Communications. 11 (1): 4958. Bibcode:2020NatCo..11.4958R. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18247-5. PMC 7532441. PMID 33009395.
  10. ^ Cramb, Kaitlyn M L; Beccano-Kelly, Dayne; Cragg, Stephanie J; Wade-Martins, Richard (1 August 2023). "Impaired dopamine release in Parkinson's disease". Brain. 146 (8): 3117–3132. doi:10.1093/brain/awad064. PMC 10393405. PMID 36864664.
  11. ^ Zhang, Yan-Feng; Reynolds, John N.J.; Cragg, Stephanie J. (June 2018). "Pauses in Cholinergic Interneuron Activity Are Driven by Excitatory Input and Delayed Rectification, with Dopamine Modulation". Neuron. 98 (5): 918–925.e3. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2018.04.027. ISSN 0896-6273. PMC 5993868. PMID 29754751.
  12. ^ "Addiction Neuroscience | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier". www.sciencedirect.com.
  13. ^ "Editors & Editorial Board". ACS Publications.
  14. ^ "npj Parkinson's Disease". Nature. 10 July 2023. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  15. ^ "About". MMiN. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  16. ^ "Parkinson's UK College of Experts". Parkinson's UK. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  17. ^ "Feature Plenary Lecture, FENS Forum 2018".
  18. ^ "Speakers". VIDA 2020.
  19. ^ "Webinar Recordings".
  20. ^ "Plenary Lectures".
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