Christopher V. Gabel, PhD

Associate Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Our research program is focused on the development and application of femtosecond laser surgery and optical neurophysiology to the study of the nervous system of the nematode worm C. elegans. Using tightly focused pulses from an ultrafast laser, we can ablate regions of biological tissue with submicron precision, making it possible to snip individual nerve fibers within an intact worm (Fig 1). This enables in vivo study of neural regeneration and dissection of neurocircuitry at a new level of resolution. A small transparent body, simple stereotyped nervous system and powerful genetic tools combined to make C. elegans an ideal model organism for this work. Femtosecond laser technology applied to this versatile and tractable system allows us to tackle fundamental questions in neural regeneration and function.

Publications

  • Published 6/12/2026

    Chang AS, Mazuera L, Connor CW, Gabel CV. The volatile anesthetic isoflurane causes global suppression of neuronal activity, disrupting hub neuron function in Caenorhabditis elegans. Front Syst Neurosci. 2026; 20:1795887. PMID: 42368408.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/18/2026

    Chung C, Kim MJ, Field G, Pilarinos K, Kharitonova EK, Campbell NB, Gabel CV, Orofino JL, Zeldich E. Stage-specific exposure to an activity-permissive media enhances neuronal maturation in oligodendrocyte-enriched cortical organoids. bioRxiv. 2026 May 18. PMID: 42239138.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/2/2026

    White HA, Bosinski CR, Gabel CV, Connor CW. Neuronal Dynamics During Isoflurane Induction in Caenorhabditis elegans. bioRxiv. 2026 Apr 02. PMID: 41959021.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/11/2025

    Dowrey TW, Cranston SF, Skvir NJ, Lok Y, Bock P, Kharitonova EK, MacDonald E, Zeldich E, Gabel CV, Tyshkovskiy A, Monti S, Gladyshev VN, Sebastiani P, Perls TT, Andersen S, Murphy GJ. IPSC-based modeling of resiliency in centenarians reveals longevity-specific signatures. bioRxiv. 2025 Oct 11. PMID: 41279005.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 8/2/2025

    Karakullukcu B, White H, Connor C, Gabel C. Global excitatory synchrony: Ketamine induces global common-mode excitatory network oscillation by decoupling key interneurons. bioRxiv. 2025 Aug 02. PMID: 40766714.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 51 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Associate Professor, Pharmacology, Physiology & Biophysics
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Member, Genome Science Institute
    Boston University
  • Graduate Medical Sciences Educator and Mentor (Primary Mentor of Graduate Students)
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences

Websites

Education

  • Harvard University, PhD
  • Princeton University, BA

View all profiles