Rate My Professor Shruthi Sateesh

Shruthi Sateesh, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Otago, part of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences within the Health Sciences Division. She maintains an affiliation with the Department of Psychology, where she completed her doctoral studies. Sateesh's PhD thesis, defended in 2022, titled "Astrocyte-mediated trans-regional regulation of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus," explored novel intercellular signaling mechanisms involving astrocytes that govern synaptic plasticity across hippocampal regions. This work was conducted under the supervision of Wickliffe C. Abraham and Owen D. Jones, leading experts in neurophysiology.

Her research interests center on the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying learning and memory, with a particular emphasis on synaptic plasticity, metaplasticity, and the role of astrocytes in modulating NMDAR-dependent long-term potentiation (LTP). Sateesh has published several influential papers, including "Differential Astrocyte‐Supplied NMDAR Co‐Agonist for CA1 Versus Dentate Gyrus Long‐Term Potentiation" (Hippocampus, 2025), which delineates region-specific astrocyte contributions to metaplasticity; "Pathway-specific TNF-mediated metaplasticity in hippocampal area CA1" (Scientific Reports, 2022), demonstrating TNF's role in pathway-selective plasticity regulation; and "Metaplasticity and Synaptic Tag and Capture: Differential Dynamics of Plasticity Regulation in the Hippocampus" (book chapter, 2024). Additional contributions include studies on virus-mediated gene therapy for Alzheimer’s disease models (Gene Therapy, 2026) and translational control of SYNGAP1 by FMRP (Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 2019). Throughout her career, Sateesh has been recognized with awards such as the Otago Medical School Research Society PhD Student Award (2021), runner-up in the Brain Health Research Centre's PhD/postdoctoral presentation category (2022), and the Australasian Neuroscience Society's Sir Grafton Elliot-Smith Poster Award (2018). Her publications have accumulated over 80 citations.