Rutgers Professor Is Named a Sloan Fellow for Her Research on the Sense of Touch

The fellowship is among the most prestigious in science for early-career researchers

A Rutgers professor studying the sense of touch and its role in movement, socialization and pain perception has been awarded a 2025 Sloan Research Fellowship.

Victoria Abraira, an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, was named one of 126 researchers drawn from a select group of 51 institutions in the U.S. and Canada. The award honors creative, innovative individuals who have the potential to become scientific leaders in a range of fields, including chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics.

Abraira’s work explores a fundamental question in neuroscience: How do early-life touch experiences, such as a mother's caress, help shape the developing brain for healthy emotional and social growth?

Her research challenges long-held beliefs that touch signals simply travel to the brain. Instead, she has uncovered that these signals undergo processing in the spinal cord before reaching the brain.

“This fellowship is particularly meaningful because it acknowledges our lab's innovative work in understanding one of our most overlooked but vital senses,” said Abraira, who was named a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar in 2023. “The recognition validates that we're asking the right questions about how touch shapes our lives, from the way we move to how we connect with others.”

Based in the W.M. Keck Center of Collaborative Neuroscience at Rutgers, Abraira’s lab explores what she calls the "social language of touch" – how simple skin sensations transform into deeply meaningful experiences, such as the comfort of a hug or the warmth of holding hands.

Her work has major implications for understanding conditions where touch processing is altered, from autism to chronic pain.

“Touch is the only sense that, if deprived in early childhood, can have devastating consequences for brain development,” Abraira said. “This fellowship will allow us to develop new tools and approaches to understand exactly how touch during infancy wires brain circuits essential for normal development and emotional well-being."

A first-generation college graduate and an immigrant from Argentina, Abraira was drawn to neuroscience by her fascination with how the brain processes sensory information, particularly touch.

“Growing up, I never imagined becoming a scientist – it seemed like an impossible dream,” she said. “But I was fortunate to have parents who taught me that we become who we are through our connections with others. That philosophy now shapes how my lab approaches science – as a human endeavor that thrives on bringing different perspectives together.”

Abraira said she is most proud of her team’s discovery mapping the complete blueprint of touch circuits from the skin to the brain. Contrary to textbook teachings, her team’s research showed most touch signals don’t go directly to the brain but first undergo complex processing in the spinal cord.

“It's like discovering that what we thought was a simple relay station is actually a sophisticated computer, processing and refining touch information before it even reaches the brain,” she said. “This finding has revolutionized our understanding of touch and opened new avenues for treating conditions ranging from chronic pain to spinal cord injuries.”

The Sloan Fellowship provides a two-year, $75,000 award that can be used flexibly to support research. Each year, more than 1,000 researchers are nominated by their peers. Abraira was nominated by  Lori Covey, a Rutgers professor of cell biology and neuroscience and a noted immunology scholar.

Many past recipients have gone on to become distinguished leaders in their fields of study, including physicist Richard Feynman and mathematician John Nash. To date, 58 fellows have received a Nobel Prize, including John Hopfield, last year’s Nobel laureate in physics.

At Rutgers, 84 faculty members – including Abraira – have received a Sloan Research Fellowship since 1955.