Rate My Professor Owen Jones

Dr. Owen Jones is a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago, where he has been affiliated since 2008. He earned his BSc (Hons) from the University of Liverpool, followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Science (PGDipSci) and a PhD from the University of Otago in 2014. His doctoral research, conducted in Professor Wickliffe Abraham's laboratory, investigated mechanisms regulating long-term potentiation (LTP), a process underlying learning and memory. Specifically, Jones demonstrated that astrocytes actively participate in heterosynaptic metaplasticity, modulating synaptic strengthening through intercellular communication, including purinergic signaling and gap junctions. These findings, published in three journal articles and presented at international conferences in the USA and Europe, highlighted astrocytes' direct role in cognitive processes beyond their traditional support function. Following graduation, Jones continued as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Abraham lab, securing funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand to extend investigations into astrocyte involvement in pathological conditions like Alzheimer's disease. He developed novel techniques to monitor and manipulate astrocyte activity, collaborating with PhD students on related projects.

Jones's research focuses on synaptic plasticity, metaplasticity, and astrocyte-mediated regulation in the hippocampus, with implications for neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia. Key publications include 'Emerging roles of metaplasticity in behaviour and disease' (Trends in Neurosciences, 2013), 'Mechanisms of heterosynaptic metaplasticity' (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2014), 'Secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha can restore novel object location memory and hippocampal LTP in aged rats' (Neurobiology of Aging, 2017), 'Pathway-specific TNF-mediated metaplasticity in hippocampal area CA1' (Journal of Neuroscience, 2022), and contributions to studies on septin-2 in axon maintenance (Brain, 2025). He has received awards such as a $98,000 Neurological Foundation scholarship (2008), Otago Medical Research Foundation funding, and a $208,276 Neurological Foundation grant (2022). Jones teaches PSYC 438: Nervous System Plasticity in Health and Disease and has delivered public lectures, including a Brain Awareness Week talk on cellular mechanisms of improvement (2018). His work advances understanding of brain plasticity and potential therapeutic targets for cognitive decline.