Stephanie J Cragg

Stephanie J. Cragg (MA DPhil MAE) is a British physiologist who is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. She holds a joint appointment 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.

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.

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. 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), and neuromodulators, including the neurotransmitters acetylcholine, GABA, adenosine, and dysregulation in Parkinson's disease. Some of her most cited work relates to the axonal regulation of dopamine transmission by acetylcholine, cholinergic interneurons 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 ACS Chemical Neuroscience npj Parkinson's Disease

Societies Engagement with scientific societies include: Election to Membership of the Academia Europaea (2026) President of the International Society for Monitoring Molecules in Neuroscience (2024-2026) College of Experts for Parkinson's UK

Keynote lectures European Journal of Neuroscience Special Feature Plenary Lecture, FENS Forum 2018, Berlin, Germany Keynote Speaker, ViDA 2020 - Virtual Dopamine Conference Swedish Basal Ganglia Society 2022 Plenary Lecture, Dopamine 2022, Montreal, Canada 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