I am an Assistant Professor at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, Director of the NYIT Imaging Center, and the Group Leader for Imaging, Visualization, and Modelling within the recently formed Center for Biomedical Innovation at NYIT-COM and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience At Albert Einstein College of Medicine. My research is in the area of cellular neuroscience and gap junctions.

I performed my PhD thesis research with Vladimir Parpura at the University of Alabama, Birmingham where I combined genetically encoded calcium sensors with glial promoter constructs and adapted a nematode primary cell culture technique to perform some of the first studies of Caenorhabditis elegans glia. I received my PhD in 2011 in Neurobiology at UAB. My postdoctoral training was at Albert Einstein College of Medicine with David C. Spray. There, I used live-cell high-resolution laser scanning confocal microscopy and super-resolution microscopy to reveal novel and fundamental aspects of the gap junction plaque structure and anatomy of other supramolecular cellular assemblies. I recently used quantitative high-resolution microscopy to show that the structure-characteristics of gap junction connections are modifiable and dependent on specific residues in the cytoplasmic carboxyl-terminus of the gap junction proteins (connexins) with follow-up research continuing on that topic in my own lab.

Upon establishing an independent laboratory at the NYITCOM in May, 2017, I’ve included both undergraduate and medical students in research projects on cell biology using microscopy and which bring together disease conditions of the heart and brain. I’ve served as a mentor and/or assistant advisor for more than 15 students ranging across experience levels from high school, to undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and medical residents. My research at NYIT focuses on intercellular communication through gap junctions and the effects that such communication has on nuclear hormone receptor signaling and cellular metabolism in the context of human neural disease models.

Iacobas, D., Iacobas, S., Stout, R. F.,  Spray, D. C. (2020). Oligodendrocytes Remodel the Genomic Fabrics of Functional Pathways in Astrocytes.  Genes 2020, 11, 520; doi:10.3390/genes11050520

McCutcheon, S., Stout, R.F. and Spray, D.C., 2020. The dynamic Nexus: Gap junctions control protein localization and mobility in distinct and surprising ways. bioRxiv. 2020

Murphy-Royal, C., Johnston, A.D., Boyce, A.K., Diaz-Castro, B., Institoris, A., Peringod, G., Zhang, O., Stout, R.F., Spray, D.C., Thompson, R.J. and Khakh, B.S., 2020. Stress gates an astrocytic energy reservoir to impair synaptic plasticity. Nature Communications, 11(1), pp.1-18.

Rochon C., Otazu G., Kurtzer I.L., Stout R. F., Jr., Ramos R.L. (2019) Quantitative Indicators of Continued Growth in Undergraduate Neuroscience Education in the US. Montana.;1(1):0.

Cabahug-Zuckerman, P., Stout, R. F., Jr., Majeska, R. J., Thi, M. M., Spray, D. C., Weinbaum, S., & Schaffler, M. B. (2018). Potential role for a specialized beta3 integrin-based structure on osteocyte processes in bone mechanosensation. Journal of Orthopaedic Research. doi:10.1002/jor.23792. PMID: 29087614

Stout RF Jr, Spray DC. (2017) Cysteine residues in the cytoplasmic carboxyl terminus of connexins dictate gap junction plaque stability. Mol. Biol. Cell mbc.E17-03-0206; doi:10.1091/mbc.E17-03-0206. PMCID: PMC5638580

Stenovec M., Lasič M., Božić M., Trkov S., Stout, RF Jr., Grubišić V., Parpura V.,  Zorec R. (2017) Ketamine Inhibits ATP-Evoked Exocytotic Release of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor from Single Vesicles in Cultured Rat Astrocytes. Molecular Neurobiology, 1-15. PMID: 26660497

Stout RF Jr., Snapp EL., Spray DC. (2015) Connexin Type and Fluorescent Protein-fusion Tag Determine Structural Stability of Gap Junction Plaques. Journal of Biological Chemistry, jbc.M115.676379. doi:10.1074/jbc.M115.676379, PubMed PMID 26265468, PMCID PMC4583030.

Figueiredo, M., Lane, S., Stout, RF Jr., Liu B, Parpura, V., Teschemacher, A. G., Kasparov, S. (2014) Comparative analysis of optogenetic actuators in cultured astrocytes. Cell Calcium, 56: 208-214. Sep;56(3):208-14. doi: 10.1016/j.ceca.2014.07.007. PubMed PMID: 25109549; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4169180.

Bejarano E., Yuste A., Patel B., Stout RF Jr., Spray DC., Cuervo AM. (2014) Connexins modulate autophagosome biogenesis. Nature Cell Biology, 2014, doi:10.1038/ncb2934, PMCID: PMC2588549.

Books Chapters and Reviews:

Stout RF Jr., and Pokala, N., 2017, February. Neuroglia in C. elegans. In Colloquium Series on Neuroglia in Biology and Medicine: From Physiology to Disease (Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. i-56). Morgan & Claypool Life Sciences.

Scemes E., Stout RF Jr., Spray DC. Adrenergic receptors on astrocytes modulate gap junctions. A volume in Noradrenergic Signaling and Astroglia. Edited by Zorec R. and Vardjan N. Elsevier Science & Technology Books. Aug 3, 2017

Stout RF Jr., Spray DC. Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) for study of gap junction Nexus macromolecular organization. CNC press: Gap Junction and Pannexin Channels- A Volume in the Methods in Signal Transduction Series, Bai D, Sáez JC, editors. Gap Junction Channels and Hemichannels. CRC Press; 2016 Jul 25.

.