Areas of Interest
Opioid signaling, pain, electrophysiology
Honors & Awards
Oregon Health & Science University, School of Medicine Paper of the Month, June 2015. Award acknowledging outstanding research in the OHSU School of Medicine
International Narcotics Research Conference Young Investigator Travel Award; July 2011, 2012,2013, 2015. Award to attend annual meeting and speak about current research.
Winter Conference on Brain Research Travel Award January 2012. Award to attend annual meeting and invitation to present research. Title: Imaging the dynamics of fluorescent ligand binding to the mu opioid receptor.
Drug Abuse Research Training Grant T32, National Institute for Drug Abuse. Grant for postdoctoral research training 2009- 2011. Title: Mechanisms of mu opioid receptor desensitization in Locus Coeruleus neurons.
Tartar Trust Fellowship, Oregon Health & Science University, 2008. Fellowship to support graduate research, Title: Coincident detection of ischemia through the interplay of two ion channels.
Credentials
Education
Ph.D., Oregon Health & Science University, Neuroscience Graduate Program, 2008
B.S. University of Oregon, Biochemistry, 2000
Post-Doctoral Training
Postdoctoral Fellow, Oregon Health & Science University, 2008 - 2014
Grants
NIH R01 R01DA042779 02/01/2017-11/30/2021
Opioid control of midline thalamo-cortico-straital glutamate transmission
Published Articles or Reviews
Hunnicutt BJ, Jongbloets BC, Birdsong WT, Gertz KJ, Zhong H, Mao T. 2016 A comprehensive excitatory input map of the striatum reveals novel functional organization. eLife. 2016 Nov 28; 5: e19103.
Birdsong WT, Arttamangkul S, Bunzow J, Williams JT. 2015 Agonist binding and desensitization of the mu-opioid receptor is modulated by phosphorylation of the C-terminal tail domain. Mol. Pharm, 88(4): 816-824. doi: 10.1124/mol.114.097527
Arttamangkul S, Birdsong WT, Williams JT. 2015 Does PKC activation increase the homologous desensitization of mu-opioid receptor? Brit J Pharm, 172 (2): 583-592
Birdsong WT, Arttamangkul S, Clark MJ, Cheng K, Rice KC, Traynor JR, Williams JT. 2013 Increased agonist affinity at the mu-opioid receptor induced by prolonged agonist exposure. J Neurosci, 33(9): 4118-4127
Birdsong WT*, Fierro L*, Williams FG, Spelta V, Naves LA, Knowles M, Marsh-Haffner J, Adelman JP, Almers W, McCleskey EW. 2010 Sensing muscle ischemia: Coincident detection of acid and ATP via interplay of two ion channels. Neuron; 68(4): 739-49
Kawate T, Michel JC, Birdsong WT, Gouaux E. 2009 Crystal structure of the ATP-gated ion channel P2X4 in the closed state Nature; 460 (7255): 592-8
Virk MS, Arttamangkul S, Birdsong WT, Williams JT. 2009 Buprenorphine is a weak partial agonist that inhibits opioid receptor desensitization. J Neurosci; 29(22):7341-8
Fjeld CC, Birdsong WT, Goodman RH. 2003 Differential binding of NAD+ and NADH allows the transcriptional corepressor carboxylterminal binding protein to serve as a metabolic sensor. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA; 100(16):9202-7.
