Alex Whitebirch

Scientist, father, husband, home cook, hiker; former new yorker and eternal pacific northwesterner; politically leftist and occasionally optimistic.

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

@parkourmom @AaronFGarcia This preprint represents the past several years of my postdoctoral research at the University of Washington - it's amazing to finally share this work, and I’m beyond grateful to all the folks in Susan’s lab and the UW NAPE center who made this possible!

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

Excited to share my postdoctoral research in Dr. Susan Ferguson’s lab at the UW NAPE center in our new preprint! “Uncovering phenotypic diversity and cell-type-specific prefrontal cortex calcium dynamics in rat fentanyl self-administration".

doi: https://t.co/Fo5KeJLjEX

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

Big news on the personal front…Exciting times ahead for Ashley and I! March 2023, we’re expecting a new addition to the family!

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

Finally, the second paper from my thesis work in the Siegelbaum lab is online - super excited to have the next chapter of this story out in the world! Thanks to @scharfmanlab and everyone in Steve's lab for making it possible!

https://t.co/GJyOhZQFUU

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

I'm excited to share that the first paper from my thesis work in the Siegelbaum lab is now online at Neuron! Putting this paper together was an incredible and rewarding experience, thanks to a lot of hard work on the part of @scharfmanlab and others!

https://t.co/VCpSIld1Cn

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

@JlopezYaime @UWMPsychology @UWM @FrickKaryn Congratulations, that’s so exciting!

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

@LaraBintheBrain Woohoo, congrats! Such an awesome project!

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

Excited to participate in a live Q & A session tomorrow when I present my virtual poster at #AES2021 - check it out if you're curious about changes to the CA2 subfield of the hippocampus in a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy!

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

@JNeuroPark That’s amazing, congratulations!

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

Less than two weeks to my defense, so it’s time for another CA2 picture! One of the neat features of CA2 is the pyramidal neuron-associated perineuronal net (shown here with a WFA stain in red, PNs labeled w/ PCP4 in blue), which is normally found around PV interneurons (green).

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

Less than four weeks to my defense, so I figured it's time for another CA2 picture! This is from a mouse with Syn-mRuby (yellow) and mGFP (magenta) expressed in dorsal CA2 pyramidal neurons. In this section, the dorsal-originating axons form synapses throughout CA1, CA2, and CA3.

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

@AshleaIsHere Woohoo congratulations! That’s so cool!

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

Well, it’s official - I’ve scheduled my thesis defense! August 10th, 10:00 am. To celebrate, here’s one of my favorite images from my PhD thus far: a biocytin-filled CA2 pyramidal neuron I patched way back in 2016!

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

@daaparicio517 @Sethrogen Where did you get that awesome rug?

[Nina Turner @ninaturner]

What if unity meant we came together to:

End poverty
Make the planet livable
Provide quality education to all
Guarantee healthcare to everyone

[Nina Turner @ninaturner]

It’s always the right time to push for #MedicareForAll

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

@MacaylaDonegan Awesome! Congratulations!

[Nature Neuroscience @NatureNeuro]

The CA2 region of the #hippocampus encodes social novelty in mice; this is disrupted in a mouse model of 22q11.2 microdeletion, which confers a 30-fold increased risk of #schizophrenia

https://t.co/HQ1Kugdg3K

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Health care is a human right.

[Alex Whitebirch @ACWhitebirch]

@johniadarola Late night snack - English muffin and Nutella, amazin