Mike Beckstead
@mjbeckstead
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Neurophysiologist, hiker, father of two, and former Ohioan who successfully escaped to south of the Vitamin D Line. Views are my own.
Oklahoma City, OK
Joined December 2017
Woohoo! Great job Laci!
Laci Liter passed her qualifying exam and is a PhD Candidate in the Neuroscience Program! Laci is in the lab of Mike Beckstead. Super proud of you Laci! @OUNeuroscience @zacharyasmithmd @MyOnlyNeuron #ouneuroscience #phdlife
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A neurotensin-dependent neural circuit mechanism that links the devaluation of hedonic foods with #obesity
nature.com
Nature - In mice, prolonged consumption of a high-fat diet decreases interest in calorie-rich foods as a result of reduced neurotensin expression and signalling, which uncouples hedonic feeding...
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Can we design allosteric modulators that change a GPCR's preferred G protein? Yes!💥 BAMs at the GPCR-transducer interface change G protein subtype selectivity in predictable ways, enabling rational drug design. The lab's 1st preprint! Check it out! https://t.co/ujSNQZsenV 🧵👇
biorxiv.org
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest family of drug targets, can signal through 16 subtypes of Gα proteins. Biased compounds that selectively activate therapy-relevant pathways promise to...
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Great week at #SfN24. I learned a ton but the highlight for me was watching @HarrisEdwardB represent our lab by presenting his Alzheimer's (and dissertation) work -- great job! @AM_OMRF
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Patched locus coeruleus norepinephrine neurons all morning and ventricular cardiomyocytes all afternoon.
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Exciting news from our lab at Duke University! We've used DART to block dopamine pauses mediated by GABAA receptors. This simple experiment led to three unexpected outcomes. See more in our full paper: https://t.co/trt9r3HAhr
@DukeUBME @DukeBrain @ASAP_Research #ASAP_CRN
biorxiv.org
Extinction learning is an essential form of cognitive flexibility, which enables obsolete reward associations to be discarded. Its downregulation can lead to perseveration, a symptom seen in several...
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I, Ana Luiza Bock, and @Laci_Laci_ from my lab all ran legs to help represent @OMRF in the OKC Memorial Marathon relay this morning! We had a bit of drizzle but the weather was great for running. So much fun! #runtoremember
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What a great trip to Iowa to talk about our Alzheimer’s work and see the cutting edge science going on here. Thanks to the graduate students, faculty, and @GantzStephanie for an amazing visit!
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The lab's first paper is published! Post-doc Rita Yu-Tzu Chen used two-photon dendritic calcium imaging to compare the role of specific calcium channels in two types of neurons that degenerate in Parkinson's Disease.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Chen and Evans show that tonic and phasic calcium in the dendrites of neurons vulnerable to degeneration in Parkinson's disease are regulated by different calcium channels. L-type and N- or P/Q-type...
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Delighted to share our latest work using ChR2 in LC to evoke noradrenaline alpha1-adrenergic receptor synaptic transmission in the dorsal raphe - which is exquisitely sensitive to presynaptic inhibition. Amazing team effort 🙏🏽
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I am so excited about stepping into this new role as Director of @VCARScience. @VanderbiltU, @VUBasicSciences and the addiction center have been so supportive of my career and I can’t wait to give back to the Vanderbilt community in this role.
The Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research has joined the cadre of research centers supported by the #DiscoveryVanderbilt initiative. Led by @TheErinCalipari, VCAR aims to tackle the complexities of addiction while developing groundbreaking treatments.
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Lots of traveling this fall - fun but glad to be home for a while. Date night Friday, spectacular overtime win for the Thunder over the Warriors!
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Study brain aging? Using a tamoxifen inducible cre model and want to TAM treat at an old age? Should work great. Check out our validation study:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Temporally controlling Cre recombination through tamoxifen (Tam) induction has many advantages for biomedical research. Most studies report early post-natal/juvenile (<2 m.o.) Tam induction, but...
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Hyperexcitable VTA dopamine neurons in an AD mouse model?! Check out our latest preprint where we use Patch-seq to ID a single enzyme & target it to restore normal firing. Work led by PhD student @HarrisEdwardB; big shouts to @LabSharpe @FreemanLabOMRF
https://t.co/vyr2dHr3oU
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Shades of post-1989 USSR in the US since the GFC in 2008. Comparable countries bounced post-COVID, but US did not. ~1 million Americans have died of OD’s just since 2010; that’s more than the # of Americans that died in all wars America has ever fought in. Via @DanRDimicco
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Congrats to Will Lynch @wil1l_obie who just received his NOA for his F31 award on the role of Zhx2 in oxycodone metabolism and behavior! @buCSNneuro @BU_GSI @BUMedicine @PharmBU @NeurosciBU @IBANGStweets @IBNSconnect @CTC_RG @CpdaConference
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I’m guessing we were the only people that saw the Guardians win today that drove straight from Oklahoma. First big league game for the kids, and we got a foul ball — they were so excited (so was I)!
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I was excited to give a lab tour this week to Oklahoma County Commissioner and mental health advocate @CarrieBlumert. We had a nice chat about brain research and the challenges of studying addiction.
Yesterday, I got to meet Dr. Michael Beckstead & President Dr. Weyrich @OMRF. Dr. Beckstead researches addiction in the brain & is trying to change how little we know about how addiction & the brain works. The brain science of addiction is extremely underfunded and understudied.
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Congrats to the Soden and Zweifel labs for getting this out! Really remarkable use of CRISPR and neurophysiology! Circuit coordination of opposing neuropeptide and neurotransmitter signals
nature.com
Nature - CRISPR–Cas9 mutagenesis studies in mice demonstrate co-release of a neurotransmitter and a neuropeptide with opposing signals that stimulate the ventral tegmental area dopamine...
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Excited to share out labs’ latest: Congrats to @ReaganLPennock, @fluketc, Xiaohiu Yan, @LindaWadiche & @jwadiche. 'Afferent convergence to a shared population of interneuron AMPA receptors' (2023) Nat Comm. https://t.co/XSSeWByBM9. A thread:
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