Professor and Department Chair
Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics
Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (TAMU/TAMHSC)

1010 Medical Research and Education Building
8447 State Highway 47
Bryan, TX 77807-3260

Phone: 979-436-0315
Fax: 979-436-0086
Email: griffith@medicine.tamhsc.edu

Education

Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston (1980)

Research Associate, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, University of London.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Research Interests

I am interested in several aspects of the neuropharmacology of aging. Specifically, we are studying voltage- and ligand - gated channels during aging. These studies utilize acutely isolated cells and tissue slices of the basal forebrain with electrophysiological patch-clamp recording techniques in a rodent model of aging. Most recently, we have combined electrophysiological recording techniques with microfluorimetric measurements of intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) in order to quantitate age-related changes in Ca2+ homeostasis during aging. Our research has established that during aging many cells retain their physiological functions, and in fact, often demonstrate compensatory changes to offset other age-related effects. Many of the compensatory actions have not been previously studied or quantitated.

I also participate as a member of the 'training faculty' for the Texas Consortium in Behavioral Neuroscience

I participate in graduate training as a member of the faculty in the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience.

Selected Publications

Bizon, JL, LaSarge, CL, Montgomery, KS, McDermott, AN, Setlow, B, Griffith, WH . Spatial reference and working memory across the lifespan of male Fischer 344 rats. Neurobiology of Aging, 30 (4), 646-655, 2009.

Murchison, D, McDermott,AN,  Bizon JL, Peebles, KA, Griffith, WH. Enhanced calcium buffering in F344 rat cholinergic basal forebrain neurons is associated with age-related cognitive impairment. J. Neurophysiol 102:2194-2207, 2009.

Murchison, D and Griffith, WH. (2007) "Calcium buffering systems and calcium signaling in aged rat basal forebrain neurons". Aging Cell 6: 2997-3005.

Etheredge, JA, Murchison, D, Abbott, LC and Griffith, WH. (2007) "Functional compensation by other voltage gated Ca2+ channels in mouse basal forebrain neurons with Ca_v2.1 mutations". Brain Research 1140:105-119.

LaSarge, CL, Montgomery, KS, Tucker, C, Slaton, S, Griffith, WH, Setlow, B and Bizon, JL. (2007) "Deficits across multiple cognitive domains in a subset of aged Fischer 344 rats". Neurobiology of Aging 28:928-936.

Huang, LZ, Liu, X, Griffith, WH and Winzer-Serhan, UH. (2007) "Chronic neonatal nicotine increases anxiety but does not impair cognition in adult rats". Behavioral Neuroscience, in press.

Bizon, JL, LaSarge, CL, Montgomery, KS, McDermott, AN, Setlow, B and Griffith, WH. (2007) "Spatial reference and working memory across the lifespan of male Fischer 344 rats". Neurobiology of Aging, in press.

Griffith, WH, Han, S-H, McCool, BA and Murchison, D. (2006) "Molecules and membrane activity: single-cell RT-PCR and patch-clamp recording from central neurons". In: Neuroanatomical Tract Tracing 3: Molecules-neurons-Systems, Eds., L. Zaborszky, F. Wouterlood and J.L. Lanciego, pp 142-174.

Nahm, SS, Jung, KY, Enger, MK, Griffith, WH and Abbott, LC. (2005) "Differential expression of T-type calcium channels in P/Q-type calcium channel mutant mice with ataxia and absence epilepsy". Journal of Neurobiology 62:352-360.

Han, SH, Murchison, D and Griffith, WH. (2005) "Low voltage-activated calcium and fast tetrodotoxin-resistant sodium currents define subtypes of cholinergic and noncholinergic neurons in rat basal forebrain". Brain Research Molecular Brain Research 134:226-238.

Jung, KY, Dena, D, Jiang, J, Gaylor, S, Griffith, WH, Burghardt, RC and Parrish, AR. (2004) "Loss of N-cadherin and alpha-catenin in the proximal tubules of aging male Fischer 344 rats". Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 125:445-453.

Murchison, D, Zawieja, D and Griffith, W. (2004) "Reduced mitochondrial buffering of voltage-gated calcium influx in aged rat basal forebrain neurons". Cell Calcium 36:61-75.

Han, SH, McCool, BA, Murchison, D, Nahm, SS, Parrish, AR and Griffith, WH. (2002) "Single-cell RT-PCR detects shifts in mRNA expression profiles of basal forebrain neurons during aging". Brain Research 98:67-80.

Griffith, WH. (2002) "Commentary: Quest for ion channel modulation by free radicals during brain aging". Neurobiology of Aging 23:835-836.

Murchison, D, Dove, LS, Abbott, LC and Griffith, WH. (2002) "Homeostatic compensation maintains Ca2+ signaling function in Purkinje neurons in the leaner mutant mouse". The Cerebellum 1:119-127.

Gallagher, JP, Shinnick-Gallagher, P and Griffith, WH, (2000) "Cellular pharmacology at synapses within the septal complex. In: The Behavioral Neuroscience of the Septal Region". Ed. Robert Numan Springer-Verlag p48-70.

Murchison, D and Griffith, WH. (2000) "Mitochondria buffer nontoxic calcium loads and release calcium through the mitochondria permeability transition pore and sodium/calcium exchanger in rat basal forebrain neurons". Brain Research 854:139-151.