HRP Consortium Members

Dr. John Brigande

Dr. Alain Dabdoub

Dr. Albert Edge

Dr. Andy Groves

Dr. Stefan Heller

Dr. Liz Oesterle

Dr. Tatjana Piotrwosk

Dr. David Raible

Dr. Yehoash Raphael

Dr. Edwin Rubel

Dr. Neil Segil

Dr. Jennifer S. Stone

Dr. Mark Warchol

The Hearing Restoration Project will bring together an innovative model collaboration between 10 major hearing loss research centers in the United States, with full sharing of technologies, data,and credit. The HRP asks from its members a commitment to the overall goal and organizational approach, full sharing and allegiance to the Project, and active participation in the governance of the HRP. Significant fund shave already been raised, but the HRP is determined to focus both attention and millions of dollars toward finding a cure to hearing loss.

Hearing Restoration Project Consortium Member Biographies

Dr. John Brigande (Oregon Health & Science University) currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and is jointly appointed as Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. The Brigande lab vision is to establish gain and loss of function experimental paradigms to define gene function in the developing mammalian inner ear. To address these goals, plasmids and viruses are injected with a micro pipette into the developing mouse otocyst in utero. This technique enables Dr. Brigande's team to evaluate embryos prenatally or neonatally, and identifies genes critical for morphogenesis and cell fate specification.

Dr. Alain Dabdoub (University of California San Diego) is currently the Assistant Professor of Surgery/ Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology School of Medicine. Dr. Dabdoub's research is focused on discovering and elucidating the molecular signaling cascades and transcription factors responsible for the development of the mammalian inner ear. The auditory system has an important biological function and provides an exemplary structure to study developmental processes. As a model system, the complex development of the cochlea enables Dr. Dabdoub and his team to study organo genesis, pluripotency, plasticity, cell fate specification, differentiation and pattern formation. The overarching question throughout our research is identifying the signaling molecules that specify the three main cochlear cell types -sensory, non-sensory, and neural.

Dr. Albert Edge (Harvard Medical School) is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology.At the Tillotson Unit for Cell Biology in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Dr.Edge's research is focused stem cells and the basic mechanisms of cellular repair in the nervous system. Dr. Edge is also studying the loss of sensory cells in the inner ear that result in deafness due to excessive noise,drugs, disease, or aging.

Dr. Andy Groves (Baylor College of Medicine) is currently an Associate Professor. Dr. Groves' laboratory uses the inner ear as a model system to address fundamental questions in developmental biology and regeneration, using the complementary approaches of chick embryology and mouse genetics to address these problems. Dr. Groves' laboratory has shown that the FGF and Wnt signaling pathways are critical in inducing the otic placode from embryonic ectoderm, and is currently characterizing two novel Forkhead transcription factors that may mediate these inductive events. Dr. Groves' is also interested in trying to understand the mechanisms of how different sensory organs, such as the organ of Corti in the cochlea, arose during vertebrate evolution.

Dr.Stefan Heller (Stanford University School of Medicine) is a Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and Molecular and Cellular Physiology and an Associate Member of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Heller's focus is to develop solutions for reversing sensory hair cell loss in the mammalian cochlea using stem cell-based approaches. A second avenue of investigation is focused one lucidating on the molecular basis of our senses of hearing and balance. Dr. Liz Oesterle (University of Washington) is a Research Associate Professor of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery Research Affiliate, Center on Human Development and Disability. Dr. Oesterle focuses on the anatomy and physiology of the inner ear, and her current research is aimed at identifying factors that can stimulate inner ear sensory epithelial cells to re-enter the mitotic cycle and stimulate the production of new receptor cells (hair cells).

Dr. Tatjana Piotrwoski (Stowers Institute for Medical Research) is an Associate Investigator. Dr. Piotrwoski is studying how the sensory lateral line develops in zebrafish by analyzing mutants that affect this process. It consists of hair cells, which functionally and morphologically are very similar to the hair cells of the inner ear of higher vertebrates. Because of the similarity of structure and function of the hair cells in the ear and lateral line, it is likely that their development is based on similar genetic mechanisms. But unlike the hair cells of the inner ear, the hair cells of the lateral line system are directly exposed to the environment. Dr. Piotrwoski's research focuses on the elucidation of these mechanisms by isolating the genes responsible for defects in these processes in mutants.

Dr. David Raible (University of Washington) is a Professor, Department of Biological Structure interested in how, during embryonic development, cells of the nervous system acquire their specific fates, so that they display the distinct characteristics necessary for their proper function. Dr. Raible and his team have been examining how neural crest cells make cell fate choices in the zebrafish embryo, an emerging vertebrate developmental system with distinct advantages for cellular, molecular and genetic study. By labeling cells with fluorescent vital dyes and following their migration in living embryos, by transplanting individual cells between embryos, and by specifically ablating subsets of neural crest cells, Raible's research has determined that interactions among neural crest cells themselves play a crucial role in sorting out the derivative types they will produce.

Dr. Yehoash Raphael (University of Michigan) is the R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Otolaryngology and A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute Scholar. He is also the Director of the Otopathology Laboratory at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the University of Michigan. Through his breakthrough research, Dr. Raphael and his team found a way to restore hair cells and hearing in deaf guinea pigs by injecting into the inner ear a gene that triggers the growth of hair cells during embryonic development.

Dr. Edwin Rubel (University of Washington) is currently in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, the Department of Otolaryngology, at the Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, and at the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center. Dr. Rubel's research focuses on the wide variety of methods and preparations in order to better understand development, plasticity, pathology and potential repair of the inner ear and auditory pathways of the brain.

Dr.Neil Segil (House Research Institute) is a Principal Investigator, Scientist, and the Acting Director of the Division of Cell Biology and Genetics. He is also a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Cell and Neurobiology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Dr. Segil's research is focused on development aspects of cell cycle regulation in relation to the inner ear, hearing loss and regeneration.

Dr. Jennifer S. Stone (University of Washington) is currently a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. Stone's research at the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center at the University of Washington focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms guiding embryonic and post-embryonic production of sensory hair cells in birds.

Dr. Mark Warchol (Washington University School of Medicine) is a Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and at the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences. Dr. Warchol's research focuses on the development and regeneration of sensory receptors and afferent neurons in the inner ear. Dr. Warchol and his team are particularly interested in determining the functions of the GATA3 and PAX2 transcription factors,which appear to regulate the differentiation of auditory neurons and vestibular hair cells, respectively.