Research
Genetics of Hearing and Vestibular Impairment
Hearing loss is a major health concern for our societies. In the United States of America, 17% of the adult population suffers from some degree of hearing loss. In addition, the elderly population frequently experiences debilitating hearing difficulties, and sometimes balancing issues.
Our goal is to identify the comprehensive list of genes required for hearing and head motion detection, and ultimately characterize the function of these genes at the molecular level.
This will improve our understanding of the inner ear physiology, but also will help the diagnosis of patients affected by hearing loss.
Function of the Hair Cells and Other Inner Ear Cells
Differently from the sense of Vision, still little is known about Hearing and Balancing at their molecular level. This is due to the technical challenges associated with this organ: the paucity of the inner ear sensory cells, their inaccessibility and their fragility.
The inner ear is composed of two functional parts: the cochlea, which is the auditory organ, and the vestibule, organ responsible for head motion and balancing. In both parts, the sensory epithelia are composed of the sensory hair cells, called hair cells, always surrounded by supporting cells.
We want to characterize down to the molecular level the function of the cells that compose the inner ear, particularly the hair cells.
Approaches
Molecular Biology
Biochemistry
Electrophysiology
Mouse Genetics
Mouse Audiometry
Cellular Biology
Histology
Bioinformatics
