Development and regeneration of the mammalian inner ear

My broad research interests are in the area of sensory system development and regeneration.  My research currently involves the mammalian inner ear.  More specifically I am interested in the signals that allow the sensory patches to develop and to differentiate into support cells and hair cells. I am also interested in what prevents the hair cells from regenerating after damage in mammals, as they do in birds and lower vertebrates.

Most of my work in the inner ear involves the roles of Notch and FGF in the development of the sensory patches.  We investigate all stages of the development of the mammalian cochlea and vestibule using molecular and cellular techniques.  We use explant cultures of the sensory organs when we want to treat with various factors to activate or inhibit a signaling pathway and decipher its role.

In addition we use a variety of transgenic and knockout mouse lines to access overexpression and deletion of certain genes.  Much of our work has relied on confocal imaging of whole organs that have either been dissected from the animal or cultured first.  We are also interested in vestibular organs particularly the crista located at the base of the semi-circular canals.  Recently we found that in these organs that the support cells can regenerate into hair cells when Notch signaling is blocked.  This occurs at the lateral edges of these organs where Notch signaling appears to be ongoing in the adult as evidenced by Hes5 expression.