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Stefan Heller (left), Kazuo Oshiro (center), and Jeff Corwin (right) examine ear hair cells in their lab last summer. Corwin and Heller will return to the MBL this summer to continue their research.
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You Heard it Here First
MBL visiting investigators to continue hearing loss research this summer
Our ears have been buzzing recently with news of encouraging advances in understanding hearing loss at the cellular level. Two key players in this research arena are MBL visiting investigators Jeffrey Corwin and Stefan Heller, who first convened here last summer, and who will return this summer to continue their work.
“Nearly all of the scientists who worked in our group are returning,” says Corwin. “Several were first time MBL-ers and all seemed sold on the lab as a great place for the kind of work we are doing.” Mark Warchol, a first-time MBL visiting investigator, will also join the team.
This July, Corwin, Heller, Warchol, and their colleagues will resume their efforts to make large numbers of stem cells from chicks and mice “grow” into inner ear sensory hair cells—acoustic receptors that are a critical part of the auditory system. This research, in combination with recent advances in understanding the genes that inhibit the regeneration of hair cells, offers hope for the treatment of hearing loss and balance disorders, which currently affect some 28 million Americans.
The work is important because, in humans, inner ear sensory hair cells are a precious commodity. We are born with only about sixteen thousand of these sound detectors in each ear, which can be easily damaged by age, certain illnesses, exposure to loud sounds, and some medications. Once damaged, the cells do not grow back. And with the cell loss comes so-called irreversible hearing loss.
Corwin, Heller, and Warchol will be working this summer to develop new methods to expand and maintain stem cells isolated from the chicken embryos and the mouse inner ear to establish long-term stable cell lines. The ultimate goal? To eventually learn to repair people’s damaged hearing and restore their balance.
Corwin, a neuroscience professor from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, is an alumnus of the MBL’s 1975 Neurobiology course. Heller is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Warchol is a professor at the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. The scientists’ MBL collaboration has been funded by the Albert and Ellen Grass Faculty Grant Program.
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