About the Lab
Our lab uses the inner ear as a model system to address fundamental questions in developmental biology and regeneration. The transformation of a simple piece of epithelium - the otic placode - into a sensory organ of extreme morphological complexity provides an opportunity to study questions of competence, induction, pattern formation, differentiation, morphogenesis and regeneration.
We work on what induces the inner ear in the first place, how the sensory organs of the ear acquire their exquisite pattern, and whether it will ever be possible to regenerate the sensory hair cells of the inner ear in the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
We are also studying the evolutionary origins of the hair cells of the inner ear by studying the development of similar sensory cells in cephalopods (squid) and urochordates (sea squirts).
