Auditory Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory
Jochen Schacht,
Ph.D., Laboratory Director
The Auditory Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory was established in 1972. It has since published over 250 papers in scholarly journals, book chapters and reviews, and presents its results regularly at national and international meetings. Seventeen students have graduated from the laboratory and over forty postdoctoral fellows and visiting faculty from eighteen countries have trained. The laboratory also sponsors students in undergraduate and medical student research projects, and hosts deaf and hearing impaired students for summer research internships.
Our research combines the tools of biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, and physiology depending on the topic under investigation. A brief introduction to the inner ear shows some photos of this fascinating structure and explains some of the methods we are using.
Several major topics have been the focus of our research:
- How the ear works: Biochemical and cell biological studies of cell communication and regulatory mechanisms in the inner ear (second messengers, transcription factors, gene expression).
- How drugs cause deafness: Mechanisms and prevention of drug-induced hearing loss (with emphasis on aminoglycoside antibiotics: gentamicin, kanamycin, streptomycin).
- How our ears grow old: Mechanisms of age-related hearing loss.
Medicine at Michigan, the magazine for the University of Michigan Medical School, published a lengthy article in Spring 2006 "What did you say?" on research activities of KHRI and our lab.
An earlier article reported on our work on drug-induced hearing loss: "Can asprin prevent antibiotic-induced deafness?".
Our successful clinical studies to prevent drug-induced hearing loss were the topic of this University of Michigan press release.
