Auditory Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory
What's New
... and Not So New
Jochen Schacht is still director of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute (since March 1, 2000, to be exact). In the photo below he is joined by the founder and first director of KHRI, Merle Lawrence. The picture was taken at our annual picnic in Jochen's back yard.
June 2000, Jochen Schacht and Merle Lawrence
Joseph Hawkins, familiar to anyone who worked at KHRI and one of the outstanding scientists in our field, turned 90 in March 2004.
January 2003, Joe Hawkins and Jochen Schacht
He is keeping himself busy writing chapters on the history of otology some of which Jochen is co-authoring. They have been published in the journal Audiology & Neurotology. The publisher, Karger AG, has granted members of ARO access to these papers through the ARO website (http://www.aro.org). Click on Announcements and you will find links to the articles every other month or so, beginning in March 2004.
- Otoprehistory: How It All Began
- The British Isles: Wilde and Toynbee
- Alfonso Corti
- A Cell by Any Other Name: Cochlear Eponyms
- Prosper Meniere
- Gustav Retzius
- The Origins of Laryngology
- The Emergence of Vestibular Sciences
- Presby[a]cusis
- Noise-induced Hearing Loss
- Ototoxicity: Drug-Induced Hearing Loss
- The History of Otohistory in Traditional Chinese Medicine
Other Developments
We are part of a major new program on presbycusis, age-related hearing loss. Together with the laboratories of Drs. Margaret Lomax (KHRI) and Richard Miller (Geriatrics Center) we will be studying the molecular and genetic aspects of this type of hearing loss that eventually will catch up with all of us. Jochen is the PI on the recently awarded Program Project grant from the National Institute on Aging, NIH.
Our worldwide collaborations are expanding. The clinical trials on the prevention of aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss conducted by the Department of Otolaryngology at the 4th Military University in Xi'an (Chair: Professor Wei-Guo Huang) are completed. We are now discussing plans for future studies with colleges in Tbilisi, Georgia. A new collaboration started after Jochen's visit to the Nofer Institute in Lodz, Poland, in September 2005.
The laboratory continues to contribute to major national and international conferences. Almost everybody from the laboratory attended and presented at the ARO Meeting in February.
We were again invited to present our work at several national and international symposia in 2005, 2006, and 2007:
- 5th International Symposium on "Menière’s Disease & Inner Ear Homeostasis Disorders". Los Angeles, CA, April 2005
- Keynote Speaker "Age-related hearing loss", Polish Congress of Otolaryngology. Łódź, Poland, September 2005
- International Conference on "Protection and Prevention of Hearing Loss". Niagara Falls, Canada, October 2005
- 3rd International Symposium of Otology Research and Clinics. Wuhan, China, October 2005
- 9th Chinese National Otolaryngological Congress. Wuhan, China, October 2005
- Inaugural Symposium, Center for Auditory Research, University College London. London, UK, May 2006
- Collegium ORLAS. Moscow, Russia, August 2006
- Bionics and Regeneration of the Inner Ear. Melbourne, Australia, November 2006
- Pharmacologic Protection From Drug-Induced Hearing Loss”, American Academy of Audiology, Denver CO, April 2007
- World Health Organization, International Conference on Prevention and Rehabilitation of Hearing Impairment, Beijing, China, April 2007
- Congress on Age-Related Hearing Impairment, Antwerp, Belgium, May 2007
- Keynote Speaker, British Society of Audiology Annual Conference, Birmingham, UK, September 2007
