The path from student to researcher is not set in stone. Most take the more traditional route where they choose a field during their undergraduate years and keep with it through master’s and doctoral degrees. Then, there are others who happen upon the field and, unsuspectingly, fall in love with it.
Jennifer Stone, Ph.D., a research professor at the University of Washington, falls into the latter category. A self-described “prolific drawer” as a teenager, Stone started her college career as a studio art major at Skidmore College in New York.
She switched to biology after she took an introductory course she was dreading, after uninspiring experiences in high school. However, she found herself connecting with the professors in the department and realized biology’s potential as an outlet to continue to express her artistic side.
“One of the earliest projects I was involved in was doing scientific illustration with insects,” Stone says. She went out in the winter and collected insect nymphs from the brook near her house, then sketched them at college during January term.
Stone says she felt a connection with the faculty and biologists whom she had studied or worked with and felt a sense of support.
“I learned that biology was a nice intersection between arts and science,” Stone says, “and I had really strong interactions with women biologists at Skidmore. Both of these features reinforced my love of biology.”
After college, she took two years to explore biomedical research, working in a lab that was studying development of the brain. At that time, her life took another turn—toward neuroscience.
After finishing graduate school at Boston University, Stone settled at the University of Washington. Stone conducts research on the sensory hair cells of the inner ear, which she calls the most beautiful cells in the body—and continues to dabble in art, incorporating illustrations into her papers and teaching.
Today, Stone’s research is focused on regenerating hair cells in mammals during adulthood. Hair cells are required for hearing and balance because they are specialized to sense sound waves and head motions. Hair cells die as we age and when we are exposed to ototoxic drugs or high noise levels. Hearing and balance deficits arising from hair cell loss are widespread, particularly in elderly people. Both types of sensory deficit make it hard to socialize and can lead to isolation.
Hearing aids amplify sounds in the cochlea and are useful in some types of hearing loss. When hearing loss is severe or profound, cochlear implants can bypass the injured cochlea altogether and directly stimulate the nerve to allow people to hear. Investigators are also developing vestibular implants to provide relief for balance problems such as vertigo.
“But, none of these treatments is curing the problem—the loss of hair cells,” Stone says. “We are striving to find a way to do that.”
The Stone lab focuses on vestibular hair cells, which are required for balance. Although there is no natural regeneration in the auditory sensory organ (the cochlea), vestibular organs have a natural capacity to regenerate some hair cells. Although this process is limited, the Stone lab is studying it carefully, with the hope of applying what they learn to promote full hair cell regeneration in both the hearing and balance organs.
Though her path diverged from the typical model, Stone found ways to blend both of her interests, finding a place for biology and art in her career.
Jennifer Stone, Ph.D., a member of HHF’s Hearing Restoration Project, is a research professor in the University of Washington’s department of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery, where she is also the director of research. She is a 1995, 1996, and 2000 Emerging Research Grants alumnus. For more, see hhf.org/research.
This is adapted from a story by Ash Shah, the science editor of The Daily, the University of Washington’s student newspaper, at dailyuw.com.
