Calvin Wu, Ph.D.

Meet the Researcher

Wu received his doctorate in biology from the University of North Texas and is now a research investigator at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute, University of Michigan, where he completed his postdoctoral work. Wu’s 2020 Emerging Research Grant was generously funded by the Les Paul Foundation, which was renewed for a second year in 2023.

Noise overexposure is a common risk factor of tinnitus and is thus used as a common tinnitus inducer in animal research. However, noise exposure does not always cause tinnitus, and researchers must rely on behavioral testing to infer an animal’s subjective pathology. However, behavioral tests only work under the assumption that tinnitus is unchanging during the long testing period, which fails to reflect not only the dynamic nature of tinnitus but also its variability.

Anyone who studies tinnitus in animal models can empathize with the struggle of having to endure the arduous procedure of inducing and inferring tinnitus with lots of waiting in between, sometimes for weeks and months, before one can begin testing any specific hypothesis on tinnitus. It can be frustrating and, if a mistake isn’t caught, misleading. I’ve shared enough pain with colleagues to think there must be a better way. This project is an attempt to find one, by bypassing behavioral testing and directly identifying and locating an objective code for tinnitus using real-time spiking neurons.

Nobody in my family knows a single scientist, and it still feels weird to call myself one. However, I always enjoyed solving problems, and I was drawn to lab work where there are problems everywhere you look, some technical and some scientific.

My late grandfather had age-related hearing loss. I was close with him when I was younger but after his hearing got progressively worse with age, it became more and more difficult to connect with him. My ex post facto realization of the significance of communication disorders stayed with me and really put my research into perspective.

I’m into duathlons (like triathlons for those who are afraid of water). When I was a grad student, running and cycling certainly helped me come up with research ideas. These days, I might listen to a sci-fi audiobook on long runs. If I weren’t a researcher, I would be working on a strategic online multiplayer game revolving around the narrative of alternative history.

My secret superpower is that I can do a Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion instinctively with a 5 percent margin of error without resorting to math.

Calvin Wu, Ph.D., received the Les Paul Foundation Award for Tinnitus Research. We thank the Les Paul Foundation for its support of innovative research to increase our understanding of the mechanisms, causes, diagnoses, and treatments of tinnitus.

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The Research

University of Michigan
Development and transmission of the tinnitus neural code

Noise overexposure is a common risk factor of tinnitus, and is thus used as a common tinnitus inducer in animal research. However, noise exposure does not always cause tinnitus, and researchers would rely on behavioral testing to infer an animal’s subjective pathology. However, behavioral tests only work under the assumption that tinnitus is unchanging during the long testing period, which does not reflect the dynamic nature of tinnitus as well as ignoring variability. This inability to measure tinnitus within a short time window impedes our understanding of its emergence and progression. The project addresses these limitations through bypassing behavioral testing and directly identifying and locating an objective code for tinnitus in real-time spiking neurons. Using a novel data-driven approach, we can pinpoint exactly when/where tinnitus emerges and examine how noise trauma triggers and transmits the tinnitus signal throughout the auditory pathway. 

Long-term goal: To understand how tinnitus is encoded by the auditory system. This will reveal novel therapeutic targets (e.g., specific circuits or optimal time for intervention) for treating tinnitus.