Snezana Levic, Ph.D.

The Research

University of California Davis

Mechanism of hair cell development and regeneration

Hair cells (HCs) convert sound signals into electrical impulses in the cochlea with remarkable precision and sensitivity. Our long-term goals are to stimulate HC regeneration in human inner ears in a controlled fashion, and to enable the functional innervation of the regenerated HC's by spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs). To do this, the functional mechanisms of the development of HCs must be understood. In the developing systems, there is temporal overlap between ion channel development, spontaneous activity and activity-dependent development. Therefore, APs could serve both intrinsic (ion channel expression) and extrinsic (neuronal refinement) development roles. We have identified differential patterning of APs in the developing cochlear axis that reflects differences in expression of ionic conductances. We will test the prediction that the activity of HCs influenced that of its neighbors, including the preservation of the synaptic transmission between auditory nerve and HCs. The proposed study will increase our understanding of the activity dependent development in the auditory system.