Robert Raphael, Ph.D.

Meet the Researcher

Raphael received his doctorate in biophysics from the University of Rochester. He did postdoctoral training in the department of biomedical engineering and the Center for Hearing and Balance at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently an associate professor in the department of bioengineering at Rice University where he directs the Membrane and Auditory Bioengineering Laboratory. The lab studies the biophysics of auditory and vestibular hair cells and develops models of ion transport and synaptic transmission in the inner ear. Raphael is a 2022 Emerging Research Grants recipient, renewed for a second year in 2024.

I came to vestibular research and our HHF project through a roundabout route. I was originally trained in biophysics and hearing science and knew very little about the vestibular system until I started collaborating closely with [former HHF board member] Ruth Anne Eatock, Ph.D., and Anna Lysakowski, Ph.D., a few years ago. This collaboration gave me a deeper appreciation of the vestibular system, and I was surprised at how little was known and how small the field was. Several ENTs I talked to, including Alex Sweeney, M.D., at Baylor College of Medicine, expressed how frustrated they were with being able to help Ménière’s disease patients. I had some leftover National Science Foundation grant funding and decided to purchase an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. Many researchers were using OCT to study the cochlea but not the vestibular system. We had previously developed computational models of ion transport by vestibular dark cells and I realized we could expand these models and complement them with experiments. 

An assistant professor in our department, George Lu, Ph.D., had developed a new technology for enhancing OCT contrast using gas vesicles, which are protein nanostructures. There was a natural synergy with George’s work and we ended up writing the grant proposal during the Texas ice storm of February 2021. So it was a combination of serendipity and planning. 

My mother is a scientist and really encouraged all of us six kids to study science. She still reminds me that she knows more about biochemistry than I do. I also had really influential teachers in high school and college. Looking back, I was very idealistic in college—did a dual major in physics and philosophy and wanted to understand how the universe worked and do research on Grand Unified Theory. Now I will settle for a Grand Unified Theory of how the inner ear works. 

I have a personal connection to hearing loss. We have a genetic form of dominant progressive hearing loss in our family and I lost my hearing gradually throughout my life. I needed my first set of hearing aids at the end of high school and received a cochlear implant in 2012. In retrospect, I waited too long to get the cochlear implant. I’m the oldest and four of my siblings now have cochlear implants too. 

My hearing loss really didn’t affect my career path initially as I studied physics as an undergraduate and then earned a doctorate in biophysics, studying the mechanical, electrical, and thermodynamic properties of membranes. I then got the opportunity to be a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University in the department of biomedical engineering and the Center for Hearing and Balance. I took a course in structure of the auditory system. Howard Francis, M.D., who was a resident at the time and now chair of the otolaryngology department at Duke University, taught a lecture on mechanisms of hearing loss—and it was only then I realized that the hair cells I was studying could be related to my hearing loss. I like to tell people although my hearing loss wasn’t my original motivation, it certainly provides a kick in the pants! 

After receiving my cochlear implant I got more interested in how they work. This led to an interest in understanding neuronal firing which merged nicely with our project with Dr. Eatock where we are trying to understand how synaptic processing in the vestibular system works, specifically how vestibular hair cells transmit to afferent neurons. 

I got into long-distance cycling 10 years ago, and I have ridden the MS-150 from Houston to Austin with the Baylor College of Medicine team several times—this is a fundraiser for multiple sclerosis research. I have also done a two-day, 180-mile Bike Around the Galveston Bay with our graduate students. I like to keep up with people much younger than myself. I often think about science when cycling. Einstein has a quote, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” 

I also enjoy listening to music. At Rice we are lucky to have the Shepherd School, one of the best music schools in the country. There are free recitals almost every day and free orchestra concerts. When I was an undergrad I read a book by the physicist Victor Weisskopf, Ph.D., who said, “When they are depressed by the world, I tell my students there are two things that make life worth living: Mozart and quantum mechanics.” Unfortunately people with hearing loss and cochlear implants can lose music appreciation. I actually have a side-grant with a music professor to work on improving music processing for cochlear implants users.

In five or 10 years, I see myself doing what I’ve been doing—continuing to understand how the auditory and vestibular systems work by combining modeling and experimentation, and training the next generation of researchers. There are so many fascinating unanswered questions. And with the emergence of new technologies there are new opportunities to help people like myself who suffer from auditory and vestibular disorders, and I’ve always believed we need to understand more about how things work at a fundamental level first.

Robert Raphael, Ph.D., is funded by donors to Hearing Health Foundation who designated their gifts for the most promising research. HHF sincerely thanks our community for supporting the full range of hearing and balance science. Raphael is also a 2007 ERG alumnus.

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The Research

Rice University
Understanding the biophysics and protein biomarkers of Ménière’s disease via optical coherence tomography imaging

Our sense of hearing and balance depends on maintaining proper fluid balance in a specialized fluid in the inner ear called the endolymph. Ménière’s disease is an inner ear disorder associated with increased fluid pressure in the endolymph that involves dizziness, hearing loss, and tinnitus. Ménière’s disease is difficult to diagnose and treat clinically, which is a source of frustration for both physicians and patients. Part of the barrier to diagnosing and treating Ménière’s disease is the lack of imaging tools to study the inner ear and a poor understanding of the underlying causes. The goal of this research is to develop an approach to noninvasively image the inner ear and study the internal structures in the vestibular system in typical and disease states. We will utilize optical coherence tomography (OCT), a technique capable of imaging through bone, and observe changes in the fluid compartments in the inner ear. The expected outcome of this research will be the establishment of a powerful non-invasive imaging platform of the inner ear that will enable us to test hypotheses, in living animals, on how ion transport regulates the endolymph, how disorders of ion transport cause disruption of endolymphatic fluid, and how the expression of different biomarkers leads to disorders of ion transport. 

Long-term goal: To establish a new noninvasive method to image the inner ear that can lead to a full biophysical understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying Ménière’s disease and related inner ear disorders that cause hearing loss, and to inspire new clinical interventions for diagnoses and treatments of inner ear diseases.