Our laboratory works on inner ear development and regeneration, as well as on the biology of sensory hair cells, the mechanosensitive cells of the inner ear. We are located at Stanford University in the School of Medicine and affiliated with the Otolaryngology department. We are proudly affiliated with the Stanford Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss and we thank all supporters of this endeavor.
We are interested how the inner ear develops from an early anlage called the otic placode. Our goal is to describe the otic lineage from an early placodal progenitor until it splits up in multiple cell types making up the sensory epithelia, innervating ganglia, and accessory structures.
In parallel, we apply knowledge we gained from guiding embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells along the otic lineage to find ways for treatment of hearing loss. This involves identification of mechanisms of sensory hair cell regeneration in animals such as chickens that recover naturally from hearing loss, screening for potential regenerative targets that can be activated with drugs, and exploring reprograming as well as cell transplantation strategies.
We are actively looking to hire a postdoctoral fellow or research associate with substantial experience in computational biology as well as basic knowledge of computer graphics and association analyses. The new team member needs to be exceptionally creative and motivated to apply his/her computational training toward solving biologically relevant questions. If you are interested in joining our group, please send a single introductory paragraph and your CV to Stefan Heller at hellers@stanford.edu
Who are we?
March 2014
• Ronaghi, M., Nasr, M., Ealy, M., Durruthy-Durruthy, R., Waldhaus, J., Diaz, G.H., Joubert, L.M., Oshima, K. & Heller, S. Inner Ear Hair Cell-Like Cells from Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Stem cells and development (2014). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24512547
In this first publication of 2014, we show that it is generally possible to guide human embryonic stem cells toward the inner ear lineage and to generate otic progenitor cells that can differentiate into hair cell-like cells. We also uncovered many limitations of the technology that need to be addressed in future research. Overall, this paper is the product of many years of hard research; quite a difficult project, when compared to other fields such as generation of neurons or muscle cells. History of the paper and review process: We started with submitting the manuscript to PNAS and Stem Cells. Both journals did not review the manuscript, perhaps because we were very clear that the technology has certain limitations. Rewriting parts of the Abstract and Discussion as well as pointing out to the editor of Stem Cells & Development that this paper is the first one to describe the generation of human inner ear sensory hair cells from embryonic stem cells helped. Two reviewers were very positive and the manuscript was accepted after minor revisions.
For our laboratory, it is always a special moment when we publish a paper in a high-ranking journal. Today is one of…
Thank you, Dr. Minbo Shim, a visiting researcher and clinician from Sunny St. Mary’s Clinic in Seoul, South Korea for sponsoring a…
We hope that this format is easy to maneuver and that the website’s content is informative for prospective students and postdocs, and…
