Studying how sensory cells responsible for "hearing" and cells that detect gravity, balance and linear acceleration in the vestibular system form is a compelling cellular and engineering problem. By studying how the ear forms, scientists can learn how to repair a deaf or dysfunctional inner ear. Humans and other mammals cannot restore lost hearing because sensory cells and neurons do not have the capability to regenerate, unlike birds, frogs and fish. Zebrafish inner ear formation is easier to study than mammals because development takes place outside the mother and is extremely rapid (hrs-days rather than weeks-months), can be followed and imaged in the living animal in real time. Its nervous system and the immune system share common evolutionary mechanisms and molecules important for both development and repair. These experiments use innovative bioengineering technology, including molecules injected and moved by current into specific cells of the zebrafish embryonic inner ear, and microfluidic zebrafish bioreactors that can support the growth and development of the living embryo.
Graduate and undergraduate students in biology and engineering will have a unique training opportunity both in the laboratory and in engineering design courses to devise (and possibly patent) new zebrafish bioreactor designs, to use advanced imaging techniques and molecular electroporation techniques in moving molecules into the zebrafish inner ear. New technologies and approaches will be disseminated to the bioengineering, developmental biology, neuroscience, immunology and zebrafish research communities. These studies provide an excellent opportunity for cross-disciplinary collaboration, teaching, mentoring and learning. Engineers will learn biology and biologists will learn engineering principles from the level of undergraduates to postdocs.
