Over the past five years, the House Ear Institute (HEl) has lost key investigators in the areas of auditory and communication neuroscience, as well as cell and molecular biology. If not remedied through new recruitment of investigators, it is in danger of falling below the critical mass necessary to sustain a vital research environment. To enable successful recruitment of new investigators, HEl recently reorganized the research programs into two cores (divisions): Cell Biology and Genetics (CB&G) and Communication and Auditory Neuroscience (CAN). In both areas we have opened searches, conducted interviews, and for CAN, selected a preferred candidate. Financial difficulties have restricted our ability to offer the selected person a position and so we are requesting funding through the ARRA P30 mechanism to support recruitment of a new scientist for each core. HEl provides an ideal environment for the study of hearing disorders, and is striving to fill a need for strengthened research in the CAN core by the recruitment of a neurophysiologist, and for the CB&G core in the area of either gene regulation (hair cell regeneration) or human genetics. A considerable level of institutional support (65%) is proposed that will guarantee the continued success of the new recruits for a minimum of 5 years beyond the proposed funding, i.e., for a total of 7 years.

Public Health Relevance

Hearing impairment is the single greatest loss of sensory function in the U.S. The research of the House Ear Institute focuses on how hearing loss arises and how it can be treated. It is the purpose of this proposal to provide support for the recruitment of new investigators who can contribute to our ability to overcome hearing impairment, whether arising through genetic predisposition, trauma, noise, congenital disabilities or neural tumors.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Center Core Grants (P30)
Project #
1P30DC010743-01
Application #
7856230
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDC1-SRB-L (43))
Program Officer
Davis, Barry
Project Start
2009-09-17
Project End
2011-08-31
Budget Start
2009-09-17
Budget End
2010-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$873,084
Indirect Cost
Name
House Research Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
062076989
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90057
Kalluri, Radha; Monges-Hernandez, Maya (2017) Spatial Gradients in the Size of Inner Hair Cell Ribbons Emerge Before the Onset of Hearing in Rats. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 18:399-413
Abdala, Carolina; Kalluri, Radha (2015) Exploiting Dual Otoacoustic Emission Sources. AIP Conf Proc 1703:
Kalluri, Radha; Abdala, Carolina (2015) Stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions in human newborns. J Acoust Soc Am 137:EL78-84
Kalluri, Radha; Shera, Christopher A (2013) Measuring stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions using swept tones. J Acoust Soc Am 134:356-68