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Watts in my ear? Unravelling the power source of mammalian hearing.

Ziel

We are creatures of sensation, with hundreds of millions of photoreceptors, millions more for touch, smell, and taste. Yet, in each ear, only 16000 hair cells allow us to hear from a whisper to a thunderclap, operating at frequencies that make vision seem slow. How do hair cells achieve this? They must be doing something different—and different by orders of magnitude.

Since the ‘50s, scientists realized that ears amplify sounds through an active process. Its most striking evidence is that ears emit sounds—called spontaneous otoacoustic emissions—which doctors use clinically in newborns. When the active process fails, hearing loss begins—reshaping the lives of billions and making them up to 500% more likely to develop dementia. Yet, the mechanism behind the active process, as well as the cause of spontaneous emissions, remains unknown.

This gap in knowledge persists due to long-standing experimental limitations: it has been impossible to preserve the active process in vitro and the available methods to study the hair cells are too slow for the frequencies of mammalian hearing. This proposal aims to overcome these barriers by leveraging two tools I developed: a photonic-pressure technique to deliver forces at previously unreachable frequencies, and a new custom bio-chamber, that preserves the elusive mammalian active process in vitro.

These will allow me to probe individual mammalian hair cells in vitro and pinpoint the precise mechanisms that underpin the active process. In parallel, I will locate the origin of spontaneous emissions to understand how single-cell mechanisms work together to orchestrate the active process in the entire ear. I anticipate immediate implications in auditory research and treatment, as I will:
1 – pinpoint the cellular mechanism that underpins hearing and its loss,
2 – reveal the origin of spontaneous emissions, enhancing their clinical relevance,
3 – develop a game-changing tool for studying the ear’s physiology in health and disease.

Wissenschaftliches Gebiet (EuroSciVoc)

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung

(öffnet in neuem Fenster) ERC-2025-STG

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Gastgebende Einrichtung

UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID
Netto-EU-Beitrag
€ 1 472 931,00
Adresse
CALLE EINSTEIN 3 CIUDAD UNIV CANTOBLANCO RECTORADO
28049 Madrid
Spanien
Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Aktivitätstyp
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Gesamtkosten
€ 1 472 931,00

Begünstigte (2)