research
Meet the HRP Working Groups Reorganizing its research into three groups further energizes the nimble, collaborative approach pioneered by the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP). By Lisa Goodrich, Ph.D. The Hearing Restoration Project consortium model has, since its start, centered on team science, collaboration, and the faster exchange of data. To further energize this approach and facilitate even closer interaction, including among HRP researchers’ postdoctoral researchers and other lab members, the HRP decided at its March 2021 annual meeting to reorganize its research into three working groups. These groups are organized in line with the consortium’s three main goals. The Cross-Species Epigenetics working group compares gene expression and epigenetics across species to identify and describe the molecular mechanisms that prevent hair cell regeneration. The Integrative Analysis working group performs a meta-analysis of data collected from different species over the years and will curate the data available to access via the gEAR, the data sharing and data visualization tool developed with HRP
funding. The third working group, Reprogramming and Gene Delivery, is charged with finding ways to stimulate hair cell regeneration by targeting supporting cells. Starting this year, funding is being distributed to members of each group, all of whom contributed to the submission of one joint proposal for each working group and all of whom will be contributing in specific ways to achieving their respective working group’s aims and milestones. The work previously organized in individual projects will continue, including the multiyear Seattle Plan projects readers are familiar with, but the working group model fosters the addition of even more timely and synergistic collaboration. Each consortium member belongs to at least one working group, and a total of $1.2 million is being distributed to HRP members for the new project year (October 1, 2021, through September 30, 2022).
Cross-Species Epigenetics This group will complete the collection of transcriptomic and epigenetic data from systems that regenerate (neonatal mouse, zebrafish, chick) and those that do not (mature mouse and human). In addition, they will begin to perform cross-species comparisons of the behavior of a shared set of hair cell loci across species, starting with fish and mouse and adding chick data. The group will also add data from humans using a pipeline that is now in place.
34
hearing health
hhf.org
Neil Segil, Ph.D. (chair), University of Southern California
Alain Dabdoub, Ph.D., Sunnybrook Research Institute
Stefan Heller, Ph.D., Stanford University
Tatjana Piotrowski, Ph.D., Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Andy Groves, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine
