Meet the Researcher David Martinelli, Ph.D. Hyperacusis Research Ltd

E M E R G I N G RESEARCH GRANTS

Meet the Researcher

Emerging Research Grants (ERG) As one of the only funding sources available for innovative research, HHF’s ERG program is critical. Without our support, scientists would not have the needed resources for cutting-edge approaches toward understanding, preventing, and treating hearing and balance disorders.

David Martinelli, Ph.D. University of Connecticut Health Center

Martinelli received his doctorate in developmental biology from Johns Hopkins University and the Carnegie Institution for Science. He completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University and is now an assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Connecticut Health Center. His 2019 Emerging Research Grant was generously funded by Hyperacusis Research Ltd.

In His Words

as a postdoc i studied a gene called C1q-like 3 in the brain. I showed it was important in allowing neurons to communicate with one another in the brain. In 2014, a paper suggested that the gene C1q-like 1, in the same family, was important in the cochlea’s sensory hair cells. At the time, I didn’t even know what hair cells were, so I sat on this publication for years. Then it was serendipitous that the neuroscience department where I am an assistant professor has long studied the auditory system. We could combine my expertise and tools to study C1q-like genes with experts on the auditory system.

as we looked more closely at this gene, we realized that it may have a function in the detection of auditory pain. Hyperacusis is a condition in which a person experiences pain at a much lower volume level than listeners with typical hearing. Using a novel animal model in which this gene that is part of the pain circuit is missing, we hypothesize it will lessen the perception of auditory pain when high intensity sounds are presented.

for a science project when I was 14, I built a 6-foot-by-10-foot maze and ran my pet hamsters through to get a food reward at the end. The little critters did indeed improve their maze running time. My mother says after all these years that I am still playing with rodents, which is quite true.

in a high school genetics glass, I remember separating fruit flies whose genes made their eyes different colors. I loved it and majored in molecular genetics in college. In graduate school I joined the lab of Chen-Ming Fan, Ph.D. We studied a gene called sonic hedgehog (known as SHH, and not to be confused with Sonic the Hedgehog). Like a second father to me, Dr. Fan showed me how to mentor (we are still close), and I now consider teaching the students in my lab to be a sacred responsibility.

David Martinelli, Ph.D., is funded by Hyperacusis Research Ltd. We thank Hyperacusis Research for its support of studies that will increase our understanding of the mechanisms, causes, diagnosis, and treatments of hyperacusis and severe forms of loudness intolerance.

We need your help funding the exciting work of hearing and balance scientists. Please consider donating today to Hearing Health Foundation to support groundbreaking research. Visit hhf.org/how-to-help.

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