Research Ear, Hearing and Vestibular

WashU Medicine hearing researchers gear up for national meeting

photo of scientists at their poster
Otolaryngology resident Dan Romano, MD, and Professor of Otolaryngology Keiko Hirose, MD, at the 2024 ARO Midwinter Meeting. Romano will present the lab's current work at a Young Investigators Satellite Symposium on Inner Ear Immunity.

Hearing scientists in the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University School of Medicine are busy preparing their latest data for presentation at the upcoming MidWinter Meeting of the American Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO).

The association is the world’s largest organization of hearing and balance researchers, with members located in universities, medical centers, research institutes and biotech industries throughout the world.

The 48th Annual MidWinter Meeting is scheduled for February 22-26 in Orlando and will feature the latest science from all disciplines of hearing and balance research, such as development, structure and function; gene therapy and gene regulation; and aging and pathology.

A feature event of the annual meeting, this year’s Presidential Symposium will address, “Innovations, Challenges, and Personalization in Hearing Aids.” Additional satellite symposia and short courses will address topics such as:

  • Pharmaceutical Interventions for Hearing Loss
  • Meniere’s Disease
  • Use of Artificial Intelligence in Otolaryngology Research
  • Inner Ear Immunity (including a presentation by WashU resident Daniel Romano, MD)

The annual meeting will be a first for ENT resident Prith Roychowdhury, MD.

“I am very excited and fortunate to be able to present our preliminary findings at the ARO conference this year,” he said. “I am particularly interested in hearing from the other presenters in the auditory nerve session and attending symposiums on inner ear immunity and cochlear mechanics. ARO is a unique opportunity to learn from and interact with people from both basic and clinical science communities, and I can’t wait to attend!”

Presentations by WashU Medicine researchers will include the following:

Single-Nucleus RNA Sequencing Reveals Transcriptional Markers of Congenital CMV Infection in the Mouse Cochlea
Daniel R. Romano, Song-Zhe Li, Michael Hoa, Sidharth V. Puram, William Britt, Keiko Hirose

Live Imaging of Macrophage Response to Excitotoxic Injury in Zebrafish Lateral Line
Prithwijit Roychowdhury, Mark Warchol, Lavinia Sheets

Injury-Induced Remodeling of the Actin Cytoskeleton in the Vestibular Maculae of Mice
Mark Warchol

Cross-Species Meta-Analysis Identifies Shared and Unique Gene Expression Differentiating Hair Cells From Supporting Cells
Lisa Goodrich, Mahashweta Basu, Nesrine Benkafadar, Amanda Ciani Berlingeri, Ivan Cruz, Emilia Luca, Jeremy Sandler, Seth Ament, John Brigande, Alain Dabdoub, Albert Edge, Ksenia Gnedeva, Andrew Groves, Stefan Heller, Ronna Hertzano, Tatjana Piotrowski, David Raible, Yehoash Raphael, Jennifer Stone, Litao Tao, Mark Warchol

Single-Nucleus RNA-Sequencing Profiling of Mouse Cochlea in Response to Cisplatin
Amanda Bonczkowski, Franz Gareza, Erica Sadler, Katharine Fernandez, Rafal Olszewski, Mark Warchol, Michael Hoa, Cathy Yea Won Sung, Lisa Cunningham

Identification of Soluble Factors Affecting Blood-Labyrinth Barrier Permeability During Cisplatin Treatment via Single Nucleus RNA-Sequencing
Cathy Yea Won Sung, Franz Gareza, Amanda Bonczkowski, Erica Sadler, Katharine Fernandez, Rafal Olszewski, Michael Hoa, Mark Warchol, Lisa Cunningham

Auxiliary Subunit LRRC52 Regulates BK Channel Function and Localization in Outer Hair Cells
Samuel Webb, Piece Yen, Maolei Xiao, Choongheon Lee, Kevin K. Ohlemiller, Joseph C. Holt, Mark A. Rutherford, Stuart L. Johnson

Validating a Novel Online Tool for Non-Stationary Fluctuation Analysis of AMPA Receptor Properties
Mona Jawad, Mark Rutherford, Juan Goutman, James Huettner, Walen Gribaudo

Donut Mitochondria: A ‘Hot & Ready’ Mitochondrial Repair/Defense Mechanism?
Elayna Malak, Josef Trapani, Lavinia Sheets

 Assessment of Lateral Line Efferent Innervation and Rheotaxis Behavior in chrna9 Mutant Zebrafish
Keziah-Khue Nguyen, Sophie Cohen-Bodenes, Kylie Schache, Lavinia Sheets