ALL EARS April 2013: #3
The UCL Ear Institute Newsletter
Contents
Getting involved
Getting involved
Jobs, courses & seminars
New starters
In the media
Featured paper
More recent publications
Research updates
PhD updates
Other news
Guess the ear competition
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Editors: Dr Debi Vickers
Mrs Kate Faxen
www.ucl.ac.uk/ear
facebook/earinstitute
#uclearinstitute
The Ear Institute Newsletter is a quarterly
update on our research and teaching
achievements to demonstrate our progress
and activities that are impacting on the
world of hearing and ENT.
The wide range of areas in which research
is conducted at the UCL Ear Institute is what
makes it a ground breaking establishment.
Within the same institute examples of work
being conducted are: stem cell applications for
hearing recovery, genetic predictors of hearing
impairment, understanding the function of the
cochlear and auditory nerves, hearing aid and
cochlear implant trials, and the development
of new speech perception tests. We pride
ourselves on our ability to collaborate across
topic area because we know that if we combine
our expertise that our impact will be greater than
the sum of our individual research activities.
If you would like to get involved in any of our
work please get in tough. Projects exist from
completing a one off questionnaire to regular
listening experiments, DNA sample donations to
hearing aid trials. For children we have listening
games and training programmes.
If you wish to take part in one of our studies,
please visit the participate section of our
website:
www.ucl.ac.uk/participate
Page 1
Jobs, courses and seminars
• Masterclass: Auditory Processing
Grays Inn Road Short Courses
(GIR) and Advanced Audiology
Masterclasses running in 2013/2014
• Masterclass: Vestibular
Disorders (13-15 May 2014 TBC)
Rehabilitation (9 - 11 April 2014)
• GIR: Presentation Skills for Medics
(10 June 2013)
• Masterclass: IMPACT! Changing
Perspectives for Management (17–19
Sept 2013)
• Joint GIR/Newcastle: Course for the
Intercollegiate FRCS Examination in
Otolaryngology (25 - 27 Sep 2013)
We’re currently moving all of our short
course/masterclass bookings online
which means that soon delegates can
book and pay for courses quickly and
simply!
• GIR: Nose Week: The Rhinoplasty
While this list is up-to-date at time of
publication, we will be adding to this list
in the near future so please do check
our website for current information.
• GIR: Nose Week: An Endoscopic
You can go to specific course pages by
clicking their title or go to:
& Facial Plastics Course (7 - 8 Oct
2013)
Approach to Rhinosinusitis (9-12 Oct
2013)
• Masterclass: Advances in Cochlear
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ear/courses/
shortcourses
ALL EARS Apr 2013: #3
Implants (15-17 Oct 2013)
• GIR: A Practical Approach to Airway
Management (22nd Nov 2013)
• GIR: Advances in the Medical and
Surgical Management of Snoring &
OSA (27 Nov 2013)
• GIR: Foundations of Otologic
Surgery (2-3 Dec 2013)
• Masterclass: Rehabilitation for
Adults with Acquired Hearing Loss
(4 - 6 Dec 2013)
• GIR: Practical Revision Course for
the DO-HNS (14-16 Jan 2014)
• Masterclass: Tinnitus & Hyperacusis
(21-23 Jan 2014)
Recent feedback from Masterclass in
Vestibular Rehabilitation
“Thank you for a wonderful course.
In about 20 years of attending
courses your Masterclass was
among the very few that was really
helpful.”
Valeriu Buza MD PhD
ENT SAS Doctor East Surrey Hospital
Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare
Trust.
• Masterclass: Advanced Amplification
and Aural Rehabilitation (4-7 Mar
2014)
Page 2
New Starters
Aneeka Degun
020 7679 6559
aneeka.degun.10@
ucl.ac.uk
Aneeka Degun is an
Audiologist who has
joined UCL in April
2013 to work with staff members at the
Ear Institute and The Royal National
Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital to gather
and prioritise requirements for a new
project called OpenENT.
ALL EARS Apr 2013: #3
The initial aim of the project is to
explore and develop a framework for an
electronic patient database for patients
with hearing impairment and other
associated symptoms.
The OpenENT database will provide the
opportunity for clinicians and researchers
to access patient characteristics for
audit and research.
At this exploratory stage of the project
Aneeka will be collaborating with
members of the UCL Ear Institute and
RNTNEH to share requirements, ideas
and expertise.
Nick Haywood
n.haywood@
ucl.ac.uk
Nick Haywood
joined
the
Ear
Institute
in December
2012 to work as a postdoc on a project
with David McAlpine, Torsten Marquardt
and Debi Vickers.
The Advancing Binaural Cochlear
Implant Technology (ABCIT) project is
funded by the EU, and is in collaboration
with partners at the University of
Oldenburg, HörTech, and Neurelec.
The overall goals of the project are to
investigate new ways of improving the
binaural information provided to bilateral
implant users, with the aim of integrating
these findings into future cochlear
implant designs. Nick’s work at the
Ear Institute will primarily examine; 1)
objective (EEG) measures of binaural
processing in bilateral cochlear implant
listeners, and 2) psychophysical
evaluation of novel pre-processing and
stimulation strategies.
Jaime
Undurraga
j.undurraga@
ucl.ac.uk
Jaime has also
joined the Ear
Institute as a
post doc on the ABCIT project. During
his previous research project (at the
University of Leuven) he investigated
the effects of alternative pulse shapes
and stimulation modes in cochlear
implant users by means of both auditory
evoked potentials and behavioral
measures together with Prof. Dr. Astrid
van Wieringen, Prof. Dr. Jan Wouters,
and Dr. Robert P. Carlyon.
Currently, Jaime’s research at the Ear
Institute will examine the use of auditory
evoked responses and behavioral
measurements in bilateral cochlear
implant users in order to find methods to
assess binaural processing.
Page 3
In The Media
Prof David McAlpine writes a piece
for the Mail Online
David discusses the potential link
between people struggling to follow
conversations around them due to
hearing loss and the onset of dementia.
You can read the full article at Mail
Online:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/
article-2291753/Hearing-loss-Howhearing-aid-stop-getting-dementia.html
Featured Paper
ALL EARS Apr 2013: #3
Vibration-detection
human olfaction
component
in
“Losing your hearing is a bit
like going to a foreign country
where you speak only a bit of the
language.
You struggle to understand the
conversations around you, and
just trying to get by leaves you
exhausted.
This is exactly what happens to
people who suffer hearing loss...”
Simply put, the IET hypothesis (first
proposed by[2] Luca Turin in 1996 whilst
at UCL) posits a quantum mechanism
within the olfactory receptor which allows
it to detect the bonds within an odorant
molecule, rather than the standard model
of induced conformational change. If
these findings of the experiments are
due to a receptor-level event then there
must be a vibration detection mechanism
in human olfaction.
References
Working in conjunction with scientists
and perfume chemists from Athens and
with the support of the Ear Institute, we
show in this paper a very strange thing:
contrary to most theories of receptor
activation, changing the mass of atoms
within a molecule without changing its
shape changes the way it smells. This
is the first time that this effect has been
shown in humans[1] it has been shown
in Drosophila and is another piece of
evidence for a very controversial theory
of smell known as the inelastic electron
tunnelling (IET) hypothesis.
1. Franco et al 2010: http://www.pnas.
org/content/108/9/3797.full
2. Turin 1996: http://chemse.
oxfordjournals.org/content/21/6/773.
short
Gane S, Georganakis D, Maniati K,
Vamvakias M, Ragoussis N, et al.,
2013. Molecular Vibration-Sensing
Component in Human Olfaction.
PLoS ONE 8(1): e55780. doi:10.1371/
journal.pone.0055780
http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.
pone.0055780
Page 4
More Recent Publications
Forge,A., Jagger, D.J., Kelly, J.J., & Taylor,
R.R. 2013. Connexin30 mediated
intercellular communication plays an
essential role in epithelial repair in the
cochlea. J Cell Sci 10.1242/jcs.125476.
http://jcs.biologists.org/content/
early/2013/02/19/jcs.125476
Jagger DJ, Forge A. 2013. The
enigmatic root cell - Emerging roles
contributing to fluid homeostasis
within the cochlear outer sulcus.
Hearing Research Annual Reviews.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
pii/S0378595512002523
ALL EARS Apr 2013: #3
Lovett, R., Summerfield, Q., & Vickers,
D., 2013. Test-retest reliability of
the Toy Discrimination Test with
a masker of noise or babble in
children with hearing impairment.
International Journal of Audiology.
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.
3109/14992027.2013.769064
Mellado Lagarde M.M., Cox, B.C., Fang,
J., Taylor, R., Forge, A., and Zuo, J.
(2013) Selective ablation of pillar and
deiters’ cells severely affects cochlear
postnatal development and hearing
in mice. J Neurosci , 33 (4) 1564 - 1576.
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3088-12.2013.
Nolan L.S., Maier H., HermansBorgmeyer I., Girotto G., Ecob R., Pirastu
N., Cadge B.A., Hübner C., Gasparini
P., Strachan D.P., Davis A., Dawson
S.J., 2013b – In Press. Estrogenrelated receptor gamma and hearing
function: evidence of a role in humans
and mice. Neurobiology of Aging.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
neurobiolaging.2013.02.009
Vickers, D. A., Backus, B. C.,
Macdonald, N. K., Rostamzadeh,
N. K., Mason, N. K., Pandya, R.,
Mahon, M. H. 2013. Using personal
response systems to assess speech
perception within the classroom: an
approach to determine the efficacy of
sound-field amplification in primary
school classrooms. Ear and Hearing.
http://bit.ly/15GRdYD
Epp B, Hots J, Verhey JL, Schaette
R.
2012.
Increased
intensity
discrimination thresholds in tinnitus
subjects with a normal audiogram.
J Acoust Soc Am.132(3):EL196-201
http://asadl.org/jasa/resource/1/jasman/
v132/i3/pEL196_s1
http://www.jneurosci.org/
content/33/4/1564
Kelly JJ, Forge A, Jagger DJ. 2012.
Contractility in type III cochlear
fibrocytes is dependent on nonmuscle myosin II and intercellular gap
junctional coupling. ARO 13:473-84
Nolan L.S., Cadge B.A., GomezDorado M., Dawson S.J., 2013a – In
Press. A functional and genetic
analysis of SOD2 promoter variants
and their contribution to agerelated hearing loss. Mechanisms
of
Aging
and
Development.
Schaette R, Turtle C, Munro KJ.
2012.
Reversible
induction
of
phantom
auditory
sensations
through
simulated
unilateral
hearing loss. PLoS One. 7(6):e35238.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
mad.2013.02.009
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%
2Fs10162-012-0322-7
h t t p : / / w w w. p l o s o n e . o r g / a r t i c l e /
info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.
pone.0035238
Page 5
Research updates
Gap Junction Communication in the
Drosophila Ear
Nerissa Kirkwood
ALL EARS Apr 2013: #3
n.kirkwood@ucl.ac.uk
In our laboratory we use Drosophila to
study various aspects of hearing. The
fly’s hearing organ, Johnston’s organ,
is located in the second segment of
the antennae (A2) and acts as a nearfield sound detector. It contains various
types of support cells next to the
mechanosensory chordotonal neurones
that transduce deflections of the sound
receiver (third antennal segment, A3 and
feathery arista) into electrical signals.
Studies of Johnston’s organ have
revealed a large number of structural
and functional similarities between the
Drosophila and mammalian ear making
the Drosophila ear a useful model to
study hearing. This is aided by the fact
that there are powerful genetic tools at
our disposal to manipulate and study
genes of our choosing.
One of the subjects we study is the role
of gap junction communication in the
ear. Intercellular communication via gap
junction channels (GJCs) is essential
for the maintenance of normal auditory
function in humans with mutations in
the GJC protein connexin 26 identified
as the predominant cause of inherited,
sensorineural deafness. GJCs exist
between different types of supporting
cells within the mammalian cochlea.
Across species, GJCs are the products
of two multigene families. Connexins
are unique to chordates while innexins/
pannexins encode gap-junction proteins
in both chordates and non-chordates
with eight innexins in Drosophila.
We use Drosophila to investigate the
importance of innexins within the ear
for both the development of Johnston’s
organ and acute adult auditory function.
Using genetic approaches we selectively
knocked-down expression of the GJC
proteins and assessed the integrity of the
fly ears by examining both mechanical
and electrical responses. Our studies
have revealed that expression of innexin
2 is essential for ear development.
Innexin 2 also contributes to the
maintenance of the sound evoked action
potentials in the adult Drosophila ear. The
expression pattern of innexin 2 suggests
restriction to the basal attachment
support cells, as opposed to the sensory
neurones, indicating a support cell gap
junction network important in sound
evoked action potential maintenance.
These results provide a further parallel
between fly and mammalian ears,
where GJC is between the supporting
cells within the cochlea as opposed to
the sensory hair cells. This opens the
door for further study of this crucial
communication network.
Image
from: J.
Scott & R.
Bhatnagar
(2006)
Page 6
Dr Lisa S. Nolan (Dr Sally Dawson)
Minicom: 020 7679 8950
l.nolan@ucl.ac.uk
ALL EARS Apr 2013: #3
Estrogen related receptor gamma
(ESRRG) and genetic susceptibility
to age-related hearing loss
Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is
a complex disease and a significant
economic burden. There are clear gender
differences in susceptibility to ARHL,
it is more common, more severe, and
with earlier onset, in men than women.
Historically this gender difference has
been attributed to greater occupational
noise exposure in men than women,
but it is now clear this sex difference
exists in cohorts with low history of noise
exposure. In an attempt to answer the
fundamental question: “why are women
less susceptible to ARHL than men?” we
have focussed some of our investigations
on genes associated with estrogen; the
female sex hormone. We have been
following up a genome-wide association
study into adult hearing status by linking
hearing data in the 1958 British Birth
Cohort with existing genetic data on the
same individuals as part of an on-going
collaboration with Prof. David Strachan
(St Georges Hospital) and Prof. Adrian
Davis (UCL EI). Our study, as with
others, did not reach genome wide
significance, but analysis of these data
using a London ARHL cohort recruited
from the adult hearing aid clinics at
the RNTNEH coupled with functional
analysis has provided evidence that
the estrogen-related receptor gamma
(ESRRG) gene is associated with
susceptibility to ARHL in women. An
additional key discovery from this
study was the finding mice lacking the
ESRRG gene exhibit a hearing loss that
is already significantly worse in females
compared to males at 12 weeks of age;
this work was performed in collaboration
with Prof. Hannes Maier from Hannover
University. In summary, our data adds
to a growing repertoire of data indicating
a critical role for estrogen, estrogen
receptors (ERs) and estrogen related
receptors (ERRs) in maintaining and
protecting the inner ear and hearing
function.
This work was funded by the Haigh
Fellowship in age related deafness,
Deafness Research UK; Research into
Ageing and the Teresa Rosenbaum
Golden Charitable Trust.
PhD Updates
PhD congratulations to:
• Nicole Stanley (DRUK, Forge &
Taylor)
• Shaza Saleh (Vickers & Saeed)
Also to Greg Ball (AoHL studentship –
Gale) who has submitted his thesis and
is waiting for his viva.
And to the following students after their
successful PhD upgrades:
•
Peggy Lange
•
Katherine Wood
•
Anahita Mehta
New Students welcomed in February to
April; Larissa Cuenoud, Fitim Fetahu,
Natalie Bohm.
Page 7
Other News
Guess the ear
Greg Ball is a Runner Up in UCL
Graduate School Research Poster
Competition 2012/13
Congratulations to the winner of last
issue’s prize of a box of chocolates,
Denise Goldman from the UCL Ear
Institute who correctly guessed that it
was Dr Nico Daudet’s ear pictured! It’s
on it’s way!
Congratulations to Greg Ball, who is
only a couple of months from his PhD
Viva, for winning a runners up prize in
the the UCL Graduate School Research
Poster Competition.
http://www.grad.ucl.ac.uk/comp/20122013/poster/
ALL EARS Apr 2013: #3
Prof Martin Birchal receives Sparks
Star status!
Below is a picture of another of the Ear
Institute’s Principal Investigators’ ears...
but whose?
If you think you know then why not email
kate.faxen@ucl.ac.uk before 1st July
2013 to be entered into a prize draw.
The winner will be announced in the
next newsletter.
Sparks, the Children’s medical research
charity, have launched a new scheme to
recognise inspirational people - brave
children living with medical conditions
and those who make life easier for the
children and families they are working to
help!
They have awarded Prof Martin Birchall
the Sparks Star status for making a
positive difference to the children and
families they exist to help!
Find out more at:
http://www.sparks.org.uk
Donate
Donations can be made to the Ear
Institute from our website or via the
following link:
Submissions
If you would like to submit something for
the next newsletter please email:
• kate.faxen@ucl.ac.uk and
• d.vickers@ucl.ac.uk
by 1st July 2013 please.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/online-giving/
giving-to?PROJECT_CODE=18
Or make donations specifically for
microtia research at the Ear Institute via
this link:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/online-giving/
giving-to?PROJECT_CODE=23
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