Guy Perkins
University of Arizona, AZ·Neuroscience
As people age, many slowly lose their hearing. Part of this loss may come from physical changes in the nerve cells that carry sound from the ear to the brain.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biology
Biophysics
- Topics
age-related hearing loss
presbycusis
serial block-face scanning electron microscopy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Image aging spiral ganglion neurons and their connections from inner-ear hair cells to the cochlear nucleus with serial block-face electron microscopy (SBEM), looking for loss of myelin and synapses.
- Measure nodes and internodes along auditory nerve fibers in aging animals, using immunofluorescence labeling of Nav or Kv3.1 channels and CASPR with confocal microscopy.
- Map age-related changes in synaptic vesicle density, mitochondria, dendrites and myelin in the cochlear nucleus and medial nucleus of the trapezoid body, using SBEM-based connectomic analysis.
- Share large 3D confocal and SBEM volumes through the Cell Image Library so researchers across sites can annotate structural features together.
More about the research
This center tests the idea that aging auditory neurons and their internal parts develop specific structural changes. These changes may lead to major rewiring of neural circuits along the hearing pathway.
Why it matters
Age-related hearing loss affects many older adults. By identifying which neurons and structures change or are lost with age, the work could help explain how this hearing loss arises. It could also point toward treatments targeting specific damaged structures.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ljiljana Pasa-Tolic
University of Arizona, AZ·Biochemistry
Refine a liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) proteomics platform for sensitive, high-throughput protein profiling of single spiral ganglion neurons, which relay sound from the inner ear.
Rachel Wong
University of Washington, WA·Neuroscience
Provide vision researchers with access to confocal microscopes and electron microscopes, including serial block-face scanning electron microscopes that build 3D images of tissue layer by layer.
George Spirou
University of South Florida, FL·Neuroscience
Determine which steps in principal neuron maturation depend on spontaneous activity by suppressing activity at the calyx of Held synapse and tracking maturation day by day.
The school
University of Arizona: 36 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 487 research doctorates a year.
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