Ljiljana Pasa-Tolic
University of Arizona, AZ·Biochemistry
Hearing often fades with age. Part of the cause lies in the nerve cells that carry sound signals from the inner ear to the brain, and these cells change in different ways as they age.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Neuroscience
Chemistry
- Topics
age-related hearing loss
presbycusis
spiral ganglion neurons
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- 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.
- Apply the platform to young and aged spiral ganglion and cochlear nucleus neuron subtypes to map aging-related protein changes at single-cell resolution, covering more than 3,000 proteins per cell.
- Identify candidate protein biomarkers of age-related hearing loss for the center's research projects to test functionally.
More about the research
Proteins do most of the work inside cells, and protein levels often do not match the RNA readouts commonly used to profile single cells. Measuring proteins directly in individual auditory neurons could therefore show what really changes during age-related hearing loss (ARHL).
Why it matters
Age-related hearing loss affects many older adults, and its cellular causes are poorly defined. Identifying which proteins rise or fall in aging auditory neurons, cell by cell, could reveal biomarkers and mechanisms of hearing loss. Other projects in the center could then test these as potential targets.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Guy Perkins
University of Arizona, AZ·Neuroscience
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.
Lisa Goodrich
Harvard University, MA·Neuroscience
Define how the transcription factor Gata3 controls c-Maf and Mafb through effects on chromatin, using assays of chromatin structure and subtype-specific gene expression in spiral ganglion neurons.
Bo Hua Hu
University of Texas at Dallas, TX·Neuroscience
Determine how galectin-3, a sugar-binding immune protein, maintains hearing and cochlear structure, using mice in which the Lgals3 gene that encodes it has been disrupted.
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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