Dr. Liu awarded RO1 grant to study hearing loss

The Liu Lab has been awarded an R01 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to investigate the molecular mechanisms of hearing and deafness. The five-year award, totaling $2,182,205 is titled, “Significance of Usher Protein Dynamics in Hair Cell Function and Deafness.”

Led by Rong Liu, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, the project aims to understand how sensory cells in the ear, called hair cells, detect sound at the molecular level.

“Despite years of research, our knowledge of the molecular machinery in hair cells responsible for sound transmission remains limited. This is primarily due to the inherent challenges of isolating hair cells from tissues and their inability to grow in culture, like other cell types," Liu states.

Combined with advanced single-molecule imaging techniques, this research will capture, for the first time, how the molecules involved in hearing move and work together. It will also illuminate how mutations in these molecules cause inherited hearing loss, such as Usher syndrome.

Usher Syndrome affects hearing and vision in infants through early childhood. While this is a rare genetic disease, children are born with the syndrome and can be diagnosed through adolescent years. There are treatments to manage symptoms but no cure for the disease.

“We will address this problem from a different perspective. Using a reconstitution approach, we will recreate key aspects of the hearing process with purified components to gain insights into its mechanisms,” Liu mentions.

Deciphering these mechanisms can help to provide further understanding of disease and potential translation to more effective treatments.

Neil Billington, Ph.D., service assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, and the director of Microscopy Imaging Facility at WVU, is a co-investigator in this study.

“Securing an NIH R01 grant is a remarkable achievement for Dr. Liu in her second year at WVU. It stands as testament to her unwavering enthusiasm for science and the significance of her research. The unique approach proposed by Dr. Liu and her team are crucial for advancing our fundamental understanding of hearing and developing treatments for deafness. Congratulations, Rong!”, states Visvanathan Ramamurthy, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine Department.