Douglas A. Cotanche, Ph.D.
Director of Research, Department of Otolaryngology, Children's Hospital Boston
Associate Professor of Otology and Laryngology, Harvard Medical School

Department of Otolaryngology
Children's Hospital
300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Phone: (617) 247-5132
Fax: (617) 247-5288
Email: cotanche@hub.tch.harvard.edu

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Research Summary

The major focus of research in my laboratory over the last several years has been hair cell regeneration. I discovered in 1986 that the chicken cochlea is capable of producing new hair cells to replace those that were lost from noise exposure. This was quite a surprising finding because research at the time indicated that lost hair cells were irreplaceable and led to permanent hearing deficits. Since my initial findings, hair cell regeneration has become the focus of a number of major laboratories and has rapidly developed into an extremely exciting and competitive research area. It is believed that an understanding of avian hair cell regeneration will lead directly to clinical applications that can treat genetic, trauma-induced, or age-related hearing loss in humans.

The current research projects in my laboratory are designed to address the mechanisms which regulate hair cell regeneration, i.e., the control of hair cell death, the subsequent proliferation of the supporting cells and the eventual differentiation of new hair cells. Normally, the sensory epithelium is composed of a postmitotic population of hair cells and supporting cells. Sound damage and aminoglycoside treatment are utilized experimentally to induce the loss of hair cells through apoptosis, or programmed cell death. The loss of hair cells from the sensory epithelium acts as a signal to re-initiate the cell cycle in the quiescent supporting cells. Our goal is to identify the genes and proteins that regulate supporting cell proliferation and lead to the production of new hair cells.

I am also collaborating with Dr. Claude Lechene of Brigham and Women’s Hospital to use the MIMS (Multiple Imaging Mass Spectrometer) at BWH to study protein turnover in the cochlea. The MIMS is a new type of spectrophotometer that can measure molecular masses in sections of biological tissue. We are currently studying the turnover of proteins in normal and regenerating chick cochleas.

Recently, I have begun a collaboration with Dr. Matthew W. Kelley at the NIDCD Research Labs in Bethesda. The goal of this project is to develop cochlear stem cells that can be implanted into the inner ear of deaf mice. Once implanted, these cell preparations would be induced to differentiate into functional hearing structures that would connect with existing auditory nerves to re-establish hearing in the deafened animal.

I have also been involved in creating the Harvard Medical School Center for Hereditary Deafness. This multi-Institute Center brings together a number of scientists from a wide spectrum of disciplines who are interested in studying the biology and genetics of hereditary deafness. It was instigated by the recent discovery that mutations in the Connexin26 gene were responsible for a large percentage of patients with nonsyndromic hereditary deafness.
My teaching responsibilities include HST 010 Functional Human Anatomy where I give lectures and teach in the lab, HST 730 The Molecular Biology of the Auditory System where I lecture on hair cell regeneration, and various lectures in other graduate or advanced medical courses at Harvard Medical School.

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