I am focusing on hair cell development and regeneration research. Wnt/beta-catenin pathway is a well-known signal pathway controls stem cell development and differentiation. As is known that in the inner ear, beta- catenin controls the Lgr5 positive supporting cells proliferation and differentiation to hair cell fate, which I started at my beginning of the research ( PNAS, 110: 13851). Meanwhile, I found the beta- catenin is essentially needed in the later period of hair cell development. Lack of beta-catenin induces malformation of the organ of Corti. Overexpression of beta-catenin induces supporting cells proliferation but stay in precursor cell period, stopping later development ( J. of Neuroscience, 34: 6470). After that, I fortunately found that the necrotic hair cell death triggers wnt-dependent hair cell regeneration in neonatal mice ( J. Neuroscience, 36:09479). These findings suggest that the lack of regenerative ability within the inner ear may be because of lacking wnt pathway signal. Also I did some research in hereditary hearing loss, reported the TBC1D24 gene and GJB2 p.V37I variant in Gjb2 gene research findings (Hum Mut,35(7): 814 and Sci Rep, 6:33279).

Sensory Hearing Loss, Hair Cell Development And Regeneration, Ear Toxic Medicine, Spiral Ganglion Neurons And Synaptic Transmission, Neuroto-Surgery, Cochlear Implantation, Acoustic Neuroma, Skull Base Surgery.