MPFI researcher awarded NIH grant to study mechanisms involved in early stages of hearing

Samuel Young, Jr., PhD at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) has been awarded a $2.4 million, five-year grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) to investigate how synaptic vesicle activity modulates the transfer of auditory information and ultimately how this impacts our ability to discern sounds.

Under this grant, Dr. Young's lab aims to reveal new cellular and molecular mechanisms that allow synapses to sustain synaptic transmission over a wide range of activity levels to allow for proper information processing in the early stages of auditory processing. As this process is necessary in all synapses to encode information over varying timescales, the data of Young's investigations will have a broad relevance to understanding how synaptic communication leads to information transfer in neural networks.

"Hearing is fundamental to our ability to communicate with one another. Uncovering the processes and the mechanisms that allow for proper hearing will have tremendous potential as therapies for hearing and communication disorders," explained Young. "In addition, our findings will have tremendous impact in understanding how synapses are regulated to meet the needs of the specific demands of the neuronal circuit they are embedded within."

Samuel M. Young, Jr., PhD joined the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) as a Max Planck Research Group Leader of Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Formation in 2010.

Source: Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience