Welcome to the laboratory of Jennifer Stone, Ph.D.  Our laboratory is located at the Virginial Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center in the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Washington. 

Our research examines the cellular and molecular mechanisms guiding embryonic and post-embryonic production of sensory hair cells in birds. 

Hair Cell Development

We are interested in how sensory regions are specified and patterned during development of the avian inner ear. To this end, we study the expression of different genes throughout the developing inner ear and use gene perturbation methods in ovo to test their function.

Hair Cell Regeneration

We are interested in how regeneration of new hair cells and supporting cells is regulated in mature birds. Of particular interest are the identification and the characterization of cells that serve as progenitors to new hair cells during regeneration and the interplay between extracellular and intracellular signaling molecules that direct progenitor cells to exit the cell cycle and cell progeny to differentiate as hair cells.

Methods

We use a variety of methodological approaches to address our neuroscience questions, including cell and organ culture, electroporation- and viral-mediated gene transfer, immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy, gene expression analyses, and cell transplantation.

For more information on hair cell regeneration research at the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center, visit the following sites:

Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center Hearing Regeneration Initiative
Rotary International site

    Jennifer S Stone
email: stoner@u.washington.edu
Phone:  206-616-4108
Fax: 206-221-5685