Sheets Lab

Hair cells are the sensory receptors of sound, motion, and spatial orientation. Overexposure to sound initiates a series of molecular events in hair cells that lead to various pathologies. Our research interests are to understand how specific pathological changes occur in hair cells exposed to noise by defining the dynamic cellular processes that lead to hair-cell synapse loss and hair-cell death. We investigate these questions using zebrafish as a model for human hearing and deafness.