Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing

Project Summary/Abstract In response to an emerging need for scientists who can bring innovative skills and perspectives to problems in the hearing sciences, we continue to build upon our well established Training Program in Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing at the University of Maryland, College Park. The 17 Core Faculty in our group bring an extraordinarily broad range of expertise, from cellular and molecular biology to systems neuroscience, while also demonstrating a successful track record in training students. These capabilities allow us to offer a training program that not only emphasizes a comparative and evolutionary perspective to understanding the auditory system, but also does so across different levels of analysis. We propose new approaches to train the next generation of scientists to translate knowledge and methodologies across biomedical sciences, enabling breakthroughs that cannot be achieved through work confined to a single discipline and using a single model system. The next cycle of our training program promotes a focus on translational research, in which we will continue to expand our trainees' appreciation of the biomedical applications of basic research to solving problems concerned with hearing across the human life span, including prevention, diagnosis, and genetics of hearing impairment and relevant therapeutic interventions. Core Faculty are from four departments and one program at UMD (Biology, Psychology, Hearing and Speech Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Neuroscience and Cognitive Science) and one program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB: Graduate Program in Life Sciences). Additional associated faculty from other UMD programs, NIDCD, and other regional institutions, such as UMB and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, work closely with the Core Faculty and provide further research and training opportunities for pre- and post-doctoral trainees. The Training Program requests support for five predoctoral and two postdoctoral trainees. Predoctoral trainees are generally selected in middle to later training years, when they are primarily engaged in research. In addition to research training, all trainees take courses in the fundamentals of hearing and research ethics, attend seminars/courses in professional development and translational auditory science, as well as participate in all program activities. Emphasis throughout the program is to expose trainees to the breadth of work done in the program’s participating labs, and through this exposure, gain a better appreciation for the range of questions being asked and interdisciplinary research methods applied today in the hearing sciences.