Howdy all, today's spotlight comes from Saman Hussain and was published in September. This (very pretty) paper identifies spontaneous calcium activity within the sound-detecting stereocilia driven by the MET channel, and independent from the usual calcium waves! pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone!🔬🌟Nic has taken a cross-section image of the retina under the microscope: red shows the Retinal Pigment Epithelial cells, orange shows photoreceptor cell bodies with cilia & green shows the outer nuclear layer with just photoreceptor cell bodies 👁️✨ #neuroskyence

📢Howdy all, I'm excited to announce a new PhD opening within the Carlton lab in the hearing research group! This project will use primarily electrophysiology to investigate how noise influences feedback to the cochlea from the brainstem! More details can be found at: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Lillian Smith | PhD student Research focus: Understanding the mechanisms associated with mitochondria dysfunction underpinning ARHL and neurodegenerative diseases using in vivo physiology, 2-photon functional imaging, RNA sequencing, and immunolabeling Fun fact: My go-to lab snack is mini cheddars

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone!🌟🔬 Today's photo comes from Alice showing an scanning electron microscopy image of outer hair cells lacking many stereocilia due to abnormal expression of a protein important for hair bundle maintenance! 🧪🐁

Last week we said goodbye and good luck to Francesca, who’s been an amazing part of the Sheffield Hearing Group! Thank you, Fran, for everything — the lab won’t be the same without you! 🧪🌟

Howdy all. Recently one of our PIs (Adam) appeared on The Naked Scientists podcast to discuss hearing loss and tinnitus! The free full recording can be found on their website at: www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/nak... Worth a listen if you're interested in hearing!

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone!🌟🔬 Today's photo comes from Zoë and shows the inner and outer hair cells in the organ of Corti of a mouse stained with Phalloidin (in red), the supporting cells outlined with connexin 30 (in green), and the cell nuclei stained with DAPI (in blue).🧪🐁

A quick video on how we Immunolabel proteins in the organ of corti 😊🧪

Happy #MicroscopyMonday 🌟🔬 Todays photo comes from Ginny and shows pre and post synapses from inner hair cells. White stains the nucleus, red stains CtBP2, green stains Shank1 and blue stains GluR2🧪🐁

We've had a busy few weeks as we have returned from an amazing Inner Ear Biology conference in Tübingen!👂 It was inspiring to hear cutting-edge research and disseminate our own—Adam, Alice, and Char gave talks, while Ginny, Federico, Yan, and Andrea presented their latest work in poster sessions!🧑‍🔬🧪

Ceriani et al. (2025). A machine-learning-based approach to predict early hallmarks of progressive hearing loss. Hearing Research 464, 109328. doi.org/10.1016/j.he... @hearingshef.bsky.social

Today's spotlight comes from Hubert Lee and was published just last month. This clever paper shows that TMC1/2, the channels responsible for all hearing in mammals, can flip lipids between the membrane leaflets! The function is unknown, but it sure is interesting! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone!🔬🌟 Today's image comes from Alice and it is a beautiful SEM (Scanning electron microscope) picture showing both the inner hair cells (at the bottom) and the three rows of outer hair cells (at the top)!🐀🧪

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone! 🔬🌟Today's image is from Andrea, showing his first attempt at phalloidin staining of a 4 day-old zebrafish saccular macula - the main hearing organ of the fish.🐟 In the centre of the photo you can see the hair cells, with a few examples highlighted by white arrows!🧪

Today's #TraceTuesday comes from Charlie! This trace was recorded towards the start of his PhD, showing spontaneous activity in neurons of the zebrafish lateral line. This spontaneous activity is a key feature during normal development of the zebrafish lateral line and the mammalian cochlea! 🐟🧪📈

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone! 🔬Today’s image is from Alice. She injected this adult cochlea in vivo with an adeno-associated virus (AAV).🧬 We can see the AAV was able to transduce green fluorescent protein (GFP) into inner hair cells (brightly-labelled) and outer hair cells (dimly-labelled)🐀🧪

Goodrich Lab manager and RA is making great progress with cochlea cleareing and imaging, getting closer and closer to single fiber resolution! 🥳 Perfect for #FluorescenceFriday

JWST just released a new image of the red planet! Just kidding, this is an image of the organ of Corti stained red that I've badly photoshopped 👩‍🚀 Have a great weekend all!

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone!🌟🔬 Today's photos from Nic show a cross section of the retinal layers in mice eyes.🐀👀 Here we can see (from the bottom), the photoreceptor layer, the middle layer (containing bipolar, horizontal, and amacrine cells), and the ganglion cell layer!🧪

Howdy, one of our PIs (Adam - me) was down in London earlier this week attending the @wellcometrust.bsky.social investigator meeting. It was great to see the breadth of what Wellcome fund and chat with other investigators (Primarily more senior). These are the only pics I got though as I was solo!

Today's #TraceTuesday comes from Nic, again! We have another trace from a retinal ganglion cell. 🦠 The small peak at the start is an artifact (Nic is still learning), but importantly, the big dip in the trace shows a large inward sodium current which is crucial for generating action potentials! 🧪📈

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone!🌟🔬 Today we have a video from Ginny showing the electromotility in an outer hair cell of a 19 day old mouse.🐀 This process is the primary function of outer hair cells and it is key for hearing quiet sounds!🧪👂

📖Howdy, today's paper spotlight comes from Xiayi Liao and was published this month. This (Exceptionally pretty) manuscript takes a detailed look at the addition of actin filaments to hair cell stereocilia; the tiny hairs that detect sounds within the inner ear! pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone!🔬 Today's image comes from Char!🌟 Here we can see a beautiful immunostaining of the mature spinal ganglion neurons from the apical region of the cochlea, where lower frequencies are detected, of a P25 mouse cochlea!🐀🧪

We're excited to share that you can now watch Adam's recent @pintofscience.uk talk on demand via the University of Sheffield Player 🎥. Follow the link below to find out how the brain "talks back" to the ears! 🧠👂 🔗: player.sheffield.ac.uk/events/how-b... #Pint25

Howdy! Today's paper spotlight comes from Chun Liang and was published in June. This paper shows that knocking out the ATP gated receptor P2X7 enhances hearing sensitivity but makes noise induced cochlea damage much worse! Adds info to those mysterious type II fibres 🔍 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Happy #TraceTuesday! Today's trace comes from Sarah, which shows a supporting cell being treated with adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the body's currency for energy. The dip in current represents a large inward current of ions that is triggered by the ATP treatment! 🧪📈

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone!🔬🧪Today's video comes from Charlie and it shows the neuromast of a zebrafish!🐟 The bright flash represents activation of the hair cells (in red) and the neurons (in green) following stimulation from a waterjet.

“The concern nowadays is recreational noise and young people listening to music on headphones.” + Earwax “has an enzyme which can kill bacteria and viruses going into the ear, and it moisturises the skin as well.” www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... #earwax @theguardian.com #keeplistening

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone! 🔬🧪Today's image comes from Hermione, one of Sam's masters summer students and it shows the hair cells following noise exposure. In the image Myo7a labels the hair cells (blue), GluR2 labels the post synapses (green) and CtBP2 stains the pre-synapses (in magenta). 👨‍🔬🌟

This week we're introducing you to Yan and Zoë! ☺️ Name & Role: Yanyun Zhao | PhD student Research: Spontaneous activity in the immature cochlea using in vivo two-photon imaging. Favourite lab equipment: "The microwave in the kitchen! Nah, the two-photon microscope!”

"Here’s what you can do to understand your own hearing loss better and figure out which type is better for you, plus how to shop smartly for hearing aids, whether you go the OTC or prescription route." From: www.consumerreports.org/health/heari... via @hearingtracker.com @consumerreports.org

We are thrilled to announce that leading neurologist and geneticist Dr Johnathan Cooper-Knock is one of just eight outstanding scientists nationwide to receive the 2025 Lister award from The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine 🎉 www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/sheffie...

📝 We have a new paper out! Headed by Dr Federico Ceriani, this paper shows that machine-learning can be used to detect early signs of hearing loss, and can also predict the future progression of hearing loss in 6N and 6N-repaired mice! 🧪🦻 kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Lovely first day at #NeuroFest 🧠 in the Winter Gardens. It was hot out, but there was plenty of enthusiasm from kids and adults alike 😄. Come on down tomorrow 11am-4pm for some fun and interesting activities! 🧪🦠

It’s a busy end of week for a lot of the team! On top of #NeuroFest, they’ve been down at University of Sussex for one of our biannual meetings with the hearing groups from Sussex, @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social, and @keeleuniversity.bsky.social. Big thank you to the team at Sussex for hosting 👏🏻

On today in the Sheffield Winter Gardens! 11am-4pm.

Say hi to Nic and Sarah! 👋 Name & Role: Nicole-Mae Blacknell | PhD student Research: Understanding changes in retinal cells during development and ageing using electrophysiology and immunostaining. Go-to lab snack: Banana.

Today's #TraceTuesday also comes from Nic! This trace shows action potentials (spikes) from a retinal ganglion cell. Notice how the activity is much more slow compared to the cell from Adam a few weeks ago! 📈

Happy #MicroscopyMonday everyone! 🔬🧪 Today we have something a little bit different by Nic! In the video we can see the process she uses to clean the cells in order to patch them. 🐀

🚨 Interested in our research? In Sheffield this weekend (June 14th/15th)? If so, come and visit us at #NeuroFest! 🎊 We will be there to answer all questions of any kind, and you can also take part in some hearing-related activities!

This week we introduce you to Kath and Matt! Name & Role: Dr Katherine Wood | Research Fellow Research: Role of the auditory cortex in auditory perception throughout life using electrophysiology, imaging, optogenetics, and behaviour. Favourite lab equipment: Arduino. @woodlab.bsky.social

Today's #PaperSpotlight comes from Patricia M. Quinones et al, published in April this year. The study mainly used optical coherence tomography (OCT), and interestingly showed that silencing inner hair cells led to larger sound-induced vibrations in the cochlea! 🔗: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...

We've recently updated our website to highlight all the experimental techniques we do in our group! 🧪🔬🧬👂. 🔗: www.sheffield.ac.uk/hearing/our-... If you're interested to find out more, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

The gutting of US biomedical research with loss of ~2,500 grants affecting research for cancer, Alzheimer’s, infectious disease, global health and much more www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

🧪🔬 Happy #MicroscopyMonday, everyone! Courtesy of Char, we have a raw video snippet from one of our two-photon microscopes. The bright flashes in this video show electrical activity in the developing spiral ganglion neurons at the point where they contact the inner hair cells.

This week we introduce you to Ginny and Ivy! Name & Role: Dr Ginny Jeng | RNID Research Fellow Research: Ageing of the auditory system using electrophysiology, imaging, and molecular biology Go-to lab snack: butter candies 🍭

Back to the introductions! This week we introduce Charlie and Francesca 😄. Name & Role: Charlie Cranston | PhD Student Research: The role of DNA damage and repair in the cochlea using ABRs and immunostaining. Lab mascot: A little ceramic fox called Velma (pic attached). @cfcranston.bsky.social

This week we’ve had Adam and Charlie presenting to the public at @pintofscience.uk in the Sheffield Tap! They talked about how we hear and shared some of their research, too 😊. #Pint25 #PublicEngagement