Peter G. Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D.
- Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine
- Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer, OHSU Research & Innovation
- Professor, Oregon Hearing Research Center, School of Medicine
- Joint Appointment, Vollum Institute
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Graduate Program, School of Medicine
- Cell and Developmental Biology Graduate Program, School of Medicine
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, School of Medicine
- Program in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, School of Medicine
Biography
Peter G. Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D., is executive vice president and chief research officer at OHSU. In addition, he is a professor with the Oregon Hearing Research Center and an affiliated scientist with the Vollum Institute. He has been with OHSU since 1999. Dr. Barr-Gillespie was associate vice president for basic rResearch at OHSU from 2014-2017 and interim senior vice president for research from 2017-2018.
From 2011 through 2020, Dr. Barr-Gillespie was also the scientific director of the Hearing Restoration Project, an international consortium with the goal to develop a biological therapy for hearing loss.
An NIH-funded investigator, Dr. Barr-Gillespie’s research focus is understanding the molecular mechanisms that enable our sense of hearing. Specifically, the Barr-Gillespie lab endeavors to determine how sensory cells in the inner ear called hair cells allow humans to perceive sound arising from the outside world. Dr. Barr-Gillespie maintains an active research program.
Dr. Barr-Gillespie earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Reed College in 1981, carrying out his senior undergraduate thesis at OHSU after a summer fellowship in OHSU’s biochemistry department. He received his doctorate in pharmacology at the University of Washington in 1988 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in physiology, cell biology and neuroscience with Jim Hudspeth, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of California San Francisco and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1993.
Following his fellowship, he accepted a faculty position in physiology at Johns Hopkins and remained there until accepting the position of scientist at the OHSU Vollum Institute and associate professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery in the OHSU School of Medicine.
Dr. Barr-Gillespie has published more than 125 scholarly articles, chapters, and reviews, and has been an invited lecturer at dozens of research universities, academic conferences and scientific events.
These are a few of Dr. Barr-Gillespie's major milestones and significant discoveries:
- Development of methods for isolation of hair bundles and analysis of constituent proteins and lipids via mass spectrometry
- Determination of roles for MYO1C, MYO1H, MYO3A, MYO3B, MYO6, and MYO7A in adaptation and bundle structure
- Characterization of the structure, identity, and regeneration of the tip link
- Description of homeostatic mechanisms used by hair bundle to handle Ca2+ (Ca2+ pump, ATP delivery, H+ transporter)
- Elucidation of protein expression and localization steps required for assembly of the hair bundle
Education and training
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Degrees
- B.A., 1981, Reed College
- Ph.D., 1988, University of Washington
Areas of interest
- Hair-cell transduction
- Hair-bundle development
Additional information
Publications
Publications
Control of stereocilia length during development of hair bundles
PLoS BiologyGIPC3 couples to MYO6 and PDZ domain proteins, and shapes the hair cell apical region
Journal of Cell ScienceSpontaneous allelic variant in deafness–blindness gene Ush1g resulting in an expanded phenotype
Genes, Brain and BehaviorANKRD24 organizes TRIOBP to reinforce stereocilia insertion points
Journal of Cell BiologyCa2+ entry through mechanotransduction channels localizes BAIAP2L2 to stereocilia tips
Molecular biology of the cellCy3-ATP labeling of unfixed, permeabilized mouse hair cells
Scientific ReportsLoss of Baiap2l2 destabilizes the transducing stereocilia of cochlear hair cells and leads to deafness
Journal of PhysiologyA comparative analysis of genetic hearing loss phenotypes in European/American and Japanese populations
Human geneticsA cryo-tomography-based volumetric model of the actin core of mouse vestibular hair cell stereocilia lacking plastin 1
Journal of Structural BiologyMechanotransduction-Dependent Control of Stereocilia Dimensions and Row Identity in Inner Hair Cells
Current BiologyElectron cryo-tomography of vestibular hair-cell stereocilia
Journal of Structural BiologyMolecular composition of vestibular hair bundles
Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in MedicineSingle-cell proteomics reveals changes in expression during hair-cell development
eLifeData Descriptor
Scientific DataELMOD1 stimulates ARF6-GTP hydrolysis to stabilize apical structures in developing vestibular hair cells
Journal of NeuroscienceTranscriptional Dynamics of Hair-Bundle Morphogenesis Revealed with CellTrails
Cell ReportsTRPV6, TRPM6 and TRPM7 do not contribute to hair-cell mechanotransduction
Frontiers in Cellular NeuroscienceA Model for Link Pruning to Establish Correctly Polarized and Oriented Tip Links in Hair Bundles
Biophysical JournalHeterodimeric capping protein is required for stereocilia length and width regulation
Journal of Cell BiologyIntegration of Tmc1/2 into the mechanotransduction complex in zebrafish hair cells is regulated by transmembrane o-methyltransferase (Tomt)
eLifeAnnexin A5 is the Most Abundant Membrane-Associated Protein in Stereocilia but is Dispensable for Hair-Bundle Development and Function
Scientific ReportsNeuroplastin isoform Np55 is expressed in the stereocilia of outer hair cells and required for normal outer hair cell function
Journal of NeurosciencePDZD7-MYO7A complex identified in enriched stereocilia membranes
eLifePlastin 1 widens stereocilia by transforming actin filament packing from hexagonal to liquid
Journal of Cell BiologyReverse transduction measured in the living cochlea by low-coherence heterodyne interferometry
Nature communicationsStereocilia-staircase spacing is influenced by myosin III motors and their cargos espin-1 and espin-like
Nature communications