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

  • Degrees

    • B.A., 1981, Reed College
    • Ph.D., 1988, University of Washington

Areas of interest

  • Hair-cell transduction
  • Hair-bundle development

Publications

Publications

  • Control of stereocilia length during development of hair bundles

    PLoS Biology
    1. Jocelyn F. Krey
    2. Paroma Chatterjee
    3. Julia Halford
    4. Christopher L. Cunningham
    5. Benjamin J. Perrin
    6. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • GIPC3 couples to MYO6 and PDZ domain proteins, and shapes the hair cell apical region

    Journal of Cell Science
    1. Paroma Chatterjee
    2. Clive P. Morgan
    3. Jocelyn F. Krey
    4. Connor Benson
    5. Jennifer Goldsmith
    6. Michael Bateschell
    7. Anthony J. Ricci
    8. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Spontaneous allelic variant in deafness–blindness gene Ush1g resulting in an expanded phenotype

    Genes, Brain and Behavior
    1. Vladimir Vartanian
    2. Jocelyn Krey
    3. Paroma Chatterjee
    4. Allison Curtis
    5. Makayla Six
    6. Sean P.M. Rice
    7. Sherri M. Jones
    8. Harini Sampath
    9. Charles N. Allen
    10. Renee C. Ryals
    11. R. Stephen Lloyd
    12. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • ANKRD24 organizes TRIOBP to reinforce stereocilia insertion points

    Journal of Cell Biology
    1. Jocelyn F. Krey
    2. Chang Liu
    3. Inna A. Belyantseva
    4. Michael Bateschell
    5. Rachel A. Dumont
    6. Jennifer Goldsmith
    7. Paroma Chatterjee
    8. Rachel S. Morrill
    9. Lev M. Fedorov
    10. Sarah Foster
    11. Jinkyung Kim
    12. Alfredl Nuttall
    13. Sherri M. Jones
    14. Dongseok Choi
    15. Thomasb Friedman
    16. Anthony J. Ricci
    17. Bo Zhao
    18. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Ca2+ entry through mechanotransduction channels localizes BAIAP2L2 to stereocilia tips

    Molecular biology of the cell
    1. Julia Halford
    2. Michael Bateschell
    3. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Cy3-ATP labeling of unfixed, permeabilized mouse hair cells

    Scientific Reports
    1. Itallia V. Pacentine
    2. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Loss of Baiap2l2 destabilizes the transducing stereocilia of cochlear hair cells and leads to deafness

    Journal of Physiology
    1. Adam J. Carlton
    2. Julia Halford
    3. Anna Underhill
    4. Jing Yi Jeng
    5. Matthew R. Avenarius
    6. Merle L. Gilbert
    7. Federico Ceriani
    8. Kimimuepigha Ebisine
    9. Steve D.M. Brown
    10. Michael R. Bowl
    11. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
    12. Walter Marcotti
  • A comparative analysis of genetic hearing loss phenotypes in European/American and Japanese populations

    Human genetics
    1. W. Daniel Walls
    2. Hideaki Moteki
    3. Taylor R. Thomas
    4. Shin ya Nishio
    5. Hidekane Yoshimura
    6. Yoichiro Iwasa
    7. Kathy L. Frees
    8. Carla J. Nishimura
    9. Hela Azaiez
    10. Kevin T. Booth
    11. Robert J. Marini
    12. Diana L. Kolbe
    13. A. Monique Weaver
    14. Amanda M. Schaefer
    15. Kai Wang
    16. Terry A. Braun
    17. Shin ichi Usami
    18. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
    19. Guy P. Richardson
    20. Richard J. Smith
    21. Thomas L. Casavant
  • A cryo-tomography-based volumetric model of the actin core of mouse vestibular hair cell stereocilia lacking plastin 1

    Journal of Structural Biology
    1. Junha Song
    2. Roma Patterson
    3. Zoltan Metlagel
    4. Jocelyn F. Krey
    5. Samantha Hao
    6. Linshanshan Wang
    7. Brian Ng
    8. Salim Sazzed
    9. Julio Kovacs
    10. Willy Wriggers
    11. Jing He
    12. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
    13. Manfred Auer
  • Mechanotransduction-Dependent Control of Stereocilia Dimensions and Row Identity in Inner Hair Cells

    Current Biology
    1. Jocelyn F. Krey
    2. Paroma Chatterjee
    3. Rachel A. Dumont
    4. Mary O'Sullivan
    5. Dongseok Choi
    6. Jonathan E. Bird
    7. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Electron cryo-tomography of vestibular hair-cell stereocilia

    Journal of Structural Biology
    1. Zoltan Metlagel
    2. Jocelyn F. Krey
    3. Junha Song
    4. Mark F. Swift
    5. William J. Tivol
    6. Rachel A. Dumont
    7. Jasmine Thai
    8. Alex Chang
    9. Helia Seifikar
    10. Niels Volkmann
    11. Dorit Hanein
    12. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
    13. Manfred Auer
  • Molecular composition of vestibular hair bundles

    Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine
    1. Jocelyn F. Krey
    2. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Single-cell proteomics reveals changes in expression during hair-cell development

    eLife
    1. Ying Zhu
    2. Mirko Scheibinger
    3. Daniel Christian Ellwanger
    4. Jocelyn F. Krey
    5. Dongseok Choi
    6. Ryan T. Kelly
    7. Stefan Heller
    8. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Data Descriptor

    Scientific Data
    1. Jocelyn F. Krey
    2. Deborah I. Scheffer
    3. Dongseok Choi
    4. Ashok Reddy
    5. Larry L. David
    6. David P. Corey
    7. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • ELMOD1 stimulates ARF6-GTP hydrolysis to stabilize apical structures in developing vestibular hair cells

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Jocelyn F. Krey
    2. Rachel A. Dumont
    3. Philip A. Wilmarth
    4. Larry L. David
    5. Kenneth R. Johnson
    6. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Transcriptional Dynamics of Hair-Bundle Morphogenesis Revealed with CellTrails

    Cell Reports
    1. Daniel C. Ellwanger
    2. Mirko Scheibinger
    3. Rachel A. Dumont
    4. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
    5. Stefan Heller
  • TRPV6, TRPM6 and TRPM7 do not contribute to hair-cell mechanotransduction

    Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience
    1. Clive P. Morgan
    2. Hongyu Zhao
    3. Meredith LeMasurier
    4. Wei Xiong
    5. Bifeng Pan
    6. Piotr Kazmierczak
    7. Matthew R. Avenarius
    8. Michael Bateschell
    9. Ruby Larisch
    10. Anthony J. Ricci
    11. Ulrich Müller
    12. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • A Model for Link Pruning to Establish Correctly Polarized and Oriented Tip Links in Hair Bundles

    Biophysical Journal
    1. Nathan Tompkins
    2. Kateri J. Spinelli
    3. Dongseok Choi
    4. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Heterodimeric capping protein is required for stereocilia length and width regulation

    Journal of Cell Biology
    1. Matthew R. Avenarius
    2. Jocelyn F. Krey
    3. Rachel A. Dumont
    4. Clive P. Morgan
    5. Connor B. Benson
    6. Sarath Vijayakumar
    7. Christopher L. Cunningham
    8. Deborah I. Scheffer
    9. David P. Corey
    10. Ulrich Müller
    11. Sherri M. Jones
    12. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Integration of Tmc1/2 into the mechanotransduction complex in zebrafish hair cells is regulated by transmembrane o-methyltransferase (Tomt)

    eLife
    1. Timothy Erickson
    2. Clive P. Morgan
    3. Jennifer Olt
    4. Katherine Hardy
    5. Elisabeth Busch-Nentwich
    6. Reo Maeda
    7. Rachel Clemens
    8. Jocelyn F. Krey
    9. Alex Nechiporuk
    10. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
    11. Walter Marcotti
    12. Teresa Nicolson
  • Annexin A5 is the Most Abundant Membrane-Associated Protein in Stereocilia but is Dispensable for Hair-Bundle Development and Function

    Scientific Reports
    1. Jocelyn F. Krey
    2. Meghan Drummond
    3. Sarah Foster
    4. Edward Porsov
    5. Sarath Vijayakumar
    6. Dongseok Choi
    7. Karen Friderici
    8. Sherri M. Jones
    9. Alfred L. Nuttall
    10. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Neuroplastin isoform Np55 is expressed in the stereocilia of outer hair cells and required for normal outer hair cell function

    Journal of Neuroscience
    1. Wei Zheng Zeng
    2. Nicolas Grillet
    3. James B. Dewey
    4. Alix Trouillet
    5. Jocelyn F. Krey
    6. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
    7. John S. Oghalai
    8. Ulrich Müller
  • PDZD7-MYO7A complex identified in enriched stereocilia membranes

    eLife
    1. Clive P. Morgan
    2. Jocelyn F. Krey
    3. M’hamed Grati
    4. Bo Zhao
    5. Shannon Fallen
    6. Abhiraami Kannan-Sundhari
    7. Xue Zhong Liu
    8. Dongseok Choi
    9. Ulrich Müller
    10. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Plastin 1 widens stereocilia by transforming actin filament packing from hexagonal to liquid

    Journal of Cell Biology
    1. Jocelyn F. Krey
    2. Evan S. Krystofiak
    3. Rachel A. Dumont
    4. Sarath Vijayakumar
    5. Dongseok Choi
    6. Francisco Rivero
    7. Bechara Kachar
    8. Sherri M. Jones
    9. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Reverse transduction measured in the living cochlea by low-coherence heterodyne interferometry

    Nature communications
    1. Tianying Ren
    2. Wenxuan He
    3. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
  • Stereocilia-staircase spacing is influenced by myosin III motors and their cargos espin-1 and espin-like

    Nature communications
    1. Seham Ebrahim
    2. Matthew R. Avenarius
    3. Mhamed Grati
    4. Jocelyn F. Krey
    5. Alanna M. Windsor
    6. Aurea D. Sousa
    7. Angela Ballesteros
    8. Runjia Cui
    9. Bryan A. Millis
    10. Felipe T. Salles
    11. Michelle A. Baird
    12. Michael W. Davidson
    13. Sherri M. Jones
    14. Dongseok Choi
    15. Lijin Dong
    16. Manmeet H. Raval
    17. Christopher M. Yengo
    18. Peter G. Barr-Gillespie
    19. Bechara Kachar