OHSU scientists discover mechanism of hearing

Discovery made possible by more than 60 million worms and state-of-the-art imaging accessible only at OHSU, two other national cryoEM centers in the U.S.

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In a discovery published today in the journal Nature, OHSU scientists used advanced imaging to reveal the molecular machinery that allows the inner ear to convert vibrations into the sensation of sound.
In a discovery published today in the journal Nature, OHSU scientists used advanced imaging to reveal the molecular machinery that allows the inner ear to convert vibrations into the sensation of sound.

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University have revealed, for the first time and in near-atomic detail, the structure of the key part of the inner ear responsible for hearing.

“This is the last sensory system in which that fundamental molecular machinery has remained unknown,” said senior author Eric Gouaux, Ph.D., senior scientist with the OHSU Vollum Institute and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “The molecular machinery that carries out this absolutely amazing process has been unresolved for decades.”

Until now.

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Gouaux Lab