Takahiro Ohyama
Faculty (Scientist I)
House Ear Institute
Research Overview
One of the biggest issues in hearing and balance disorders is that once mechanosensory hair cells are lost, they never regenerate. Recently, stem cell research has shed light on the possibility of regeneration of hair cells in humans. Our research goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms of inner ear development and to explore the possibility of regenerating sensory hair cells to treat balance and hearing disorders. We have established an inner ear-specific gene manipulation system by generating a Pax2-Cre BAC transgenic line and proposed a three-step model of inner ear induction (Ohyama 2009). We have also discovered that Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signaling is necessary for patterning the sensory and non-sensory regions of the developing mammalian cochlea. Our findings show a precise control of BMP signaling is a critical factor to generate all types of auditory cells. We will further focus on 1) induction and 2) sensory specification of developing inner ear to seek for the long-term goal how efficiently and safely one can generate auditory cells from stem cells.Contact Information
- E-mail:
- Tohyama@hei.org
- Mailing Address:
- House Ear Institute
2100 W. Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90057 - Office Phone:
- (213) 989-7410
Education
- Kyoto University, Japan B.A. '96 Biophysics
- Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto Univ., Japan Ph.D. '01 Immunology
Selected Publications
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Ohyama T. (2009). Unraveling inner ear induction by gene manipulation using Pax2-Cre BAC transgenic mice. Brain Research 1277: 84-89. -PubMed
Jayasena CS, Ohyama T, Segil N, Groves AK. (2008). Notch signaling augments the canonical Wnt pathway to specify the size of the otic placode. Development 135: 2251-2261. -PubMed
Ohyama T, Groves AK, Martin K. (2007). The First Steps Towards Hearing: Mechanisms of Otic Placode Induction. Int. J. Dev. Biol. 51: 463-472. -PubMed
Ohyama T, Mohamed OA, Taketo MM, Dufort D, Groves AK. (2006). Wnt signals mediate a fate decision between otic placode and epidermis. Development 133:865-875. -PubMed
Ohyama T, Groves AK. (2004a). Expression of mouse Foxi class genes in early craniofacial development. Dev Dyn 231:640-646. -PubMed
Ohyama T, Groves AK. (2004b). Generation of Pax2-Cre mice by modification of a Pax2 bacterial artificial chromosome. Genesis 38:195-199. -PubMed