Jeffrey R. Holt, PhD, IDDRC and F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center faculty, whose research is focused on hearing and deafness, seeks to understand how stimuli from the external world, such as sound, gravity and head movements are converted into electrical signals, how the information is encoded and how it is transmitted to the brain, with the ultimate goal of developing treatment strategies for patients with genetic hearing loss. The Holt lab’s discovery of the TMC1 molecule — the “hearing molecule” that is key to converting sound information into electrical signals — has led to deeper understanding of roughly 70 different mutations that result in genetic hearing loss, enabling the development of new treatments for patients who carry TMC1 mutations in the hopes of being able to restore functional hearing.