The Sound of Success: Paige Brooks from the Coate Lab receives an NIH grant for her research!

The Biology Department congratulates Paige Brooks, a graduate researcher in the Coate Lab, on receiving a Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award from the NIH! The grant will fund her incredible research here at Georgetown, where she focuses within the cochlea, a spiral-shaped organ in the inner ear. In this organ, special cells called spiral ganglion neurons are key to hearing and are implicated in hearing loss treatments such as hearing aids. Paige’s research will investigate how otic mesenchyme cells, another cell type, support the survival of spiral ganglion neurons and thus reinforce hearing in the inner ear. Her work has many implications for hearing loss treatment and for our understanding of how we hear sounds! Congrats Paige, and we can’t wait to see the results of your work!