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| Name |
Fettiplace, Robert |
| Location
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University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Primary Field
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Physiology and Pharmacology |
| Secondary Field
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Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience |
 Election Citation
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Robert Fettiplace researches the biophysics of auditory hair cells, the sensory receptors of the inner ear, using patch clamp recording, micromechanical stimulation, and optical imaging.
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Research Interests
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Research in Robert Fettiplace's laboratory has been concerned with the biophysics of auditory hair cells, the sensory receptors of the inner ear, studied with patch clamp recording, micromechanical stimulation, and optical imaging. This research has provided descriptions of the mechanism of sound transduction, the mechanical properties of hair cells, the membrane ion channels involved in selectivity for different acoustic frequencies, and the regulatory roles of intracellular calcium and calcium-binding proteins. His early research was performed on turtle auditory hair cells, but for the last 20 years, he has studied hair cell mechanotransduction in isolated cochleae of rats, mice and gerbils. Defects in transduction lead to hair cell degeneration and irreversible deafness. He has also used real time confocal imaging to document calcium changes in the hair cell soma or stereociliary bundle, culminating in defining the site of calcium entry via mechano-electrical transducer channels at the tips of all but the tallest stereocilia. Over the last ten years he has focused on the mouse cochlea to understand the properties, tonotopic variation and molecular identity of the mechanotransducer channel, using a number of mouse mutants.
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