Peter Gillespie

Ph.D. (Pharmacology), University of Washington, 1988
Oregon Hearing Research Center
Joint Associate Professor, Cell and Developmental Biology

The sensory cells of the inner ear, hair cells, transduce sound and head movements into electrical signals that propagate to the brain. Although described well at a biophysical level, the molecular basis of hair-cell transduction remains poorly understood. In the Gillespie lab, we are engaged in the long-term goal of identifying proteins responsible for mechanical transduction and determining how they are brought together by the cell to assemble the remarkably sensitive transduction apparatus. Each inner ear contains very few hair cells, so we must devise specialized methods for their characterization. In addition, we use a broad range of techniques for each problem, including molecular biology, biochemistry, electrophysiology, mouse genetics, and morphology. One protein of great interest to the lab is the molecular motor myosin-1c, thought to mediate adaptation of the transduction current. Another protein closely studied in the lab is the plasma-membrane calcium pump, which is essential for auditory and vestibular transduction. Although the lab's principal focus is on hair-cell mechanical transduction, the issues raised and methods developed have broad applicability to, to the roles of molecular motors, particularly the nonconventional myosin isozymes, to cell-adhesion biology, to the roles of membrane pumps, and to sensory transduction in other cell types.

Strassmaier M and Gillespie PG. The hair cell's transduction channel. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 12:380-6, 2002.

Cyr JL, Dumont RA and Gillespie PG. Myosin-1c interacts with hair-cell receptors through its calmodulin-binding IQ domains. J Neurosci. 22:2487-95, 2002.

Holt JR, Gillespie SK, Provance DW, Shah K, Shokat KM, Corey DP, Mercer JA, and Gillespie PG. A chemical-genetic strategy implicates myosin-1c in adaptation by hair cells. Cell 8;108(3):371-81, 2002.

Gillespie PG. Myosin-VIIa and transduction channel tension. Nat Neurosci. 5:3-4, 2002. 

To contact Dr. Gillespie directly: gillespp@ohsu.edu