Oregon Health & Science University
Oregon Hearing Research Center
OHRC faculty
About the OHRC
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Peter Steyger |
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Peter was selected by Davis Wright Tremaine LLP - one of the largest law firms in the country - as an Inventor of the Month for October 2003 in honor work in drug-induced hearing loss. Aminoglycoside antibiotics are essential for battling life-threatening Gram-negative bacterial infections, e.g., meningitis, and in preventing infection in burns and premature babies. However, aminoglycosides also induce a high incidence of ototoxicity, culminating permanent snesorineural hearing loss, deafness and vestibular disorders. In the inner ear, structurally and functionally intact sensory hair cells detect sound and motion. Ototoxic drugs anatomically disrupt the sensory hair cells, inducing hair cell death, deafness and, and vestibular disorders, leading to physical, mental, educational, and language difficulties, particularly in children. The long-term aim of the Steyger laboratory is to identify and develop interventional strategies that will allow clinicians to use aminoglycosides without serious side-effects. Our projects are currently focused on how aminoglycosides enter cells, including the sensory hair cells of the inner ear. Although endocytosis is a prominent mechanism of drug uptake, aminoglycosides can also enter cells via ion channels. If aminoglycosides enter hair cells through the mechano-electrical transduction channel, and other channels on the apical surface of hair cells, it is also important ti identify how aminoglycosides also enter the endocochlear fluids from which they can then enter sensory hair cells to induce hair cell death. Researchers in the Steyger laboratory use fluorescently-conjugated ototoxic drugs, fluorescent reporters of changes in cytosolic conditions (e.g., pH etc), cell culture and confocal microscopy to conduct their investigations, primarily funded by the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communications Disorders. For more information, please see our publications list
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Peter Steyger received his Ph.D.
in Cochlear Anatomy and Ototoxicity from Keele University, U.K. in 1991.
Following postdoctoral work with Professor. Michael Wiederhold (development
of otoconia in the vestibular system), and Dr. Richard Baird (vestibular
hair cell functional anatomy and regeneration), he joined the Oregon
Hearing Research Center, at OHSU as an Assistant Professor. He is currently
Associate Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, with
full-time research interests in auditory neuroscience and ototoxicity.