People / Graduate Students

Elizabeth Storer

My research focuses on the mechanisms that direct the assembly of synapses during development.  In particular, I’m interested in the development of cholinergic olivocochlear synapses on hair cells of the inner ear.  These synapses are part of an efferent pathway from the brain that regulates frequency selectivity and tuning during the processing of auditory stimuli.  My project aims to understand mechanisms that control the development of the hair cell postsynaptic protein complex, and identify protein-protein interactions that are responsible for targeting of α9-α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) to these synaptic sites.