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dr jonathan gale

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Research
Themes

Contacts
  • Dr
  • Jonathan
  • Edward
  • Gale
  • Dr Jonathan Gale
  • Tel: 020 7679 8936
  • Ex: 28936
  • Fax: 020 7679 8990
  • j.e.gale@ucl.ac.uk
  • Website
  • https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/images/profile/JEGAL30.jpg
  • 1999-10-01
Address
  • 807
  • UCL Ear Institute
  • 332 Gray's Inn Rd
  • London
  • WC1X 8EE
Appointment
  • ACARDR
  • 1999-10-01
  • 1
  • Reader in Auditory Cell Biology
  • HP
  • The Ear Institute
  • FBRS
  • Faculty of Brain Sciences
Joined UCL
  • 1999-10-01

Research Summary

Hair cells are the sensory receptors of the ear that enable us to hear and balance. The main focus of my lab is to determine the signalling events that control repair and regeneration of hair cells after cell damage or loss. The avian inner ear has a powerful ability to regenerate hair cells after injury whereas in mammals that regenerative potential is absent. We are taking a comparative approach. By studying the signalling processes in these two species we aim to discover the essential elements that control hair cell repair and regeneration.

 A combination of dynamic imaging, cellular and molecular techniques are being used to study intracellular signalling in and between support cells. Why the support cells you may ask? These are the progenitor cells that divide or undergo phenotypic conversion to produce hair cells.A range of different techniques are used to damage hair cells. We measure spatio-temporal changes in a number of candidate signaling pathways and molecules e.g. intracellular calcium and cyclic AMP in response to hair cell damage or loss. Inhibitor and promotor molecules of different signalling pathways are used to investigate the mechanisms underlying hair cell regeneration. Other projects related include investigating the potential for hair cells to repair after damage, and the role of Rho proteins and of gap junction proteins in hair cell repair and regeneration. Some projects involve collaborative work with Dr Sally Dawson here at the UCL Ear Institute
Research Activities
  • 1492
  • Calcium signalling and mitochondrial function in cell physiology and pathophysiology.
  • 1445
  • Identifying Candidates for Hair Cell Protection
  • 1001
  • Intracellular and intercellular signalling mechanisms in health and disease
  • 524
  • Sensory cell death in the inner ear, repair of the sensory epithelia and protection and regeneration of hair cells
  • 732
  • imaging

Academic Background

  • Award Year
    Qualification
     
    Institution
  • 1994
    PhD
    Doctor of Philosophy
    University of Bristol
  • 1990
    BSc Hons
    Bachelor of Science (Honours)
    University of Sheffield

Biography

I first became really interested in physiology whilst doing a Zoology ‘A’ level practical project on daphnia (water fleas) at school. In the experiment we were able to monitor the flea’s heart rate whilst changing the fluid it was bathed in. A simple but classic experiment- I was hooked. After a Physiology BSc I went looking for a PhD project. For various reasons, including the fact that I have a unilateral deafness, I decided to undertake my PhD in sensory hair cell physiology with Jonathan Ashmore in Bristol funded by the Hearing Research Trust (now Deafness Research UK). I used patch clamp techniques to understand how mammalian hair cells work. After my PhD, I took the Woods Hole Neurobiology course – a most amazing course. It think that this was a pivotal moment in my career. A year later I was lucky enough to get a Wellcome International Prize Travelling Fellowship to work with Jeff Corwin at the University of Virginia, whom I had met whist in Woods Hole. At UVA I learnt many things including techniques and approaches towards understanding hair cell regeneration. I came back from the USA and spent two years working with Guy Richardson in Sussex, where I added molecular biology to my CV and also got interested in a fun molecule called FM1-43. From Sussex I moved to UCL to take up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and to set up my own lab in the Department of Physiology. In 2005 I moved my lab over the new facilities at the UCL Ear Institute.

Additional Information
  • Auditory
  • Calcium
  • Calcium imaging
  • Cell culture
  • Cochlea
  • Confocal microscopy
  • Deafness
  • Electrophysiological recording techniques
  • Fluorescence microscopy techniques
  • G-protein coupled receptors
  • Gene expression
  • Gene expression profiling - single cell
  • Genetically encoded reporters/indicators
  • Hearing and balance
  • Image analysis
  • Imaging
  • Ion channels
  • Laser ablation
  • Mitochondria
  • Morphology
  • Multi-photon imaging
  • Neuroscience
  • Regeneration
  • Repair
  • Repair and regeneration of hair epithelia
  • Sensory transduction
  • Time-lapse imaging
  • Vertigo and vestibular disorders
Collaborators
  • DLBEC91
  • prof david becker
  • DJWER24
  • dr david werring
  • DJAGG65
  • dr dan jagger
  • MRDUC42
  • prof michael duchen
  • ERTOW05
  • dr emily towers
  • AFORG20
  • prof andrew forge
  • SJDAW90
  • dr sally dawson
  • MFLYT72
  • dr mark lythgoe
  • SEMOS35
  • prof stephen moss
  • NDAUD53
  • dr nicolas daudet

Page last modified on 18 jan 12 12:13