40+ years studying inner ear biology 30 years HHMI

David P. Corey, Ph.D. is the Bertarelli Professor of Translational Medical Science in the Department of Neurobiology. For over 40 years, Dr. Corey has studied proteins of the hair-cell mechanotransduction complex with methods ranging from single-cell electrophysiology to single-molecule force spectroscopy to biochemistry to cryo-EM. His laboratory is now focused on how mutations in some of these proteins lead to hereditary deafness, and how gene therapy can treat deafness. With Casey Maquire (Massachusetts General Hospital), he has also developed methods for gene therapy in the inner ear, developing more efficient vectors and restoring hearing in five different mouse models with either gene addition or Cas9 disruption of a dominant mutation. With Cynthia Morton (Brigham and Women’s Hospital), he heads the Harvard Medical School Center for Hereditary Deafness. He has received many awards, including the Young Investigator Award from the Biophysical Society and the Award of Merit from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the Association’s highest award. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.