Philippe Vincent Email & Phone Number

Since my Ph.D. thesis in Dr. Didier Dulon’s laboratory (Bordeaux, France), my scientific interest has focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic transmission at the very specialized ribbon synapse between auditory inner hair cells (IHCs) and afferent type-I auditory nerve fibers (SGNs). I have investigated how spatial organization and biophysical properties of CaV1.3 calcium channels, localized beneath each ribbon, regulate the Ca2+ efficiency of vesicular exocytosis (Vincent et al., 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018). Due to this work, I have a comprehensive understanding of hair cell synaptic transmission; and, I am experienced in cochlear physiology, patch-clamp recordings, hair cell capacitance measurements, calcium uncaging, calcium imaging, and confocal microscopy. In 2016, I joined Dr. Elisabeth Glowatzki’s lab at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow; and, in 2021, I was promoted to Research Associate. My main objective during this time has been to investigate how noise trauma affects synaptic transmission at the hair cell/type-I SGN synapse. I have used diverse approaches for my research questions, including simultaneous recordings from hair cells and afferent bouton endings, optogenetic stimulation of hair cells combined with patch-clamp recording from afferent fibers, and/or imaging of activity in afferent endings using genetically encoded calcium sensors. Also, I have focused my effort on developing tools and finding strategies to promote and improve ribbon synapse regeneration between IHCs and type-I SGNs. Specifically, through a collaboration with the Koliatsos laboratory at Johns Hopkins, I provided a physiological characterization of optogenetically-transduced, human ES cell-derived neural progenitors and their synaptic connectivity (Ryu et al., 2019). This collaboration helped me to establish methods used in this proposal for functional characterization of regenerated synapses between hair cells and SGNs. My collaborative work gave me a comprehensive understanding of cell culture methods, viral transfection of vectors, working with stem cell-derived neural progenitors, and optogenetic stimulation combined with recording synaptic transmission at newly formed synapses.

Listed skills include Cell Biology, Cell Physiology, Electrophysiology, Cell Culture, and 10 others.