Below Dr. Cheng discusses his recent review article for Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, Making sense of Wnt signaling – linking hair cell regeneration to development:

Making sense of Wnt signaling – linking hair cell regeneration to development, is a review paper published in the Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience and co-authored by a postdoc in the Cheng Lab – Lina Jansson and medical student Grace Kim.

Illustration by Chris Gralapp

As nicely illustrated by Chris Gralapp here, this signaling pathway can have multiple effects on a cell and it is now becoming increasing apparent that it plays multiple roles during both cochlear development and regeneration. Given the myriad findings out of our and others’ laboratories, this review article aims to summarize our current knowledge and how it relates to what is known in other systems outside the ear. It also identifies our gaps in knowledge and potentially fruitful research direction we and others are taking to hopefully fill those gaps.

Read more about the Cheng Lab’s own research on Wnt.