We are excited to announce that Anthony (Anton) Peng has recently taken an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Colorado Denver.

Dr. Peng was a founding member of the Stanford Otolaryngology research community, coming to Stanford as a graduate student with Stefan Heller in 2005. He worked with Stefan exploring hair bundle proteomics until receiving his degree in 2009. This work provided identification of new molecules that likely play important role in hair bundle structure and function and that could provide target sites for interaction when function is compromised.

At that time he joined Tony Ricci’s lab where he completed a full scientific circle by using his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering to explore sensory hair cell mechanotransduction with electrophysiological and optical technologies. Here his work has focused on mechanisms of hair cell adaptation. His seminal work here challenges existing dogma and likely will result in new models of mechanotransduction being formulated. As this mechanism is a target for both genetic and environmentally driven hearing loss, it carries much translational impact as well.

Anton was a proactive member of our research community, serving as a teacher for confocal microscopy and overseeing the shared microscopes before we established an imaging core. He was always willing to help instruct new lab members and taught twice in the Neuroscience program’s bootcamp course. Although we are excited to see Anton move on to an independent career, where we look forward to seeing him flourish, we are sad to lose such a vibrant member of our community.