Basile Tarchini

Education

• PhD., University of Geneva, Switzerland, 2004

Biosketch

My scientific experience is rooted in developmental biology using the mouse as a model system. My graduate project addressed transcriptional regulation in crowded Hox gene complexes and its impact on axial identity, including neuronal organization in the spinal cord and asymmetric digit formation in appendages. My postdoctoral work tackled patterning at the level of a single cell, and identified novel polarity proteins that proved essential for hearing by defining stereocilia placement and elongation in the sensory cells of the inner ear. This project laid the foundation for my independent research program at The Jackson Laboratory, where I have a laboratory since January 2015.

Research Interests

Fundamental to our interaction with the world, hearing and balance require ‘hair cells’ in the inner ear to transduce a mechanical signal (sound, gravity or head movements) into electrical impulses relayed to the brain. Research in our laboratory aims to unravel the developmental mechanisms conferring sensory ability to hair cells. The specialized hair cell compartment dedicated to mechanotransduction, the stereocilia bundle, is produced and oriented by cytoskeleton polarization at the single-cell and tissue level. A molecular understanding of bundle morphogenesis is key to improve our knowledge of hereditary hearing loss, and empowers emerging therapies to regenerate hair cells permanently lost to injury or disease in mammals.

Selected Publications