Cell PhD student receives fellowship from EENT Foundation

Congratulations to Tianhao Wu, a Cell and Molecular Biology doctoral student in Hai Huang's lab. He received funding for his fellowship proposal entitled Auditory Dysfunction in Fragile X Syndrome from The Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Foundation of New Orleans. 

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability and the most common monogenic cause of autism, affecting about 1 in 4,000 males and 1 in 8,000 females in the USA. Along with cognitive, behavioral, and social impairments, FXS patients also demonstrate abnormalities in sensory processing including auditory hypersensitivity and impaired sound localization. This work aims to identify the presynaptic and postsynaptic dysfunction in central auditory synapses in a mouse model of FXS, providing a basic groundwork for future strategies for treatment of FXS.

This is a two-year, $124,000 award.