Dr. Isabelle Roux is a Staff Scientist at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is an expert in human and mouse genetics, cochlear physiology, and auditory biology, with more than two decades of experience using advanced genetic, imaging and physiological tools to study hearing under both physiological and pathological conditions.

Her recent research focuses on the role of the endolymphatic sac in inner ear development, the genetic architecture of hearing loss, and the generation and functional characterization of genetically engineered mouse models to uncover mechanisms leading to hearing loss and support preclinical therapeutic development.

She has led collaborative genomic studies in understudied populations—including the Yoruba community in Nigeria—and is currently co-leading a similar initiative to define the causes of childhood hearing loss in Puerto Rico. She is board-certified in clinical laboratory genetics and genomics.

Dr. Lijin Dong is an Associate Scientist at the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Director of the NEI Genetic Engineering Core. He specializes in rodent genome engineering, cellular reprogramming, and stem-cell differentiation.

Dr. Dong and his team are responsible for generating genetically engineered mouse and rat models that support research across NEI and multiple other NIH institutes. His current research focuses on the DNA-repair responses in mouse zygotes following CRISPR-mediated genome editing, with the objective of improving precision and efficiency in engineered animal models.

Dr. Uri Manor is the Faculty Director of the Goeddel Family Technology Sandbox and Assistant Professor of Cell & Developmental biology at the University of California, San Diego School of Biological Sciences. The Manor Lab develops new methods and tools for studying cellular dynamics with nanometer precision (a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick). This includes artificial-intelligence-based computational approaches (deep learning) that integrate data from microscopes to increase image resolution, sensitivity, and collection speed beyond what’s possible with any other existing method. The Manor Lab also develops new imaging, genetic, and molecular tools that facilitate the monitoring and manipulation of cellular structures implicated in diseases including neurodegenerative diseases and hearing loss. Using these advanced technologies, the Manor Lab connects structure to function. Their research advances scientists’ understanding of these cellular processes and ultimately helps discover and create new therapies for treating these conditions.

Artur Indzhykulian, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Scientist at the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories of Mass Eye and Ear. His research integrates auditory neuroscience, gene therapy, structural biology, and machine learning to study hearing and balance disorders. He leads a multidisciplinary lab focused on the molecular mechanisms of hair cell function and the development of therapeutic strategies for hereditary and acquired hearing loss. His group also builds and shares AI-based computer vision tools for large-scale analysis of microscopy data, collaborating with dozens of labs worldwide. Among their contributions are open-source pipelines such as HCAT and SKOOTS, designed for cochlear hair cell and mitochondrial analysis. Established in 2018, his laboratory is supported by NIH, DoD, and private foundation funding. Dr. Indzhykulian is also an active mentor and educator in the SHBT program at Harvard Medical School.

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Dr. Laurel H. Carney is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Rochester, with joint appointments in Neuroscience. With a background in electrical engineering (MIT, University of Wisconsin–Madison), her research bridges neurophysiology, psychophysics, and computational modeling to understand auditory perception. Her work focuses on neural mechanisms in complex sound processing, particularly in noisy environments and amplitude fluctuation detection. Dr. Carney’s computational models of the auditory periphery provide critical insights into hearing function and inform the development of improved hearing aids and auditory prosthetics.

Dr. Sarah Verhulst is a Professor in Hearing Technology at Ghent University, where she leads the Hearing Technology Lab—an interdisciplinary group at the intersection of auditory neuroscience, computational modeling, and hearing technology. With a background in electrical and acoustical engineering as well as computational auditory neuroscience, her research integrates EEG, otoacoustic emissions, and computational models to study peripheral hearing loss, including cochlear synaptopathy (“hidden hearing loss”) and outer-hair-cell dysfunction. Her work develops novel EEG-based hearing diagnostics, personalized treatment strategies, and AI-driven hearing technologies.