While studying for his Master’s degree at Syracuse University, mechanical engineer Don Coling was required to take a humanities course. He happened upon a class called “Engineering Perspectives” which dealt with, of all things, the organ of Corti – the sensitive element in the inner ear which, through vibration, amplifies sound. Coling was mesmerized. “Why study vibration of buildings when you could study something beautiful like the ear?” he thought to himself and promptly embarked upon a doctoral program in neuroscience and cell biology.
Since completing his doctorate in 1990, Coling has leant his expertise and fascination with the ear to scores of projects related to hearing loss, some of which have been funded by Deafness Research Foundation (DRF).
Coling’s resume of hearing-related research projects is both lengthy and impressive, not only because of the breadth of the subject matter but because of the cutting-edge nature of the projects themselves. One of Coling’s hearing research projects was the study of nitric oxide, a signaling molecule which is also responsible for penile erection. His team at the Kreske Hearing Institute, led by Dr. Jochen Schacht, discovered the location of nitric oxide in the cochlea, which cells make it and which cells have molecules that are potentially activated by it. While at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Coling studied the effects of calcium on the motility of outer ear hair cells. At the University of California-Berkley, Coling’s focus was on motor proteins (myosin proteins) and their effects on hearing.
Twenty-nine years and eight states since taking that fateful course at Syracuse, Don Coling, Ph.D., is currently a research associate professor at the Center for Hearing and Deafness at SUNY Buffalo. Under the direction of Dr. Richard Salvi, Coling has studied age-related hearing loss and the mechanisms of protection from ototoxic drugs.
Coling’s work involves the cancer drug cisplatin, which has the unpleasant side effect of causing deafness. Coling’s team seeks to understand the biochemical and cell biology pathways of drugs and is looking for new drugs which, when used in combination, could be more effective than cisplatin without having harmful effects on hearing.
At press time, Coling was busily preparing an NIH grant to continue his cisplatin work, as well as assisting a post-doctoral fellow with a DRF grant project of applying new methods to noise-induced hearing loss. As a former recipient of DRF funding, Coling says, “It’s about time I gave back to DRF!”
As time permits, Coling swaps his lab coat for a scout uniform as scout leader for Troop #92 of Swormville, N.Y., and a unit commissioner for the Boy Scouts. Also on the agenda are camping around New York State, kayaking and other outdoor activities with his teenage son Peter and wife Diann, a forensic pathologist.
With a detail-oriented and scientific day job, Coling has a creative side when not on the clock. He enjoys gardening in the warmer months, and in the winter, woodworking is his passion. He designs all of his projects himself. “In research, you have to have a plan,” he says with a smile. “Maybe that’s why everything in my woodworking is ‘freestyle’ – it’s my outlet!”
