Lavanya Rajagopalan is half a world away from her native country. Living in a climate that’s a lot like home, with a new husband, baby on the way and a job she loves, she has no plans to head back to India anytime soon – good news for people with hearing loss. This young researcher is working on a small piece of the puzzle of hearing restoration, and in the process, has discovered some fascinating connections about the long misunderstood role of cholesterol in hearing loss.
A Deafness Research Foundation grant recipient since 2005, Rajagopalan says it was a protein that first attracted her to research on hearing loss. “I always wanted to do something that means something – something people can use to improve human health,” says Rajagopalan, and she found her perfect match at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and the study of the protein prestin.
Rajagopalan studied membrane proteins at the University of Texas and her particular interest was in the relationship between the membrane and the protein. “Membrane proteins are unlike other proteins in the body and prestin is like no other membrane protein in that it functions like a little motor,” she says.
When sound waves hit the ear drum, they set membranes in motion, akin to strumming the strings of a guitar. Imagine, however, that the strings are suspended in an oily substance – the inner ear fluid. The ear fluid has a dampening effect on the sound waves and eventually they fizzle out. However, in the healthy inner ear, there’s prestin, the protein that pumps energy back into the vibrating membranes resulting in a vibration reaction strong enough and long enough to be “heard” by the brain. When prestin isn’t working right, the vibrating membranes just fizzle out without ever being “heard.”
Rajagopalan unexpectedly learned that the cholesterol content in the ear membranes changes prestin functioning, which in turn affects hearing. This is highly significant because it indicates that cholesterol levels could have a direct correlation to hearing function. It has long been known that cholesterol levels affect hearing but it is widely assumed that the effect is indirect, related to blood flow to the brain. Rajagopalan’s new findings suggest a direct effect of high cholesterol on hearing – at the molecular level.
“The more I work on it, the more fascinating it is,” remarks Rajagopalan. In fact, she would be content to “be at the bench” all day but the reality for researchers is that they must seek grant funding to keep their important research going. Grants mean paperwork and time away from the bench but Rajagopalan has learned the value of the practice of grant-writing. “It makes me think of the different applications of my research.”
Being married to a fellow biochemist, Krishna Rajarathnam, Rajagopalan can share stimulating shop
talk at home as well as at work. But all research and no play makes for an off-balance researcher. To stay centered, Rajagopalan dances. She started learning Indian classical dance as a child and now teaches 25 students ranging from five to 20 years old. Of the seven styles of classical Indian dance, the one Rajagopalan focuses on is Bharatanatyam, a highly facially expressive dance form with intricate patterned footwork. “Most of my students must study for three to four years before they can perform on stage,” she says, adding, “It’s not easy!”
With the arrival of her first child, Rajagopalan will be doing another kind of fancy footwork as she learns to dance around volunteer activities, an exciting research career and motherhood.
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