University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands
Dr Sonja Pyott is an Associate Professor at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands and also a Senior Lecturer at King’s College London. Her research focuses on the molecular and cellular neuroscience of the hearing and balance systems.
She has a BSc in Biology and Molecular Biology from Penn State University, a Fulbright Scholarship and Max Planck Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, a PhD from Stanford University, USA, and has completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, USA.
Improving animal models of tinnitus to speed up treatment development
Read about Sonja’s research projectSonja’s approaches to hearing research
The development of new techniques to investigate the inner ear—historically challenging due to its small size—has significantly advanced hearing research in the last ten years.
Innovations such as high-resolution imaging, more sophisticated genetic technologies and proteomics (study of the proteins in a cell or tissue, including the way they work and interact with each other inside cells) are now enabling a more detailed understanding of the inner ear.
Additionally, the creation of shared data portals for exchanging and integrating this information across research groups has been a critical step in accelerating discovery and fostering collaboration.
Increased interdisciplinary research (where researchers from different disciplines eg psychology and biology work together on a research project), supported by diverse funding mechanisms, along with enhanced public awareness and advocacy to highlight both the challenges and possibilities in hearing research, are essential to driving hearing research forward.
Some of the biggest challenges (and opportunities!) include how complex hearing, and the cells and processes involved, are, as well as the difficulty in translating laboratory findings into clinical treatments to combat hearing loss, and limited funding for research.
The desire to improve the quality of life for individuals affected by hearing conditions and to bridge communication barriers motivates me to carry out hearing research.
I chose to work in hearing research because I am fascinated by the biology of sensory perception, particularly the molecular mechanisms by which the inner ear and brain enable hearing.
At the same time, I recognize the significant individual, societal, and economic burden imposed by hearing loss and related disorders. The opportunity to combine my scientific curiosity with the potential to make a meaningful impact on multiple levels continues to motivate me.
RNID funding provides me with the opportunity to carry out innovative research on a smaller scale, enabling me to gather the necessary proof of concept to secure larger, follow-up funding.
It supports exploratory work that can lead to breakthrough findings and future advancements in hearing research. RNID funding also means a great deal to me personally, since it allows me to contribute directly to improving the lives of people affected by hearing loss, tinnitus, and related conditions.