# Multiple roles of the Notch Ligand, Jagged1, in Sensory Development of the Cochlea

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2021 · $46,036

## Abstract

Abstract
Hearing loss is a common health issue that affects millions of people worldwide. Most hearing loss is the result
of damage to the organ of Corti, the sensory region of the cochlea in the inner ear. Unfortunately, once damage
occurs to critical cell types within the organ of Corti, including hair cells (HC), supporting cells (SC), and neurons,
these cells cannot be repaired or regenerated. Understanding the genetic and molecular factors involved in the
development of these critical cell types will aid future studies on deriving the regeneration and repair of these
cells. Thus, it is necessary to gain a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in inner ear
development. Studies have shown that a number of genes, such as the Notch ligand Jag1 and transcription
factor Sox2, are critical for sensory formation in the ear. However, it is unclear how these genes act to promote
sensory formation. The goal of this proposal is to investigate the role(s) of these genes during cochlear
development through two specific aims. In the first aim, I will investigate whether there are multiple roles for
JAG1 during cochlear development. My preliminary data suggest that, by knocking JAG1 out at different time
points during development, different phenotypes are observed. Early, JAG1 is expressed throughout the sensory
region and has been implicated in sensory specification. Previous studies of Jag1 conditional knockouts show
loss of sensory cell formation, supporting JAG1 role in sensory progenitor development. Previous data also
indicates that Notch may be involved in boundary formation later in development. Thus, I will dissect the
functional role(s) of Jag1 during embryonic cochlear development by conditionally knocking out Jag1 at different
developmental time points to determine when and how JAG1 is required for sensory development. In the second
part of Aim 1, I will determine whether JAG1 is sufficient to expand the pool of sensory progenitors. Previous
studies have shown that early ectopic Notch activation, leads to the formation of ectopic sensory regions,
indicating Notch is sufficient to drive sensory formation. To test whether JAG1 is the ligand that mediates this
role, I will overexpress Jag1 during early otic development and determine whether this can create expanded or
ectopic sensory regions. In Aim 2, I will examine the relationship between JAG1 and SOX2. Previous data
showed that Notch activation upregulates SOX2, whereas knocking out Jag1 downregulates SOX2, indicating
that JAG1 is an upstream molecular regulator of SOX2. Thus, I will investigate whether JAG1 acts via SOX2 to
establish sensory progenitor cell formation. To accomplish this, I will overexpress Sox2 in JAG1 loss-of-function
embryos to determine if sensory information can be rescued. Results from this proposal will provide a better
understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying cochlear development, which may be key to
understanding possible regenerative ca...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10242086
- **Project number:** 5F31DC018478-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Courtney C. Kellogg
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $46,036
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10242086

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10242086, Multiple roles of the Notch Ligand, Jagged1, in Sensory Development of the Cochlea (5F31DC018478-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10242086. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*