Sound-sensing protein finally found after 35-year hunt

A 35-year quest to understand the fundamentals of hearing may finally be over, after scientists in the US identified key proteins in inner-ear hair cells that produce an electrical response to sound.

While the idea of hair cell mechanosensory transduction was first proposed in the 1980s, the identity of the proteins that convert sound into electrical signals that the brain can interpret had remained elusive. Now, a team of researchers led by Harvard Medical School’s David Corey and Jeffrey Holt says it has conclusive evidence that a protein known as TMC1 forms the basis of hearing in vertebrates.