Biography
Dr. Waldhaus received a M.S. in Biology from the University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany in 2005 studying development and regeneration of the lateral line in zebra fish (danio rerio). In 2010 Dr. Waldhaus received a Ph.D. in Biology from the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany. He was working on the regenerative Biology of the murine inner ear in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Löwenheim. Between 2011 and 2017 Dr. Waldhaus was working as a Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Associate and Instructor in the Heller Laboratory at Stanford University investigating development and regeneration of cochlear hair cells and supporting cells. As of January 2018 the Kresge Hearing Research Institute of the University of Michigan appointed Dr. Waldhaus as Assistant Professor and he joined an affiliate appointment in the Center of Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics (CCMB).
Areas of Interest
Hair Cell and Supporting Cell Regeneration. Main focus of the lab is regeneration of sensory hair and supporting cells in vertebrates. As hair cells in vertebrates do not regenerate spontaneously there are different strategies to overcome hearing loss at a cellular level. The lab has experience in drug based approaches directly manipulating target gene transcription or interfering with epigenetic regulation of target genes. Alternatively, we employed stem cell based approaches using tissue specific stem cells and induced or embryonic pluripotent stem cells to generate hair cell like cells.
Development of the Organ of Corti. Development of rational treatment strategies to overcome hearing loss relies on our understanding of how the organ of Corti forms during embryogenesis. Our lab uses single cell transcriptomics and flow sorting to investigate developmental processes at high resolution and the results are considered as the basis for our future research strategies.
Honors & Awards
2016: NIH/NIDCD Early Career Research (ECR) Award (R21): 1R21DC015861-01 “Tonotopic cell identity in the murine organ of Corti”
2013: German Research Foundation (DFG) Research Fellowship: Wa 3420/1-1; “Identification of human GJB2 35delG modifying genes using induced pluripotent stem cells”
2012: Stanford University, Dean’s Fellowship; “Induced pluripotent stem cells generated from DFNB1patients homozygous for the GJB2 35delG mutation”
Published Articles or Reviews
Please follow this link to My Bibliography
