Andrew Griffith, MD, PhD
Entry Id: TP-84

Overview
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has a three-year training program in clinical and basic research on hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech and language. The program is open to physicians who have completed their medical training and are either Board certified or eligible otolaryngologists and is designed to provide trainees with the high-quality clinical and laboratory skills that will enable them to pursue careers in academic medicine.

Structure of the Clinical Training Program
The Fellows devote approximately 25% of their time to the NIDCD Otolaryngology Clinical service at the NIH Clinical Center, the research hospital for the intramural clinical program of the National Institutes of Health. The patients under study have a wide variety of otolaryngologic problems associated with communication disorders, (especially hearing and vestibular disorders), cancer, neurologic disorders, cranio-facial anomalies, and genetic disorders affecting the human communication systems. Fellows receive broad instruction in clinical research in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery and have an opportunity to collaborate with clinical scientists throughout the NIH and other collaborating units. Opportunities exist for collaborations with other medical research facilities.

Structure of the Research Training Program
The core of the program is the research training obtained in one of the basic or clinical laboratories of the NIDCD. Approximately 75% of the Fellow's time is protected for research under the mentorship of one of the MDs or PhDs on the NIDCD senior staff. Individualized research programs are designed to accommodate the Fellow's interest and available resources. Fellows may chose from a variety of the ongoing research programs.

• Thomas B. Friedman, PhD, Section on Human Genetics; maps and clones genes responsible for congenital and delayed onset hearing impairments and other communication disorders.
• Richard Chadwick, PhD, Section on Auditory Mechanics; studies the basic mechanisms relating to frequency discrimination of pure tones and processing of complex sounds in the cochlea using advanced modeling techniques.
• Lisa Cunningham, PhD. Section on Sensory Cell Biology – studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of sensory hair cell survival and death with the goal of developing clinical therapies to prevent or reverse hearing loss.
• Andrew Griffith, MD, PhD, Otolaryngology Branch; investigation of genes and molecular mechanisms of hereditary disorders of hearing and balance.
• Bechara Kachar, MD, Section on Structural Cell Biology; investigates the cellular and molecular functions of the inner ear.
• Carter Van Waes, MD, PhD, Tumor Biology Section; investigates the role of genes in tumor progression and develops new targeted therapies for squamous cell carcinoma which affect human communication.
• Allen R. Braun, MD, Language Section; conducts functional neuroimaging studies on speech formulation and language processing.

Examples of Papers Authored by Program Faculty

• Bradberry TJ, Verhagen Metman L, van den Munckhof P, Hosey LA, Thompson JLW, Schulz GM, Lenz, F, Pawha R, Lyons KE, Braun AR. Overlapping responses to dopamine agonist therapy and deep brain stimulation in Parkinson's disease: an H215O PET study. Brain Stimul. 2011 Oct 5.
• Francis SP, Kramarenko II, Brandon CS, Lee FS, Baker TG, Cunningham LL. Celastrol Inhibits Aminoglycoside-Induced Ototoxicity via Heat Shock Protein 32 (HSP32). Cell Death Dis. 2011 Aug 25;2:e195. doi: 10.1038/cddis.2011.76.
• Kawashima Y, Géléoc GS, Kurima K, Labay V, Lelli A, Asai Y, Makishima T, Wu DK, Della Santina CC, Holt JR, Griffith AJ. Mechanotransduction in mouse inner ear hair cells requires transmembrane channel-like genes. J Clin Invest. 2011 Dec 1;121(12):4796-809. doi: 10.1172/JCI60405. Epub 2011 Nov 21.
• Smith S, Chadwick RS. Simulation of the motion of an inner hair cell bundle to an acoustical stimulus. PLoS One 2011; 6(3): e18161. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018161
• Lu H, Duggal P, Allen C, Yan B, Nottingham L, Yang XP, Cohen J, Nottingham L, King KE, Weinberg WC, Chen Z and Van Waes C. TNF-α promotes c-REL/ΔNp63α interaction and TAp73 dissociation from key genes that mediate growth arrest and apoptosis in head and neck cancer. Cancer Res. 2011 Nov 1;71(21):6867-77.
• Grati M, Kachar B. Myosin VIIa and sans localization at stereocilia upper tip-link density implicates these Usher syndrome proteins in mechanotransduction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Jul 12;108(28):11476-81.
• Schultz JM, Bhatti R, Madeo AC, Turriff A, Muskett JA, Zalewski CK, King KA, Ahmed ZM, Riazuddin, Nazir S, Ahmad N, Hussain Z, Qasim M, Khan S, Meltzer MR, Liu XZ, Munisamy M, Ghosh M, Rehm HL, Tsilou ET, Griffith AJ, Zein WM, Brewer CC, Riazuddin S, Friedman TB. Allelic hierarchy of CDH23 mutations causing non-syndromic deafness DFNB12 or Usher syndrome USH1D in compound heterozygotes. J Med Genet. 2011 Nov;48(11):767-75.

Other Opportunities
Fellows are eligible to participate in other training opportunities at the NIH and collaborating organizations. Examples are:

• Introduction to the Principals and Practice of Clinical Research offered by the NIH Clinical Center.
• Medical Genetics Fellowship Program sponsored by the National Human Genome Research Institute which may lead to Board certification in human genetics.

Participation in such training programs is left to the discretion of the Fellow.

The NIDCD Otolaryngology Research Training Program will accept one or two fellows per academic year. All candidates must be Board certified or eligible otolaryngologists. Accepted Fellows are approved for appointments of three years duration with a possible extension to five years. Candidates should apply in the Fall, one year prior to the scheduled date of entry, which is in July. Interviews by invitation will be held between November and March of each academic year.

The NIH is dedicated to building a diverse community in its training and employment programs.

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