Professor of Auditory Neuroscience
- Dr. med. (M.D.), 1995, University of Jena
- Postdoctoral fellow with E. Neher at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry, 1994 - 1997
- Group Leader at the Department of Otolaryngology, University of Göttingen since 1997

Major Research Interests
Our group focuses on the molecular physiology and pathology of sound encoding at the hair cell ribbon synapse. Molecular dissection and detailed physiological characterization of ribbon synapse function employ a spectrum of molecular, biophysical and physiological techniques such as single cell RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry of hair cells, auditory systems physiology (recordings of otoacoustic emissions, compound action potentials and auditory brainstem responses, single unit recordings), pre- or postsynaptic patch-clamp, optical methods (epifluorescence, evanescent wave and confocal imaging as well as flash photolysis of caged compounds).
The group has contributed to understanding normal hair cell ribbon synapse structure and function (reviews in Nouvian et al., 2006 and Moser et al., 2006). We have physiologically and morphologically characterized mutant mice with defects in hair cell synaptic coding (Brandt et al., 2003; Khimich et al., 2005, Roux et al., 2006, Ruel et al., 2008) and auditory nerve function (Lacas-Gervais et al., 2004).

Homepage Department/Research Group:
http://www.innerearlab.uni-goettingen.de/

Selected Recent Publications
- Frank, T, Khimich, D, Neef, A, and Moser, T. (2009) Mechanisms contributing to synaptic Ca2+ signals and their heterogeneity in hair cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 106:4483-8

- Meyer AC, Frank T, Khimich D, Hoch G, Riedel D, Chapochnikov, NM, Yarin YM, Harke B, Hell S, Egner A, Moser, T (2009) Tuning of Synapse Number, Structure and Function in the Cochlea, Nat Neurosci, 12:444-53

- Neef A, Khimich D, Pirih P, Wolf F, Moser T (2007) Probing the mechanism of exocytosis at the hair cell ribbon synapse J Neurosci. 27:12933-12944

- Nouvian R, Beutner D, Parsons TD, Moser T (2006) Structure and function of the hair cell ribbon synapse. J Membr Biol 209:153-65

- Roux I, Safieddine S, Nouvian R, Grati M, Simmler MC, Perfettini I, Le Gall M, Rostaing P, Hamard G,Triller A, Avan P, Moser T, Petit C (2006) Otoferlin, defective in DFNB9 deafness, is essential for the Ca2+-triggered synaptic exocytosis at the auditory hair cell ribbon synapse. Cell 127, 277-89

- Khimich D, Nouvian R, Pujol R, tom Dieck S, Egner A, Gundelfinger ED, Moser T (2005) Hair Cell Synaptic Ribbons are Essential for Synchronous Auditory Signaling. Nature 434: 889-94

- Brandt A, Khimich D, Moser T (2005) Few Ca_V 1.3 channels regulate a synaptic vesicle's exocytosis at the hair cell ribbon synapse. J Neurosci 25, 11577-11585