NIDCD Postdoc Receives ‘Best Paper’ Award for Discovery of Key Protein’s Function in Hearing

Saima Riazuddin, Ph.D., a research fellow in NIDCD’s Laboratory on Molecular Genetics, received the C. W. Cotterman Award at the 57th annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. Every year, the editorial board of the American Journal of Human Genetics, the society’s monthly scientific journal, selects the two best papers published by pre- or postdoctoral trainee members.

Dr. Riazuddin is the first author of the paper titled “Tricellulin Is a Tight-Junction Protein Necessary for Hearing.” An international effort involving researchers from England, Pakistan, and the United States, the paper describes how a genetic mutation caused deafness in four Pakistani families. The researchers found that the protein tricellulin, which is encoded by the TRIC gene, is present at the point where, under normal conditions, three cells meet to form barriers between compartments in the inner ear. One hypothesis is that a mutation in that gene causes a breakdown of these barriers, altering the ionic composition of fluids in the inner ear, and causing deafness.

The research was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Friedman, chief of the NIDCD Laboratory on Molecular Genetics, the unit responsible for studying hereditary hearing loss in humans and mice.

The C. W. Cotterman Award is named after the first editor of the monthly journal, and it was presented in San Diego, Calif., on October 27, 2007. Other authors included: Zubair M. Ahmed, Ayala Lagziel, Shin-ichiro Kitajiri, Parna Chattaraj, and Inna A. Belyantseva from NIDCD’s Laboratory of Molecular Genetics; Alan S. Fanning and James M. Anderson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Khushnooda Ramzan, Shaheen N. Khan, and Sheikh Riazuddin, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan; Penelope L. Friedman, National Institutes of Health; and Andrew Forge, University College London Ear Institute.

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