Skip to main content
  • College of Medicine
  • Apply
  • Visit
  • Alumni
  • Giving
  • Directory
  • Services
Home Physiology
  • About Us
  • People
  • Education
    • Scholars Program
    • Departmental Courses
    • Outreach Center
  • Graduate Program
  • Research
  • Seminar Series
  • About Us
    • How to Find Us
    • Department Committees
    • Department History
    • Job Opportunities
    • Physiology Leadership
    • Physiology Sharepoint Site
  • People
  • Education
    • Scholars Program
    • Outreach Center
    • Departmental Courses
  • Graduate Program
  • Research
    • Training Programs
    • Faculty Publications
    • Physiology Common Equipment
  • Seminar Series

Search form

Gregory Frolenkov, Ph.D.
gfrol2's picture
  • Connect
  • About
  • Education
  • Research
  • Publications
gregory.frolenkov@uky.edu
(859) 323-8729 (office)
(859) 323-8730 (lab)
800 Rose Street, Medical Science Building, Rm: MS-617, Lexington, KY 40536-0298
Promenade through Frolenkov inner ear lab
Position(s): 
Professor
Affiliation(s): 
Physiology
Interests / Specialties: 
Mechanisms of Inner Ear Mechanosensitivity
Bio / Education: 
  
MS, PhD, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology & Cardiology Research Center, USSR, 1978-1988
  
Lab Chief, Research Center for Audiology and Hearing Rehabilitation, Moscow, Russia, 1990-1997
  
Postdoc, National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 1997-2005
  
Professor, Department of Physiology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 2005-present
Research Description: 
Our goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms of mechano­sensitivity in the sensory cells of the mammalian inner ear, the hair cells.  This research is important not only because it is crucial for understanding our senses of hearing and balance, but also because hair cell studies often establish methodologies and serve as a model for exploring mechanotransduction in other systems.  Since most cases of severe hearing loss and deafness are associated with the damage to the inner ear hair cells, our experimental models are often relevant to the different types of deafness in humans.
We use mouse models with targeted gene deletion (knockout) or deafness-related mutations to determine the function of specific proteins.  The function is assessed at the cellular, molecular, and whole animal levels. We use patch-clamp techniques, 3D electron microscopy of cryo-preserved or freeze-substituted samples, live cell confocal microscopy, calcium imaging, superresolution optical imaging, and cochlear physiology techniques.  We also develop emerging nanotechnology to visualize individual proteins at the surface of a living cell and to probe their function.  Prospective post-doctoral fellows and graduate students are expected to learn cutting edge techniques of cell physiology and cell biology and collaborate with a number of laboratories across the country and overseas.
  
NEWS:
July 8, 2020 - Congratulations to Mike with his PhD defense!
June 10, 2020 - New grant, R01DC019054 (NIH/NIDCD)
Mar 9, 2020 - Congratulations to Shadan with her first first-author paper.
July 1, 2019 - It's official now. Cata has got a tenure-track faculty position. From now on, follow her research endeavors here.
July, 2019 - Abbey has got a travel award and her first oral presentation on a National Meeting.
June, 2019 - New paper in JCI Insight.
November, 2018 - New paper in Nature. Congratulations to Abbey!
June, 2018 - New grant, S10 OD025130 (NIH) - our EM infrastructure improves significantly.
June, 2018 - Cata has got her first grant from NIH (R21 DC017247).
May, 2018 - Shadan has got a first prize for the best poster on PGY Research Retreat.

April, 2018 - Cata has got another grant, now from the Hearing Health Foundation.

March, 2018 - Shadan has been accepted to the IBS program.
June, 2017 - New paper in Nature Communications.
May, 2017 - Mary has earned departmental Honors in Biology.
May, 2017 - Shawn has been selected to participate in the Woods Hole course on Inner Ear Biology.
March, 2017 - New paper in eLife.
March, 2017 - Shadan won a poster award at the 5th Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Chapter of the American Physiological Society.
November, 2016 - Cata has got her first grant as a PI from the American Hearing Research Foundation (AHRF).
  
Grants: 
R01 DC014658, R01 DC012564, S10 OD025130 (NIH), R01DC019054
Selected Publications: 
Katsuno T, Belyantseva IA, Cartagena-Rivera AX, Ohta K, Crump SM, Petralia RS, Ono K, Tona R, Imtiaz A, Rehman A, Kiyonari H, Kaneko M, Wang YX, Abe T, Ikeya M, Fenollar-Ferrer C, Riordan GP, Wilson E, Fitzgerald TS, Segawa K, Omori K, Ito J, Frolenkov GI, Friedman TB, Kitajiri S (2019) TRIOBP-5 sculpts stereocilia rootlet F-actin bundles and stiffens Deiters’ cells to transduce sound. JCI Insight, 4(12),  pii: 128561. DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.128561.
 
Chessum L, Matern MS, Kelly MC, Johnson SL, Ogawa Y, Milon B, McMurray M, Driver EC, Parker A, Song Y, Codner G, Esapa CT, Prescott J, Trent G, Wells S, Dragich AK, Frolenkov GI, Kelley MW, Marcotti W, Brown SDM, Elkon R, Bowl MR, Hertzano R (2018) Helios is a key transcriptional regulator of outer hair cell maturation. Nature. 563(7733): 696-700. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0728-4.
 
Giese APJ, Tang YQ, Sinha GP, Bowl MR, Goldring AC, Parker A, Freeman MJ, Brown SDM, Riazuddin S, Fettiplace R, Schafer WR, Frolenkov GI (co-corresponding author), Ahmed ZM (2017) CIB2 interacts with TMC1 and TMC2 and is essential for mechanotransduction in auditory hair cells. Nat. Commun., Jun 29;8(1):43. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00061-1.
This study in the news: ScienceDaily
  
Vélez-Ortega AC, Freeman MJ, Indzhykulian AA, Grossheim JM, Frolenkov GI. (2017) Mechanotransduction current is essential for stability of the transducing stereocilia in mammalian auditory hair cells. eLife, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24661. 
This study in the news: UKy News.
  
Elkon R, Milon B, Morrison L, Shah M, Vijayakumar S, Rarcherla M, Leitch CC, Silipino L, Hadi S, Weiss-Gayet M, Barras E, Schmid CD, Ait-Lounis A, Barnes A, Eisenman DJ, Frolenkov GI, Strome SE, Durand B, Zaghloul NA, Jones SM, Reith W, Hertzano R. (2015) RFX transcription factors are novel regulators of inner ear hair cell maturation and survival, Nat. Commun., Oct 15; 6:8549.
  
Fang Q, Indzhykulian AA, Mustapha M, Riordan GP, Dolan DF, Friedman TB, Belyantseva IA, Frolenkov GI, Camper SA, Bird JE. (2015) The 133-kDa N-terminal domain enables myosin 15 to maintain mechanotransducing stereocilia and is essential for hearing.  eLife, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.08627
  
Indzhykulian AA, Stepanyan RS, Nelina A, Spinelli KJ, Ahmed ZM, Belyantseva IA, Friedman TB, Barr-Gillespie PG, Frolenkov GI (2013) Molecular Remodeling of Tip Links Underlies Mechanosensory Regeneration in Auditory Hair Cells. PLoS Biol., Jun, 11(6):e1001583 (featured on the cover).
This study in the news: Cell, NIH Research Matters, UKy News, PLoS Biology, NIDCD/NIH, Science Daily.
  
Riazuddin S, Belyantseva IA, Giese A, Lee K, Indzhykulian AA, Nandamuri SP, Yousaf R, Shinha GP, Lee S, Terrell D, Hegde RS, Ali RA, Anwar S, Andrade-Elizondo PB, Sirmaci A, Parise LV, Basit S, Wali A, Ayub M, Ansar M, Ahmad W, Khan SN, Akram J, Tekin M, Riazuddin Sh, Cook T, Buschbeck EK, Frolenkov GI, Leal SM, Friedman TB, Ahmed ZM. (2012) Mutations of CIB2, a calcium and integrin binding protein, cause Usher syndrome type 1J and nonsyndromic deafness DFNB48. Nat. Genet. 44(11):1265-71.
This study in the news: ScienceDaily, Daily Mail (UK), US News.
  
Stepanyan RS, Indzhykulian AA, Vélez-Ortega AC, Boger ET, Steyger PS, Friedman TB, Frolenkov GI. (2011) TRPA1-mediated accumulation of aminoglycosides in mouse cochlear outer hair cells. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 12(6):729-40. 
  

Kitajiri S, Sakamoto T, Belyantseva IA, Goodyear RJ, Stepanyan R, Fujiwara I, Bird JE, Riazuddin S, Riazuddin S, Ahmed ZM, Hinshaw JE, Sellers J, Bartles JR, Hammer JA 3rd, Richardson GP, Griffith AJ, Frolenkov GI, Friedman TB. (2010) Actin-bundling protein TRIOBP forms resilient rootlets of hair cell stereocilia essential for hearing. Cell 141: 786-798 (featured on the cover).
This study in the news: NIDCD/NIH, Cell.
  

Novak P, Li C, Shevchuk AI, Stepanyan R, Caldwell M, Hughes S, Smart TG, Gorelik J, Ostanin VP, Lab MJ, Moss GWJ, Frolenkov GI (co-corresponding author), Klenerman D, Korchev YE. (2009) Hopping probe ion conductance microscopy allows nanoscale imaging of live complex cellular structures. Nat. Methods 6: 279-281 (featured on the cover).
  
Stepanyan R, Frolenkov GI. (2009) Fast adaptation and Ca2+-sensitivity of the mechanotransducer require myosin-XVa in inner but not outer cochlear hair cells.  J. Neurosci. 29: 4023-4034.
  
Other Publications in PubMed

Lab Information

Lab Members: 
Isabel Aristizabal-Ramirez
PhD student (first year)
 
Abbey Dragich
PhD student (first year)
 
Carolina Galeano-Naranjo
Visiting Scholar / Master student
 
Shadan Hadi, MS
PhD student
 
Recent Alumni:
A. Catalina Vélez-Ortega, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky
Ruben Stepanyan, PhD
Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University
Artur Indzhykulian, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard University
Ghanshyam Sinha, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Mike Grossheim, PhD
(in transition to faculty)
 
Lab Positions Available: 

Interested students and postdocs: Please check our promenade through Frolenkov's inner ear lab.

800 Rose Street, MS508
Lexington, KY 40536
Phone: 859-323-0886
Fax: 859-323-1070
© 2021 University of Kentucky College of Medicine
UK Medical Center MN 150 - Lexington KY, USA 40536-0298
Login
Privacy Policy