Doctoral student receives award for audiology research

GREENVILLE, N.C.  —   Bruce Mock, an East Carolina University doctoral candidate in clinical audiology, has received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health.

The award will support his dissertation research and is approximately $30,000 annually, which includes a stipend, tuition and fees and additional money for travel or supplies.

Mock’s project will focus on characterizing age-related changes in auditory and vestibular function and comparing changes between the two sensory systems in mouse strains with different age-related hearing loss genetic mutations.

The work is expected to lead to a better understanding of inner ear aging and predisposing factors, such as genetics and sex, for age-related changes in vestibular and auditory function.

Mock’s dissertation is under the direction of Dr. Sherri Jones, associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the ECU School of Allied Health Sciences.

Jones has been studying the role genes may play in vestibular disorders including dizziness and imbalance through her own grant from the NIH. Her research has focused on vestibular deficits in mice, whose genes and inner ears are similar to humans.