Welcome

Welcome to the BNCD Center directed by Mabel L. Rice at the University of Kansas. The BNCD is funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (P30-DC005803). BNCD is affiliated with the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies. Currently, 13 BNCD researchers are addressing the causes and treatment of communication disorders across the life span from infancy to old age.

Guide to BNCD Services

Core services are:

• ATT - Analytic Techniques and Technology Core
• DEEC - Digital Electronics and Engineering Core
• PARC - Participant Recruitment and Management Core

Who can use BNCD services?

University of Kansas researchers with externally-funded projects related to the mission of BNCD. Preference is given to NIH-funded projects. To be invited to join the Center, submit a brief formal request to Director Mabel Rice, bncd@ku.edu. All projects are approved for affiliation based on scientific merit and relevance to the BNCD mission.

Where are services located?

Researchers are located at both the Lawrence and the Medical Center campuses of the University of Kansas. The BNCD administrative office is in suite 3031 of the Dole Human Development Center on Sunnyside Avenue in Lawrence, Kansas.

What are the benefits of affiliation with the Center?

The Center fosters productivity and collaboration among a group of leading scientists from a variety of disciplines. Shared resources enlarge the potential impact and the ease of doing research. The Center makes available the expertise of staff members who are skilled in statistics, participant recruitment, and computer engineering.

Research

Dianne Durham and Mark Chertoff, scientists at the KU Medical Center and BNCD investigators, document hearing loss in chickens to gain useful information about the human ability to hear. "When people age, the sensory cells that translate sound into a signal change," said Durham, "and what makes it worse is exposure to loud noise on the job or in recreational activities like hunting." Durham (PI) works collaboratively with Mark Chertoff and Doug Girod, blending two methods -- physiology and anatomy. When asked what else makes their work unique, Durham said "We examine the peripheral nervous system in addition to the brain. Researchers tend to concentrate on one or the other." Their goal is to find ways to prevent damage to the cochlea in the ear. Durham also wants to understand why some people are more susceptible to damage from noise than others. "In mouse models," Durham said, "we already know that certain breeds are more susceptible to hearing loss." Durham's experiments extend this knowledge to chickens. She has proven that broiler chickens sustain more damage to the ear than another breed of chicken raised commercially. Her grant involves long-term exposure to noise in chicken coops, but she is also interested in looking at brief exposure to extremely loud noise. In the end, she hopes to sort out the causes of damage -- what is simply part of normal aging and how do changes in the environment contribute?

News and Announcements

Investigators affiliated with BNCD have over the past year submitted several successful grant proposals. The number of NIH grant awards at the Center has therefore increased from 26 to 31.

Read more about research by BNCD investigator John Colombo and a new NIH grant project.