USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology

Research

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About Our Research Programs

Research is at the core of our mission, driving innovation in patient care, scientific discovery, and medical education. At USC, our faculty are dedicated not only to delivering the standard of care but also to advancing it through high-impact research that transforms lives. As a major research institution, we provide an environment where clinical excellence and academic inquiry intersect, offering trainees exposure to a spectrum of cases that enhance their learning and inform their research. With access to cutting-edge technology in genetics, stem cell medicine, neuroscience, and biomedical engineering, our researchers are pioneering groundbreaking solutions for disorders of the head and neck, ensuring that our advancements move seamlessly from bench to bedside.

Dr. Ksenia Gnedeva working at her lab.

Divisions

Our department has basic, translational and clinical research arms:

Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Head and Neck Surgery

Laryngology and Voice

Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery

Rhinology and Anterior Skull Base Surgery

Sleep Surgery

Speech Language Pathology

USC OHNS research faculty James Dewey.

Research Highlights

Applegate Lab & Oghalai Lab

  • Co-founded AO Technologies, LLC, focused on developing a high-performance, cost-effective OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) otoscope with potential expansion into other OCT diagnostic devices.

Center for Auditory and Vestibular Exploration

  • The Center for Auditory and Vestibular Exploration (CAVE) is a hub of core research facilities within the Caruso Department of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery. Dedicated to advancing the science of hearing and balance, CAVE offers cutting-edge infrastructure and expertise for conducting auditory and vestibular research.

Charaziak Lab

  • Dr. Karolina Charaziak received an NIDCD R21 Exploratory Research Grant to develop diagnostic tools for recognizing functional and physiological effects of sensory hearing loss.

Dewey Lab

  • Dr. James Dewey’s lab received the first major 5-year grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health to study “Mechanisms of amplification and nonlinearity in the mouse cochlea.”

Gnedeva Lab

  • Published collaborative research with with Gage Crump and the late Neil Segil was published in PNAS and featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.
  • identified a core gene network that suppresses regeneration in both the organ of Corti and retina (PNAS, 2024).
  • Awarded a Department of Defense grant and secured a USC patent for work on Yap Inhibition for Treatment of Vestibular Schwannoma.

Auditory Physics Group

  • Alessandro Altoè and Christopher Shera—through a fruitful collaboration with Drs. James Dewey, John Oghalai, and Karolina Charaziak—have developed a groundbreaking new model of how outer hair cells mechanically enhance the ear’s sensitivity. This work overturns long-standing paradigms in the field. Although initially met with resistance, the new conception has rapidly gained acceptance and inspired significant follow-up research.
    • Altoè, A, Dewey JB, Charaziak KK, Oghalai JS, Shera CA (2022). Overturning the mechanisms of cochlear amplification via area deformations of the organ of Corti. J Acoust Soc Am, 152, 2227-2239.
    • Shera CA, Altoè A (2023). Otoacoustic emissions reveal the micromechanical role of the organ of Corti cytoarchitecture in cochlear amplification. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 120, e2305921120.
  • A long-standing mystery in auditory science is why the inner ear processes high- and low-frequency sounds so differently. We have traced the origin of this difference to cochlear geometry, which tapers from regions tuned to high frequencies to those tuned to low frequencies. We further demonstrated that this tapering is essential not only for frequency tuning but also for reducing noise and enhancing the overall performance of the inner ear.
    • Altoè A, Shera CA (2020). The cochlear ear horn: Geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing. Sci Rep, 10, 20528
    • Altoè A, Shera CA (2024). Noise within: Signal-to-noise enhancement via coherent wave amplification in the mammalian cochlea. Phys Rev Res, 6, 013084