The zebrafish lateral line provides a powerful tool to discover drugs, potential drugs, and genes that affect hearing in the human population.
Beyond their translational aspects, molecules that induce or promote hair cell survival possess the power to provide information about the pathways involved in these processes. A better understanding of the pathways involved in ototoxin-induced hair cell death and regeneration will maximize efficiency at which we can predictively design drugs based on their target interactions.
These tools have broader impact in their ability to evaluate the similarities and distinctions between druginduced hair cell death and noise- or age-related hair cell damage.