I was born in France and moved to the United States in Fall of 1999. My passion for inner ear research began as an undergraduate student at the University of Montpellier (France) when I first saw a sensory hair cell under the microscope! During my graduate and post-graduate studies, I was fortunate to train with some wonderful scientists including Corne Kros (Sussex University, UK), Guy Richardson (Sussex University, UK), Jonathan Ashmore (UCL, UK) and David Corey (HHMI, Harvard Medical School, USA). During my graduate work I developed a preparation which allowed me to record the first mechanotransduction currents from vestibular hair cells of the mammalian inner ear (Géléoc et al. 1996, 1997). I realized that there was much to be learned by analyzing the pattern of functional developmental of inner ear hair cells around the time of birth. An obvious prerequisite for understanding vestibular and auditory disorders is knowledge of how hair cells develop in the normal state. Hair cells of the inner ear have the critical role of converting sound and head movement information into electrical signals which are transmitted to the brain. Precisely how and when hair cells acquire mechanosensitivity is a major focus of my ongoing research. As an Assistant Professor at Boston Children’s Hospital I am also interested in the functional disruptions that are caused by mutations in hair cell genes, particularly those that cause congenital auditory and vestibular disorders in humans. Armed with a better understanding of hair cell function and dysfunction, I aim to identify methods to protect or restore function in the sensory cells of the inner ear.