Megan Beers Wood, PhD
Clinical Interests
Cochlea, noise-induced hearing loss, immunology, hyperacusis, pain
Research Information
Dr. Beers Wood combines her training in immunology with her postdocs in auditory neuroscience to study basic mechanisms of hearing. She is also passionate about teaching the creativity that science requires through mentoring. The Hearing Response Mechanisms through Observations of Neuro-Immunity in the Cochlea (HARMONIC) Laboratory, uses a combination of techniques including fluorescent imaging, flow cytometry, and deep neural network analysis of facial grimace and movement to understand how the immune system and neurons of the cochlea interact after exposure to loud noise. The long-term goal of Dr. Beers Wood’s research is to develop interventions to prevent or treat noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) or NIHL associated conditions such as pain hyperacusis.
Publications
Seicol BJ, Valles A, Kohler A, Glowatzki E, Wood MB. Machine Learning Guided Video Analysis Identifies Sound-Evoked Pain Behaviors from Facial Grimace and Body Cues in Mice. bioRxiv. 2025 Oct 2;. doi: 10.1101/2025.09.30.679579. PubMed PMID: 41256403; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12621839.
Nowak N, Wood MB, Glowatzki E, Fuchs PA. Prior Acoustic Trauma Alters Type II Afferent Activity in the Mouse Cochlea. eNeuro. 2021 Nov-Dec;8(6). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0383-21.2021. Print 2021 Nov-Dec. PubMed PMID: 34607806; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8589282.
Rai V, Wood MB, Feng H, Schabla NM, Tu S, Zuo J. The immune response after noise damage in the cochlea is characterized by a heterogeneous mix of adaptive and innate immune cells. Sci Rep. 2020 Sep 16;10(1):15167. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-72181-6. PubMed PMID: 32938973; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7495466.