User:Kkhunge/Karen Steel

Early Life[edit]
In her early academic years, Steel was originally interested in studying English. Her first exposure biology, and also what solidified her biological science career path, was in sixth grade. Steel had the opportunity to hear Dorothy Hodgkin speak at Bristol University about insulin, marking her first time encountering a woman in science. This experience greatly influenced her interest in studying genetics.

Education[edit]
Steel obtained her first degree from Leeds University. She then received her PhD from University College London for her investigatory work into the inner ear in several deaf mouse mutants. She set up the mouse genetics and deafness research programme at the newly established MRC Institute of Hearing Research in Nottingham. Following a second postdoc in Munich, she returned to Nottingham to lead mouse genetics research.

Research[edit]
Steel studies the genetics behind deafness, mainly focusing on the genetics of mice in order to identify the genes involved as well as to further understand the molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms involved with being deaf. Steel began by aiming to identify the various spontaneous mutants in mice as well as the various processes that result in mouse deafness. This lead to Steel developing a screening technique, a triaging process, that allowed for the characterization of mutant mice that have hearing and imbalance issues. This lead to ability to find and characterize the specific genes involved in these issues, with these issues being caused by altered hair cells or auditory parts. Steel's mouse genetic project also involved knocking out various genes not extensively studied and observing whether these genes are essential or nonessential in the mouse hearing. Steel and her research group have published phenotypic descriptions of over 80 different mouse mutants. Currently, her research is focused on the progressive loss of auditory functions in which she uses the mouse models to diagram the timeline of auditory loss in humans. She also looks for specific mutated genes that are known to contribute and lead to hearing loss, allowing her to target genes that could be potentially targeted in treatments for progressive hearing loss. As of 2014, Steel and her team has found genes involved in progressive hearing loss and has moved forward in identifying the various pathways that these genes are a part of.