Our research combines Drosophila genetics, molecular biology and electrophysiology to investigate the cellular and molecular basis for the mechanical senses: touch, hearing and proprioception.  We focus on mechanosensory signaling in ciliated sensory neurons and in sperm flagella, using genetics to discover their molecular working parts, in particular the mechanically-activated ion channels that convert touch and sound into electrical receptor potentials.  Flies are ideal for getting to grips with mechanosensation: in addition to their powerful genetics, they bear thousands of mechanosensory bristles, each innervated by a single neuron, with striking physiological similarities to the sensory cells in the human ear.   We begin with behavioral mutants that are touch-insensitive, uncoordinated and/or deaf. Signal-transducing proteins that we have discovered include an extracellular protein that links neuronal sensory endings to bristles, and the first sound-transducing channels to be identified in any organism.