Jonathan Ashmore Explained

Jonathan Ashmore
Birth Name:Jonathan Felix Ashmore
Fields:Hearing
Biophysics
Workplaces:University College London
University of Bristol
International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Education:Westminster School
Alma Mater:University of Sussex (BSc)
Imperial College London (PhD)
University College London (MSc)
Thesis Title:Aspects of quantum field theory
Thesis Url:http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.623991
Thesis Year:1972
Doctoral Advisor:Tom Kibble
Doctoral Students:Dan Jagger[1]
Awards:Croonian Lecture (2017)
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Jonathan Felix Ashmore (born 1948) is a British physicist and Bernard Katz Professor of Biophysics at University College London.[2]

Early life and education

Ashmore is the son of renowned theatre director and actor Peter Ashmore and distinguished actress Rosalie Crutchley.[3]

Educated at Westminster School as a Queen's Scholar, he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Sussex followed by a PhD in theoretical physics in 1971 supervised by Tom Kibble at Imperial College London where his research investigated quantum field theory.[4]

Career and research

After a short postdoctoral research fellowship supervised by Abdus Salam at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy he retrained as a physiologist at UCL, gaining a Master of Science degree in 1974 which led to work with Paul Fatt and Gertrude Falk[5] between 1974 and 1977 in the Biophysics Department.

Ashmore was appointed a Lecturer in Physiology at the University of Bristol in 1983 and promoted to Reader in 1988, before moving back to UCL in 1993.

Ashmore has worked on dissecting the cellular mechanisms of hearing by studying the organ of Corti in the mammalian cochlea[6] especially the guinea pig (Cavia porcellus).[7] [8] This structure in the inner ear increases the selectivity and sensitivity of our hearing through an in-built cochlear amplifier. He showed that specialised cells known as outer hair cells are responsible for this unique function.[9] [10]

In response to sound, outer hair cells lengthen then shorten through a process controlled and powered by the flow of electrically charged molecules such as potassium ions.[11] This contraction propagates and amplifies sound, and he was the first to capture it on film during his Rock Around the Clock Hair Cell video.[2]

His work has combined biophysical methods – including the patch clamp technique usually applied to membrane proteins – with confocal microscopy imaging and computational modelling to expand our knowledge of hearing at the molecular and cellular level. His findings are helping to unravel the nature and origins of hearing-related conditions like deafness and tinnitus.[12]

His research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC)[13] and he has supervised several doctoral students to completion including Dan Jagger.[1]

Awards and honours

Ashmore was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1996 and gave their Croonian Lecture in 2017 on the neuroscience of deafness.[14] He is also an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) and a member of both the Association for Research in Otolaryngology and The Biophysical Society.

Ashmore is Faculty of 1000 section head for Sensory Systems[15] and a trustee for the Hearing Research Trust. He served as president of The Physiological Society from 2012 to 2014.

Personal life

Aged seven, Ashmore played Joe in the 1955 film A Kid for Two Farthings, adapted from the novel by Wolf Mankowitz. Through his mother, Ashmore is descended from the 1st Earl of Leicester and his second wife, Lady Anne Amelia Keppel, a descendant of Charles II of England.

Notes and References

  1. PhD. University of Bristol. Modulation of ion channels in outer hair cells from the mammalian cochlea. Daniel James. Jagger. 1996. ethos.bl.uk. 931565011.
  2. Web site: Professor Jonathan Ashmore Lab Page . ucl.ac.uk. University College London . 2017 . 2017-04-25. Anon. https://web.archive.org/web/20170426055617/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ear/research/pi/ashmorelab. 2017-04-26.
  3. News: Purser . Philip . 1997-08-20 . The Director's Cut, Guardian Obituary, Peter Ashmore . 2024-04-09 . . 16.
  4. PhD. University of London. Aspects of quantum field theory. Jonathan Felix. Ashmore. 1972. ethos.bl.uk. 930651621. 10044/1/16203.
  5. Web site: Anon. 2008. Physiological Society obituary: Gertrude Falk 1925-2008. dcscienece.net.
  6. Housley. G. D.. Ashmore. J. F.. 1991. Direct Measurement of the Action of Acetylcholine on Isolated Outer Hair Cells of the Guinea Pig Cochlea. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences. en. 244. 1310. 161–167. 10.1098/rspb.1991.0065. 0962-8452. 1679550. 1991RSPSB.244..161H. 1950263.
  7. Ashmore. J. F.. Meech. R. W.. 1986. Ionic basis of membrane potential in outer hair cells of guinea pig cochlea. 2426595 . Nature. en. 322. 6077. 368–371. 10.1038/322368a0. 1986Natur.322..368A. 4371640.
  8. Nobili. Renato. Mammano. Fabio. Ashmore. Jonathan. 1998. How well do we understand the cochlea?. Trends in Neurosciences. 21. 4. 159–167. 10.1016/s0166-2236(97)01192-2. 9554726. 15474808. 11577/2461756. free.
  9. Ashmore. Jonathan Felix. 1987. A fast motile response in guinea-pig outer hair cells: the cellular basis of the cochlear amplifier. The Journal of Physiology. en. 388. 1. 323–347. 10.1113/jphysiol.1987.sp016617. 1469-7793. 3656195 . 1192551.
  10. Ashmore. Jonathan. 2008. Cochlear Outer Hair Cell Motility. Physiological Reviews. en. 88. 1. 173–210. 10.1152/physrev.00044.2006. 0031-9333. 18195086.
  11. Housley. G D. Ashmore. J F. 1992. Ionic currents of outer hair cells isolated from the guinea-pig cochlea.. 1593487 . 1176188. The Journal of Physiology. en. 448. 1. 73–98. 10.1113/jphysiol.1992.sp019030. 1469-7793.
  12. Web site: Anon. 1996. Professor Jonathan Ashmore FMedSci FRS. royalsociety.org. Royal Society. London. https://web.archive.org/web/20151117003552/https://royalsociety.org/people/jonathan-ashmore-11009/. 2015-11-17. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
  13. Web site: Anon. 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171031131907/http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/person/4F167754-DA3F-476D-A1E3-06C3DF342BF3. 2017-10-31. UK Government Grants awarded to Jonathan Ashmore. gtr.rcuk.ac.uk. Swindon. Research Councils UK.
  14. Ashmore, Jonathan (2017)
  15. Web site: Jonathan Ashmore: Section Head in Sensory Systems - F1000Prime . F1000.com . Anon . 2011 . 2017-04-25 . 2012-04-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120405193122/http://f1000.com/thefaculty/member/4033843402519366 . dead .