About the Lab

Directed by Dr. Emily Kimball, the Voice Biology Lab focuses on the biological and physiological basis for vocal fold health and pathology. We are particularly interested in understanding the specific cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the vocal folds maintain their ability to vibrate freely. Along with this goal, we also seek to understand the circumstances that ultimately lead to the development of vocal fold lesions like nodules and polyps, which cause disordered voice production.

Our work is divided across a few ideas:

  1. What keeps the vocal folds healthy in people who don't have voice disorders but use their voice a lot? What is happening in the tissue in these cases?
  2. How can we better predict when someone is at greater risk of developing lesions? What behavioral and environmental factors actually matter?
  3. How can we better align clinicians in the way we talk about lesions and voice pathology? Out goal is to communicate better about our patients and draw more specific insight from their treatment outcomes through validated protocols and measures.

It is our hope that the work done in this laboratory can have a positive impact on the clinical care for patients with voice disorders.

  • Ashton working with primary vocal fold cells in the biosafety cabinet. These cells are a very effective way to collect data on cell responses to chemical and physical stimuli in a controlled environment.
  • Lillian working at the cryostat, cutting frozen tissue sections and placing them on glass slides.
  • Immunofluorescence imaging is an effective way to quantify and localize proteins of interest within sections of vocal fold tissue.
  • Dr. Kimball presenting our work on vocal fold epithelial primary cell culture at the Fall Voice conference.
  • VUMC is beautiful in the Fall, with many trees of many colors!
  • Cell culture is a critical tool that we use to study vocal fold cell interactions and mechanics in a controlled environment.
  • Dr. Kimball looking at fluorescently labeled slides under the microscope. The images collected will be used for quantitative analysis.