Instead of beakers and Bunsen burners, two teams of Northwestern researchers were inspired by crescendos and half-notes.

In a groundbreaking find, the researchers singled out the protein responsible for the functioning of the outer hair cell in human ears and named it Prestin after the speedy musical tempo presto.

The team, led by neurobiology and physiology Prof. Peter Dallos and endocrinology Prof. Laird D. Madison, published its influential finding in the May 11 issue of Nature.

They discovered that the protein is a molecular motor that operates faster than other motors like it and could be proven to cause outer ear cells to expand and contract to detect sound waves.

“This is a very exciting protein of all the ones we’ve found,” said Jing Zheng, a research associate who worked on the molecular biology team to target the gene. “None of them have such a motor.”

Material science and engineering Prof. Laurence Marks said the discovery is important for the field of nanotechnology because the motor could be used as a pump to deliver medicine to patients. Unlike other molecular motors, he said, it converts electricity into mechanical motion.

“It has so much potential,” Marks said. “There are only a few molecular motors known and this one seems to be the most versatile.”

Researchers said if they could mutate the gene in mice, they could determine whether it plays a vital role in human hearing.

When researchers applied voltage to the hair cells in the ear, the hairs “danced.” And Zheng said scientists have long debated how the protein condenses and contracts in response to the voltage.

The discovery of the protein is the first major step in revealing that process, Zheng said.

Kevin Long, a technician who worked with the molecular biology researchers, said he enjoyed the project because it brought together his lab of molecular biologists with audiologists.

“They were more interested in the implications of hearing and audiology and we’re interested in how this protein works,” Long said. “It’s two very disparate fields. It’s a real synergy.”

Other motors in the body, such as muscles, operate at a fraction of the speed of the Prestin motor, said Hearing Sciences Prof. Mario Ruggero.

“Humans can hear up to 20,000 vibrations per second, so whatever the process that is helping these vibrations has to be very fast,” Ruggero said. “The beauty of the motor that they cloned is that it seems to be the fastest motor perhaps that we know of.”