In recent years, six or seven protein components of the transduction channel complex have been identified because they are encoded by deafness genes. But we don’t know exactly how the proteins are arranged in a complex, how they bind to each other, where the ion conduction pathway is within the channels, how force causes a conformational change to open channels, or where Ca2+ binds to the proteins to mediate a fast adaption process. Human genetics has handed us a box of watch parts, and we must fit them together to understand they work. The Corey lab is doing this with a combination of electrophysiology, electron microscopy, cell biology, protein chemistry, structural biology, and single-molecule biophysics.