By Tara Guastella
From November 10 to 12, the annual meeting of the Hearing Restoration Project consortium took place in Seattle to discuss progress of their research toward a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.
The weekend started with a team-building outing at two of Seattle's iconic attractions: Chihuly Glass Museum and the Space Needle. The group first admired a colorful array of beautiful glass sculptures at the museum, followed by a marvelous 360-degree view of Seattle. The group then enjoyed a relaxed dinner together before the real work of the meeting was to commence.
Early Monday morning, each group of researchers began presenting their progress on the five funded HRP projects. Each of the groups presented their initial findings on the genomics of mouse, chicken, and zebrafish studies. This work helps us learn how these animals are capable of inner ear hair cell regeneration in order to identify ways to translate this to humans. Each member of the consortium contributed to the discussion on how we can compare this cross-species data, something that would not be possible without the collaborative design of the HRP.
The progress of the work on each project led to a discussion of how to update the HRP’s Strategic Research Plan to reflect what we have learned through the first year and a half of funding these HRP projects. Check back on our website for the updated plan, to be published online soon, as well as in a future issue of Hearing Health magazine.
