In summer 2020, Erica Patino, who lives with a genetic hearing loss, interviewed Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) President & CEO about our research programs and progress toward hearing loss cures.

HHF’s focus has always been and remains funding the basic science that propels scientific knowledge forward and comprises the building blocks in the development of new treatments, devices, and approaches. Basic science research is foundational and critical to finding cures for hearing loss.

HHF’s Hearing Restoration Project consortium expects that a potential cure for hearing loss may be realized through hair cell regeneration, Timothy explains. Many instances of hearing loss are sensorineural: caused by the death of sensory cells (hair cells) of the inner ear. Most animals—including birds, frogs, and fish—are capable of regenerating their hair cells after these cells have died. However, mammals—including humans—cannot regenerate hair cells in the cochlea (hearing organ) of their inner ears, making a sensorineural hearing loss in humans permanent.

Erica Patino is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of hearing loss informational website Hear2Tell that provides “the real-world scoop on living with hearing loss and hearing loss cure advances.”

She says, “A virtual lifetime of hearing loss has left me with more questions than answers, which is why I started this website. My natural curiosity as a writer, and a desire for hearing people to better understand the hearing-impaired experience, fuels me. And I’ve closely followed the advances towards a hearing loss cure for over a decade — and want to share more about this exciting field of research.”

Read the full interview from Hear2Tell: “Hearing Health Foundation: Advancing the Search for Hearing Loss Cures.”