Join Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) for the next installment in our complimentary webinar series, Hearing Health Hour, on Monday, July 12, 2021 at 5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT. Capacity for this webinar is limited and advance registration is required.
The webinar is entitled “The Present and Future of Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration” and will be led by scientific director Lisa Goodrich, Ph.D. (left), and consortium member Ronna Hertzano, M.D., Ph.D.
The event will be moderated by Anil Lalwani, M.D., a member of HHF’s Board of Directors, Professor & Vice Chair for Research, Division of Otology, Neurology & Skull Base Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, and Co-Director at Columbia Cochlear Implant Program.
HHF's Hearing Restoration Project is the first international consortium of scientists to investigate regenerating inner ear hair cells to treat and cure hearing loss and tinnitus. In their July 12 webinar, HRP Goodrich and Hertzano will discuss the biology of inner ear hair cell regeneration, the HRP’s current work, and the direction of future research. Goodrich and Hertzano will provide a broad overview of the techniques and tools central to the effort—including those developed by HRP scientists—and some of the challenges facing researchers in this endeavor.
In 2009 and 2010, before joining the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP), Hertzano received ERG funding for her project entitled “a new protocol for selective and efficient sorting of the auditory sensory epithelium.” Today as a member of the HRP, her primary focus is gEAR (gene Expression Analysis Resource) portal, a game-changing data. sharing tool that has enabled scientists both in and out of the HRP to upload auditory datasets and visualize data without the need for sophisticated programming expertise.
Goodrich served the HRP behind the scenes as a member of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) from 2016 to 2020, before being named scientific director in 2021. Her lab focuses on how neural circuits develop and function with a focus on both inner ear and retinal sensory cells. This allows her to contribute a comparative perspective to the HRP’s work.
If you are unable to attend the live event, the captioned presentation will be recorded and published for your review at hhf.org/webinar. You can also submit questions to Goodrich and Hertzano when you register.
New in Hearing and Balance Research
I’d like to share four important breakthroughs in hearing research over the past year, and how each also connects back to Hearing Health Foundation, to varying degrees. These major advances offer hope for how we might improve or restore hearing and, by extension, bring a bit more of that wonderful world into everyone’s lives.