At the Association for Research in Otolaryngology MidWinter Conference this February, Hearing Health Foundation was thrilled to meet in person so many of our funded researchers, both from the past few years as well as from decades past. To a person, this talented group of scientists presenting posters and seminars expressed gratitude at receiving funding from our Emerging Research Grants program, noting how it often represented their first independent funding and allowed them to set up their own labs and pursue their line of research inquiry.
Every May, we invite our community to join us as we Step Up for Science in support of the ERG program, our flagship research effort. Our founder Collette Ramsey Baker created our nonprofit after she received a novel surgery for otosclerosis that restored her hearing. In gratitude, she wanted to create a foundation to help fund scientific investigations in the hearing and balance fields.
In that spirit, a group of anonymous donors is matching, dollar for dollar, every gift HHF receives during this one-week Step Up for Science campaign that concludes tomorrow, Friday, May 19.
Here is a look at two recent grantees sharing their thanks to HHF and the ERG program (apologies for the YouTube Shorts logo, that red squiggle around the play button!):
And here is Anil K. Lalwani, M.D., who received a grant as well in the mid-1990s that was an early investigation into gene therapy that, 20 years later, is still being built on—and this association that HHF has had with Dr. Lalwani has continued to this day, with his leading our Council of Scientific Trustees, the advisory body overseeing the ERG program, being a longtime member of our Board of Directors, and more recently moderating our popular research webinar series.
Our results suggest that mature cochlear supporting cells can be reprogrammed into sensory hair cells, providing a possible target for hair cell regeneration in mammals.