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.
Emerging Research Grants: Call for Applications
The Emerging Research Grants program is a competitive process that awards grants to only the most promising investigators. Recipients are exceptionally well-positioned to secure subsequent funding from major federal funders. In fact, ERG awardees (2002–present) have gone on to be awarded an average of $59 in federal research funding for every dollar of their ERG grant.
Impact 2024
Hearing Health Foundation’s mission to fund innovative, groundbreaking hearing and balance science is only possible because of you. We are grateful for the support of our community.
Meet the 2025 Emerging Research Grants Scientists
Lower Frequencies Boost Ability of Older Adults to Separate Sounds
These findings mean lower-frequency sounds may help older adults better understand complex sound environments. This may be useful for designing better hearing aids or other devices to help older people hear more clearly.
Auditory Input Regulates the Real-Time Coordination of Speech Movements
Our results are consistent with the theory that people rely on auditory information to coordinate the motor control of their vocal tract in service to speech production and opens up many new, critically important questions about people with congenital auditory deficits.
Brain Responses to Voice Pitch Offer Clues to Hearing Difficulties in Children
These findings show that even with appropriate amplification via hearing aids, children with hearing loss still have trouble processing certain aspects of sound, particularly the basic pitch of voices. These objectively measurable brain responses may explain why children with hearing loss struggle more in noisy or echoey environments.
Balancing Noise Reduction With Speech Perception in Hearing Aids
Our research aims to better understand the underlying biological mechanisms of such variability and pave the way for a more personalized and effective hearing aid technology, offering hope for those struggling in noisy listening environments.
Auditory Cue Use Changes With Age?
The results of our research suggest that individual differences in the ability to use auditory cues in noise may contribute to the range of communication challenges experienced by older adults.
A Cell Type–Specific Approach to Detail the Role of a Small Molecule in Hair Cells
Interestingly, some of the genes that were more active in the variant hair cells are typically more active in the supporting cells than in the hair cells. It could be that when miR-96 is a variant, some genes more specific to supporting cells, and which are typically kept turned off in hair cells, incorrectly become activated in hair cells.