As always we are so thrilled to meet and catch up with our funded scientists, past and present, at this important research conference.
A New Tool for Targeting Only Supporting Cells in the Inner Ear
This research shows that it is possible to design gene therapies for the ear that are carefully targeted at supporting cells, an essential first step in applying targeted gene therapies to treat hearing loss in humans.
Study Identifies Gene Regulators Behind Hearing Regeneration
Their experiments revealed a class of DNA control elements known as “enhancers” that, after injury, amplify the production of a protein called ATOH1, which in turn induces a suite of genes required to make sensory cells of the inner ear.
Genetic Reprogramming Regenerates Lost Hair Cells in the Mature Mouse Inner Ear
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.
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.
The Hearing Restoration Project Adds a New Working Group
Given the need for platforms that provide efficient, reproducible, and reliable outcome measurements, the HRP has created a new, fourth working group this year: Screening.
Key Findings and Next Steps
Where do we want our hair cell regeneration research to be in three years’ time, and what will it take to get us there?
A Dual Method for Inner Ear Hair Cell Regrowth in Zebrafish
These findings reveal a previously unrecognized mechanism of hair cell regeneration with implications for how hair cells may be encouraged to regenerate in the mammalian inner ear.
A New Mouse Model for Hearing Loss
A challenge in studying hair cell regeneration has been creating consistent and reliable ways to damage hair cells in laboratory mice. Overcoming this limitation, we developed a more uniform and effective method for hair cell death using the surgical delivery of a sisomicin antibiotic solution directly into the mouse inner ear.
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.