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 Protocol for Investigating Hair Cell Regeneration in Birds
The avian inner ear can naturally regenerate sensory hair cells and is therefore an ideal candidate for investigating mechanisms leading to hair cell regeneration and functional recovery.
Regrowing Hair Cells and Nerve Connections to Restore Hearing in Birds
This suggests that birds maintain a precise program for hair cell regeneration that preserves frequency-specific nerve connections, which is an important aspect of proper functional recovery.
An Essential Signaling Cascade for Hair Cell Regeneration in Birds
This work provides a new starting point to investigate the natural triggers of hair cell regeneration in birds. We also identified novel genes that drive hair cell regeneration in the chicken inner ear. These novel genes will be key for investigating their potential role in triggering a change in supporting cells in mammals, in the damaged mouse or human cochlea.
Cell-Type Identity of the Chick Balance Organ
We have now identified the first events that lead to proliferative hair cell regeneration in birds, which provides new leads that can be translated to mice and ultimately to humans.
Several Novel Findings Describing Cochlear Hair Cell Regeneration in Birds
Funding provided by Hearing Health Foundation through the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) has helped the development of a new research program in the laboratory of Stefan Heller, Ph.D., at Stanford University focusing on chicken hair cell regeneration. Several years after its inception, this research is now bearing fruit.
How Beautiful Hearing Loss Research Can Be
Hearing Health Foundation (HHF)’s scientists study sensory cells in various species to better understand how they are damaged and how they can be regenerated to restore human hearing. Here are five of the most breathtaking images from our scientists’ labs showcasing the beauty of the hearing and balance functions.
Hearing Restoration Project Plans Announced for 2020–21
Hearing loss occurs when sensory hair cells of the inner ear (cochlea) are damaged or die. The goal of the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) is to develop therapeutic methods to convert the cells that remain after damage into new, completely functional sensory hair cells, restoring hearing. We know that in most species—but not mammals, like humans and mice—hair cells robustly regenerate on their own after damage to the auditory system.
Filling in the Gaps
The annual meeting of Hearing Health Foundation’s (HHF) Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) was held in Seattle Dec. 12–14, 2019. As always, we use this extended in-person meeting to discuss in detail the progress of the consortium over the past year and to develop our plan for the upcoming year.
Watch This New Captioned Video from Our Hearing Restoration Project (HRP)
In October, the Scientific Director of Hearing Health Foundation (HHF)’s Hearing Restoration Project (HRP), Peter Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D., was the keynote speaker of The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS)’s “Hearing Restoration and Hair Cell Regeneration,” a symposium to connect internationally recognized hearing loss experts from academia, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations.