Hearing Health Foundation is grateful for the support of our community to advance our mission to find better treatments and cures for hearing loss, tinnitus, and related conditions in 2021. We’re proud to share this list of significant scientific achievements this past year.
Common Loud Noises Cause Fluid Buildup in the Inner Ear—Which May Be Easily Resolved
Researchers discovered that after exposure to 100 decibels, the mice developed inner ear fluid buildup within hours. A week after this exposure, the mice were found to have lost auditory nerve cells. However, when researchers applied hypertonic saline, a salt-based solution used to treat nasal congestion in humans, into the affected mouse ears one hour after the noise exposure, both the immediate fluid buildup and the long-term nerve damage lessened, implying that the hearing loss could be at least partially prevented.
Novel Small Molecule Promotes Synaptic Regeneration In Vitro
This work furthers the development of an effective drug delivery platform for the inner ear that uses the cochlear bone as a depot for prolonged neurotrophic stimulation of spiral ganglion neurons. Our method may bypass the pitfalls of systemic administration—increased risk of side effects and insufficient levels of drug delivery—and the dangers related to opening the cochlea.
Cochlear Organoids Reveal HIC1’s Role in Hair Cell Differentiation
Emerging Research Grants scientist Dunia Abdul-Aziz, M.D., of Harvard Medical School and Mass Eye and Ear coauthored a study that reveals how the gene Atoh1 in the cochlea can be repressed by the protein HIC1, inhibiting hair cell differentiation. It also demonstrates the power of combining the organoid model with the genetic toolkit to study key regulators of hair cell differentiation, which may help advance the understanding of hair cell development and regeneration.
Verifying a Novel Method for Assessing Speech Motor Skills in Children With Cochlear Implants
By combining principles and tools from engineering and computer science with cognitive and linguistic science, we envision developing robotic devices to deliver speechlike patterns of somatosensory input to the vocal tracts of children who use cochlear implants as they learn to listen to speech sounds through their implant processor.
‘I Have to Change My Battery, Again?’
Taking charge of hearing aid batteries with these helpful strategies—inspired by in-depth interviews with hearing aid users—means never being left without power.
Postural and Head Control Given Different Environmental Contexts
Fall risk in people with hearing loss has been shown in older adults, and our pilot data suggest balance impairments in people with single-sided hearing are more likely to arise in older participants with moderate dizziness.
Emerging Research Grants Applications Open Today
Applications for the 2022–2023 Emerging Research Grants (ERG) cycle opens today, Monday, October 18, 2021.
Understanding Hearing Loss From Noise Damage Through Gene Expression Changes
Findings suggest several FDA-approved drugs, such as a common diabetes medication and anesthetics, could protect from noise-induced hearing loss.
Meet the HRP Working Groups
The Hearing Restoration Project consortium model has, since its start, centered on team science, collaboration, and the faster exchange of data. To further energize this approach and facilitate even closer interaction, including among HRP researchers’ postdoctoral researchers and other lab members, the HRP decided at its annual meeting to reorganize its research into three working groups.