HHF's National Junior Board Raises Over $60,000 at 2nd Annual A Summer Soiree Event

By Tara Guastella

HHF Board Chair Shari Eberts presents Partner for Hearing Health award to Regal's Chris Chromey-Marquis

This past Monday night, HHF’s National Junior Board hosted its second annual “A Summer Soiree” event to benefit a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. Held at the restaurant Ainsworth Park in New York City, nearly 200 attendees enjoyed cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, raffles, and a fun photo booth. The event raised more than $60,000, a portion of which will be allocated to naming an Emerging Research Grant.

Regal Entertainment Group was presented with the annual Partner for Hearing Health Award for its commitment to people living with hearing impairment. Regal is dedicated to providing solutions for hearing impaired movie-goers and showcased a pair of newly released closed captioning glasses at the event.

HHF CEO Claire Schultz provided remarks at the event and shared her enthusiastic support of the Junior Board members. “It was so encouraging to see such a fantastic turnout at the Soiree and the interest in our work to cure hearing loss and tinnitus,” says Schultz. “I am thrilled to continue working with the Junior Board to further our mission.”

ACS Customs, a provider of custom-fit hearing protection and in-ear monitors for musicians, was also present and provided custom earmolds for attendees.

National Junior Board President Michael Kolodny also spoke before the crowd. “Hearing research is very important to my family since my daughter was born with bilateral hearing loss and currently wears cochlear implants,” he says. “I am so encouraged by the groundbreaking research that HHF funds and I am excited to support the cause of preventing and curing hearing loss and tinnitus.”

HHF appreciates the support from Regal as well as additional event sponsors UBS, Advanced Bionics, Legendary Pictures, Macquarie Capital, ACS, Blue Moon, and DASHA Wellness.

View more event photos on our Facebook page.

Dads and Grads: Listen Up!

By Tara Guastella

If you’re still searching for a Father’s Day gift (like I am), consider scheduling Dad for a hearing screening. Since men are more likely to experience hearing loss than women, show him how much you want him to have a lifetime of healthy hearing this year.

Many men that I know feel that losing their hearing is “just part of the aging process.” Yet most people wait 7 to 10 years after they begin having difficulty hearing to get their hearing tested. While age-related hearing loss does affect many as they grow older, having a hearing screening can help your loved one to learn if there indeed is a hearing loss and receive treatment if it is recommended by the doctor.  

Dad isn’t the only one who should have his hearing checked though. Teens and young adults are also heavily impacted by hearing loss. It is estimated that 1 in 5 teens now has hearing loss which may be a result of regular exposure to unsafe sounds such as loud music on iPhones or mp3 players.

If you need help finding a hearing healthcare provider for your loved one, consider using the search features on our partner organization websites. You can also learn how to recognize the signs of hearing loss and how hearing works.

This June, show your dad and grad just how much you care by encouraging them to have their hearing checked.

Boston Marathon Injuries

By Yishane Lee

Last year, Dave Fortier ran the Boston Marathon in honor of a friend who has leukemia. He experienced up close the two bomb blasts that forever altered the event, becoming one of the nearly 300 people who were injured. A piece of shrapnel became embedded in his right foot, and the immediate ringing in the ears he experienced is now permanent.

Fortier’s foot healed quickly and he was able to race the New York City Marathon seven months later, again to raise funds for leukemia research. But while supporting his friend will always be a priority, Fortier now has a personal interest in promoting the search for a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. “On long runs I think about things I want to do, and after finishing Boston again this year, my first thought has been to take care of my hearing,” says Fortier, who lives in Newburyport, Mass. “I’m very happy to be supporting Hearing Health Foundation and the search for a cure.”

Fortier, 49, and members of a Boston Marathon survivors support group are running the New Hampshire Reach the Beach Relay in September. The race spans 200 miles and 24 hours, with each member of a 12-person team taking separate legs—including during the middle of the night—totaling nearly 17 miles each.

“Before this year’s Boston Marathon, everybody in this survivor community felt a lot of unity. We had 28 people running the race, and many were first-time marathoners like Chris Campbell,” Fortier says. “I could really see we all felt a sense of belonging, and one of my biggest fears was that after the finish line this feeling would end for all of us. So we quietly went online and registered for Reach the Beach, and when someone asked, ‘Gosh, what do we do next?’ we had an answer—I said, ‘Well guys, we’ve got something for you, if you’re interested—I signed us all up for this race.’”

Fortier says they easily filled one 12-person team, and the personal investment in finding a cure affects several who are running.

“If you see the videos and photos of when the first explosion happens, I’m the guy with a black hat and black shorts who is right behind the gentleman who falls,” he says. “I’m reaching up and holding the side of my head. The sound—it felt like someone hit me with a brick. I actually thought someone behind me had cuffed my ear with a fist. I just remember that pain. The ringing happened instantaneously.”

He adds, “The ringing today is as loud as it was that day. I’ve learned to suppress it a little bit, but when I start talking about it and thinking about it, I can hear it. It’s ever present.”

Although his hearing loss in his left ear, which was facing the first blast, is so far mild, Fortier has been taking steps to compensate. “Now I tell people when I’m first meeting them that I will be leaning toward them to hear better, so they don’t think I’m getting in their personal space for no reason. I’ve also learned to look at the speaker’s lips for clues,” he says.

At night, Fortier uses a combination of white noise and low-volume talk radio to tamp down the tinnitus. “But I’m lucky if I get three solid hours a night. If something wakes me up—like the dog needing to go out at 3:30 a.m.—well, then, I’m up for the day.”

“My injuries were so minor compared with everyone else, but while the stitches in my foot are long gone, for me hearing is the bigger issue for sure,” he says. Fortier is excited and encouraged by the progress of the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP), including the groundbreaking regeneration of inner ear hair cells in adult mice by Albert Edge, Ph.D., an HRP consortium member at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.

Unlike other species, such as birds and fish, mammals lose their hearing permanently once inner ear hair cells are damaged by, for instance, a sudden loud noise. The HRP’s goal is to translate the ability of birds and fish to naturally regenerate hair cells to mammals, including humans.

Make Your Summer Fun for a Good Cause: Fundraise to Cure Hearing Loss & Tinnitus

By Tara Guastella

Temperatures are heating up, beaches are now open, the smell of grilling is in the air, and schools will soon be out for summer vacation. This is one of my favorite times of year.

If you have plans for a get together this summer, did you know you can turn your summer fun into a good cause? Well, you can! Whether you’re holding a pool party, car wash, barbecue, or any other type of event, you can turn your occasion into a fundraiser for Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) to support a cure hearing loss and tinnitus.

You can create your fundraiser through our online fundraising website that was specifically designed with you in mind. Once you register, you’ll be able to personalize your giving page with a photo, story about why you are fundraising for HHF, and fundraising goal. You’ll then be able to email family, friends, colleagues, and members of your community directly through our website to encourage them to attend the event and support the cause. You can share your fundraising on social media like Facebook and Twitter to encourage your social network to get involved, too. Finally, track your fundraising progress with your own personal thermometer that will increase with each new donation you receive.

The team at HHF is here to help with your event. We can provide you with written materials (such as complimentary copies of Hearing Health magazine and brochures on a cure hearing loss and tinnitus), earplugs, gift bags, and bracelets. We are also happy to answer any questions you may have about hosting a fundraising event or about using our fundraising website. If you’ve never done anything like this before, don’t let that stop you! We are happy to be your partner in raising funds for a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.

If you don’t have any events planned this summer, here are a few ideas for you to consider:

• Pool party

• Barbecue

• Clam bake

• Bake sale

• Car wash

• Beach volleyball tournament

• Golf tournament

• Baseball tournament

• Bike race

• Running race

• Obstacle course race (e.g., Spartan race, Warrior Dash, Tough Mudder)

• Birthday, anniversary, wedding, bar/bat mitzvah, Sweet 16 (you can ask for donations in lieu of gifts)

See more ideas and examples of past fundraising events and get started today!

This Memorial Day, We Honor Our Veterans Who Disproportionately Suffer from Hearing Loss & Tinnitus

By Tara Guastella

In early May, I attended the Classy awards collaborative weekend in San Diego, where hundreds of people making a difference in the nonprofit sector came together to find ways to innovate and collaborate. During one of the sessions, I learned of a startling statistic: 22 veterans commit suicide each day.

When I heard this, the first thing that popped into my mind was the fact that 60 percent of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have hearing loss or tinnitus. These conditions have consistently been the top two health complaints at Veteran Affairs Medical Centers. Hearing loss is also linked to higher rates of depression.

Since hearing problems are so prevalent among military service members, as are such mental health concerns as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, I began to wonder what services are provided to veterans to help them adjust. I soon learned that organizations like the Easter Seals Dixon Center (whom I met at the Classy awards weekend) are building collaborative networks in local communities to provide a holistic approach to veteran care.

The Dixon Center has built a network of more than 20,000 organizations and like-minded individuals, serving over 560 communities. They help communities identify and mobilize direct services to support educational and employment opportunities alongside services for healthcare, legal and financial advice, and housing. I was happy to learn that they are actively working to meet the everyday needs of veterans and their families while also anticipating their future needs.

To help veterans cope with hearing issues, we launched a veterans resource center earlier this year. We highlight various treatments for tinnitus that are being clinically tested as well as the promise of a cure for everyone with hearing loss and tinnitus, including veterans, through our Hearing Restoration Project consortium. You’ll find profiles of several veterans impacted by hearing loss and tinnitus while serving overseas, and you too can share your experience with us. We also have a page dedicated to resources where veterans can find additional hearing and health-related support. The upcoming summer issue of Hearing Health magazine will focus specifically on noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus, highlighting these health issues in the military.

With providing continued support to our veteran community, I hope to learn that the suicide rates decrease in years to come.

Since these brave men and women are disproportionately impacted by hearing problems, which likely impacts many other aspects of their lives, the team at HHF wishes to honor all of our veterans this Memorial Day.

What Does a Chicken Have to Do with Hearing Loss?

http://aubankaitis.com/2014/05/14/chicken-and-hearing-loss/

What would you think if someone told you that a baby chick holds the cure for hearing loss? One of the keys to restoring normal hearing in humans is cochlear hair cell regeneration, something that most animals other than mammals, including chickens, can do.  The Hearing Health Foundation recently launched a new public service announcement (PSA) called “Chirp the News” which features a baby chick with hearing loss who goes on to live a happy, normal-hearing life. After viewing it, my curiosity was piqued. I had an opportunity to ask Shari Eberts, Chairman of the HHF’s Board of Directors, a couple of questions and wanted to share what I learned.

Question: For those that are not familiar with your organization, what is the Hearing Health Foundation and/or what is the Foundation’s mission?

Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) is the largest private funder of hearing research, with a mission to prevent and cure hearing loss and tinnitus through groundbreaking research. Since 1958 HHF has given away millions of dollars to hearing and balance research, including work that led to cochlear implant technology and now through the Hearing Restoration Project is working on a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus. Hearing Health Foundation also publishes Hearing Health magazine, a free consumer resource on hearing loss and related technology, research, and products.

Question: Shari, it is my understanding that you acquired a hearing loss in your late 20′s.  Can you tell me a little bit about how your hearing loss was identified, the cause of your hearing loss, and how it has impacted your personal and professional lives?  

I first noticed my hearing loss in business school. Students were participating in class, and I would sometimes miss their comments, particularly the funny ones that were made almost as an aside. My father and my grandmother both had a hearing loss, so I figured I should get tested. It turns out that I had a mild hearing loss in both ears. The loss is genetic and is centered in the mid-range or speech frequencies. Luckily, my high pitch hearing is almost perfect. My loss has gotten progressively worse each year since business school, but I am able to manage it with hearing aids and by advocating for myself. At first, I didn’t want to admit that I had a hearing loss, and I hid it from others, but eventually I began to realize how much better my life could be if I used my hearing aids, and I began wearing them all the time. I am glad that I do.

As someone who lives with hearing loss everyday, I am personally thrilled with the prospects for a cure. Life with hearing loss can be frustrating.  Sometimes you miss the joke when everyone else is laughing and sometimes you miss important information because you don’t hear it. Supportive family and friends can make living with hearing loss easier, but a genuine cure would be life changing. After having met and worked with our consortium scientists for these past two years, I am confident that we will have a cure in my lifetime. I am counting the days.

Question: Knowing that you acquired a hearing loss in your late 20′s, it makes sense that you would be passionate about educating people about hearing loss and learning about various research focusing on a cure. With so many different organizations dedicated to hearing loss, what made you specifically gravitate toward Hearing Health Foundation? What makes this organization so unique?

HHF’s approach to research is unique and I believe it will shorten the timeline to a cure. For years, scientific research has been conducted in relative isolation—one researcher or one institution working alone to tackle a major health issue. HHF developed the HRP Consortium model to do things differently. Our HRP scientists work on research projects together, share their unpublished data and tools, and collaborate on the development and refinement of the HRP’s strategic research plan. The group meets bi-annually in person, monthly by conference call, and communicates frequently by email. This continual dialogue is helping to eliminate repetitive work across the team, saving time and research dollars, and most importantly, accelerating the timetable to a cure.

Our HRP Consortium is the dream team of hair cell regeneration, comprising the best auditory scientists at leading institutions worldwide such as Harvard and Stanford. With more than 200 years of combined experience in hearing research, the HRP Consortium publishes widely (over 400 published papers among them) and have well established labs (receiving over 600 NIH grants combined). We have every confidence we have the right team in place, and the right model to accelerate the timeline to a cure.

Question: The Hearing Health Foundation was established in 1958 and had been seeking donations from the public to help fund “groundbreaking research” for the prevention of and cure for hearing loss. Can you provide a historical synopsis of some of the more significant research achieved by the Foundation since its inception?

HHF’s founder, Collette Ramsey Baker, was steadfast in her support of funding for new technologies and treatments for hearing loss. For example, back in the 1960s, HHF began funding research into cochlear implant technology. HHF’s founder, Collette Ramsey Baker, prevailed despite objections and doubts from supporters that she was wasting money. Cochlear implants have proven to be a valuable treatment option for people with profound hearing loss, benefiting 125,000 people in the U.S. and 300,000 people worldwide. HHF has also research that led to the development of many of today’s standard treatments for otosclerosis (abnormal bone growth in the ear) and ear infections.   In the 1990s, HHF was a leader in advocating for Universal Newborn Hearing Screening legislation, which increased testing from 5% of newborns to 94% by 2007. In 2011, HHF launched our most important project yet, the Hearing Restoration Project (HRP),  which aims to discover a biological cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.

Question: What research is the Foundation currently working on that is anticipated to have a significant and/or practical impact on hearing loss prevention and/or cure within the next 10 years?

HHF officially launched its Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) in 2011 and is currently funding 5 projects from its consortium scientists, but the initial discovery that led to the HRP came many years before. Many types of hearing loss result from damage to the delicate hair cells of the inner ear. Humans can’t regrow these cells—but in a game-changing breakthrough in 1987, HHF-funded scientists discovered that birds can. While studying how drugs that are known to cause hearing damage affect the tiny sensory cells in the ear, these scientists needed to permanently damage a chicken’s hair cells. For 10 days, research assistants administered a common antibiotic, known to cause hearing loss, to laboratory chickens. On day 11 many of the hair cells were lost and a few days later, even more were lost. Surprisingly, when the scientists looked three weeks later, almost all the hair cells had returned.  They didn’t believe these results so they did the experiment again and again. Sure enough, chickens can naturally regenerate their inner ear hair cells, restoring their hearing after damage.

The amazing thing is that regeneration happens naturally and very robustly in almost all animals – mammals are the exception. This makes HHF and the researchers confident that we will find a way to stimulate this regeneration in mammals, including humans.

The HRP consortium of scientists has developed a strategic research plan to develop a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus in 10 years. This three-phase plan starts with discovery research and culminates in clinical trials. The plan, developed specifically by the HRP scientists and updated to incorporate new findings and approaches, is a living document meant to guide but not limit the work. Relevance to this strategic plan is one of the criteria for a project to receive HRP funding.

The HRP is currently in Phase I of its strategic research plan (years 1-5). This first phase focuses on searching for the genes or series of genes that trigger natural regeneration of hair cells in animals such as birds and zebrafish. This phase will also examine which genes in mammals prevent the natural regeneration of hair cells. Finally, Phase I will determine the types of cells in mammals’ ears that could serve as available targets for regeneration therapies. Phase II (years 3-8) starts with the residual cells that remain in a mammal’s inner ear after hearing loss and uses the genes identified in Phase I to trigger hair cell regeneration. In Phase III (years 8-10), the HRP Consortium will partner with a pharmaceutical or other company to develop drugs that mimic the identified genes, resulting in a regenerative therapy.

Question: How can audiologists and other hearing health care providers get involved with the Hearing Health Foundation?

HHF is always eager to partner with hearing health care providers! In fact, we have developed a brochure specifically for use by hearing health care providers that includes important information for their patients about how hearing works, the types of hearing loss, and common treatment solutions. It also lets patients know about the resources HHF can offer, like its free quarterly magazine. Hearing Health Magazine is the award-winning leading consumer publication on hearing loss filled with the latest on research breakthroughs, strategies to manage hearing loss, personal stories, hearing technologies and products and features on seniors, pediatrics, parents, musicians, veterans and more!   Please feel free to contact us at info@hhf.org if you are a hearing health care professional and would like copies of our patient brochure or magazine.

Question: How can the general public support the mission and goals of the Hearing Health Foundation?

There are lots of ways for people to learn more about HHF and help support our research for a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.

1. Visit our website to learn more

2. Stay up to date on all the latest news by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter

3. Sign up for our informative monthly e-newsletter

4. Subscribe to Hearing Health Magazine, our award-winning leading consumer publication on hearing loss. Get the latest on research breakthroughs, strategies to manage hearing loss, personal stories, hearing technologies and products, and features on seniors, pediatrics, veterans, musicians and more.

5. Inspire others by sharing your personal story and draw comfort from the stories of others

6. Create a fundraising event or giving page

7. Make a tribute gift to honor a loved one with hearing loss or a favorite audiologist

8. Support our work with a tax-deductible donation

Shari Eberts is Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Hearing Health Foundation, an organization whose mission is to prevent and cure hearing loss and tinnitus via collaborative, groundbreaking research. She received her BS from Duke University in 1990 and MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1995. Previously employed by Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company, Shari spent 13 years at J.P. Morgan in the capacity of a senior equity analyst (broadlines retail) and, most recently as Associate Director of U.S. Equity Research.  This mom of two and former Wall-Streeter joined HHR in 2010 and has committed herself to supporting the search for a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.

The State of Deaf Education Today

By Yishane Lee

Have advances in technology, changes in attitudes, and decades of research influenced how children with hearing loss learn and are taught?

The answer is a resounding yes on all counts, and the result is a change in what “deaf education” actually means today. In our Spring issue of Hearing Health magazine, three respected, experienced educators in the field of educating children with hearing loss weigh in with what these changes are and what they mean.

Susan Lenihan, Ph.D., is a professor and the director of Deaf Education at Fontbonne University, in St. Louis. She has four decades of experience, instructing teachers, speech-language pathologists, and early interventionists. She describes the educational experiences of children diagnosed with hearing loss as dramatically changed from a few decades ago.

She writes that early identification of hearing loss in newborns, thanks to universal hearing screening (an effort that HHF was instrumental in advocating for), provides children with earlier access to listening devices and intervention services.

“Listening technology (such as digital hearing aids, cochlear implants, and classroom audio systems) provides better access to higher quality sound at younger ages than ever before. Infants and toddlers can be fit with hearing aids during the first weeks of life. Research shows that when children with severe to profound hearing loss begin using cochlear implants between 6 and 18 months of age, listening, language, and speech development improve.

“Many children who learn to listen and use spoken language when they are young will receive educational services at their neighborhood school. Advances in sound field technology (a teacher using a microphone whose sound is transmitted to room speakers) and FM systems (a teacher using a microphone whose sound is transmitted into a receiver worn by a listener) provide needed support for students who benefit from enhanced sound from a distance and in noisy environments.”

As a result, she says, “Increasing numbers of children with hearing loss are receiving elementary and secondary educational services in their neighborhood school rather than in a specialized school for students who are deaf.” In a word, they are mainstreamed.

Patricia M. Chute, Ed.D., the dean of the School of Health Professions at the New York Institute of Technology, and Mary Ellen Nevins, Ed.D., the national director of Professional Preparation in Cochlear Implants, detail how changes affecting education as a whole are touching education efforts for children with hearing loss.

“National efforts to engage and empower families to be their child’s first teachers—regardless of whether that child has a hearing loss—open the door to the possibility that children with hearing loss born today will be kindergarten-ready, and as such, will be primed to learn with typically hearing peers. As children with hearing loss increasingly are mainstreamed, attending their neighborhood school, they are set to benefit from the same changes in education affecting all schoolchildren.”

They concisely summarize the revamped focus in educational goals this way:

“Traditional approaches to public education have focused on the three R’s: reading, writing, and ’rithmetic. But now the three R’s may be considered the three T’s: teaching, technology, and transitions.”

Read more from these educators in our story “The State of Deaf Education Today” in the Spring issue. It includes a profile of a now-college-age student who was fitted with a cochlear implant at age 6 and successfully mainstreamed into her local public school.

Help Mom Hear Better This Mother's Day

By Yishane Lee

Give the gift of hearing this Mother’s Day by taking your mom to get a hearing screening, and getting one yourself. One in five adults has a hearing loss—including adolescents—and the rate increases with age, with one in three seniors experiencing a hearing loss. But the average time between being diagnosed with a hearing loss and getting a hearing aid is seven years. That’s a long time to miss parts of conversations, misunderstand television dialogue, or be unable to fully enjoy a family gathering.

Now a new study puts more urgency into the need to check hearing. Researchers from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) found a link between hearing loss and an increased risk of depression and published the results in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. The scientists examined data for 18,000 people and found that a decline in hearing more than doubled the risk for depression when compared with those who said they had excellent hearing.

Women ages 70 and older were particularly susceptible to depression with even a moderate hearing loss of 35 to 50 decibels. And when every level of hearing loss was considered, 14.7 percent of women of all ages were more likely to feel sad and depressed, compared with 9 percent of men with any degree hearing loss. The link between depression and hearing loss remained even when the researchers controlled for factors such as vision problems.

The NIDCD study underscores the importance of getting your hearing checked and treated, and of getting treated for depression as well in the event of a diagnosed hearing loss. However, and unfortunately, the researchers also found that depression was higher among those using hearing aids.

Don’t leave your mom out of the conversation. Book a hearing screening for both of you in honor of Mother’s Day. She’ll thank you, we promise!

Learn more about finding the right hearing health professional and taking care of your ears from the Spring issue of Hearing Health magazine:

• How to Find the Right Hearing Healthcare Professional for You

• All in Stride: Getting a Hearing Aid Was a Straightforward Shift for This Mother of Two

• How to Get the Most Out of Your Hearing Aids

• Hearing Loss and Brain Size

This Better Hearing & Speech Month, New HRP Research Projects Commence

By Tara Guastella

In conjunction with Better Hearing & Speech month this May, I'm excited to share that HHF is funding, for the third consecutive year, new research grants for our Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) consortium. This year is exciting as our HRP scientists are finishing up the first of three phases of the Strategic Research Plan. This plan defines our road-map to clinical trials for a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus within a decade.

Many types of hearing loss result from damage to the delicate hair cells of the inner ear. Humans can't regenerate these cells-but in a game-changing breakthrough in 1987, HHF-funded scientists discovered that birds can. Over the last several years, the HRP scientists have produced new genomic datasets from fish and birds, which show regeneration, and mouse, which does not; these datasets now allow us to take the next steps in understanding which genes promote regeneration in some animals and which genes block it in others.

“The 2014 funded projects will continue to move us closer to our goal of inducing hair-cell regeneration in people, to produce a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus," shares Peter G. Barr-Gillespie, Ph.D., director of the HRP consortium. "I am incredibly pleased with the outcome of the work the HRP consortium members have been conducting over the last several years.”

We are renewing three projects from previous years as well as initiating four new projects, each moving us closer to a cure. There are also four new projects that have commenced on May 1. Here are the details about the new projects:

Led by Andy Groves, Ph.D., Tatjana Piotrowski, Ph.D., and Jennifer Stone, Ph.D., one of the new projects is focusing on bioinformatic analysis of genetic data collected throughout Phase I. Bioinformatics is a set of sophisticated computational tools that will allow us to compare genetic data from zebrafish, chickens, and mice. Since we know that zebrafish and chickens spontaneously regenerate their inner ear hair cells, we can compare their genetic data to that of mice, which like mammals do not regenerate hair cells. Once we know what genes, or series of genes (known as pathways), trigger regeneration in zebrafish and chickens, and which inhibit it in mice, we will have better targets for drug therapies that may be able to induce regeneration in humans.

Another new project building off of work started in Phase I is analyzing the inner ears of chickens. Chickens have a remarkable ability to regrow hair cells once they are damaged. The consortium members involved—Stefan Heller, Ph.D., Michael Lovett, Ph.D., Jennifer Stone, Ph.D., and Mark Warchol, Ph.D.—are using newly developed techniques to study how supporting cells react when neighboring hair cells die and which signaling pathways are activated or deactivated. They are also are determining if this new technique, known as single cell transcript analysis, can be used more broadly in analyzing regenerative capabilities.

Edwin Rubel, Ph.D., who is also known as the co-founder of hair cell regeneration in chickens, is working on the characterization of a mouse system in which the inner ear hair cells can be reproducibly removed from the inner ear without doing damage to other components of the inner ear. Such a "model system" would allow the systematic study of hair cell regeneration at any age and in live animals.

Finally, Alain Dabdoub, Ph.D. and Albert Edge, Ph.D. are collaborating on a project studying the signaling molecules in the Wnt pathway to better understand its role in regeneration. Wnt signaling has been shown to play a major role in stem cell biology, cell proliferation, and cell fate determination.

“As a person living with hearing loss, I am thrilled with the progress that the HRP consortium is making,” says Shari Eberts, the chairman of HHF’s board of directors. “We are funding the best hearing scientists, conducting groundbreaking research, and are on track to see a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus within a decade.”

Read more about all of the currently funded HRP projects and updates on progress from past research as well.

Meet Les Paul Ambassador Saxophonist Chris Potter

By Yishane Lee

Chris Potter is a world-renowned saxophonist and composer who has been living with Ménière’s disease, a hearing and balance disorder, for two decades. We’re thrilled that he is our second Les Paul Ambassador.

The Les Paul Ambassadors were created with the Les Paul Foundation to honor guitar great Les Paul, who had hearing loss and tinnitus. The program promotes awareness of tinnitus and hearing loss and the search for a cure through our groundbreaking Hearing Restoration Project.

We profile Potter in our Spring issue of Hearing Health magazine. Here is an excerpt:

“I got Ménière’s disease in my mid-20s. I’ve lost pretty much all my hearing in my left ear—there’s just ringing. It was absolutely terrifying. I was getting episodes of dizziness, and my hearing would go up and down. In the meantime, I’d have to wake up at 5 a.m. and take three flights to get to a performance that night—when I didn’t even know if I would be able to stand up.

“It was very stressful, as was not knowing if it would happen in both ears, but I somehow made it through. It’s something you get used to. But the vertigo alone is life-altering. You don’t feel comfortable making plans.”

Potter tried various treatments with different degrees of success. He shares his story in an effort to show solidarity with other musicians who have hearing issues, and to help HHF find a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.

Read more from Potter’s candid interview about being a musician with hearing loss and Ménière’s disease.

Learn more about the amazing Les Paul, who died in 2009 at age 94, and the industry-altering advances he made in the world of music production and technology. His dear friend Lou Pallo, a guitar hero in his own right, was our first Les Paul Ambassador.