Childhood Hearing Loss: Act Now, Here's How!

By Maggie Niu

Childhood hearing loss is a (rapidly) growing epidemic. A study performed by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that 60 percent of childhood hearing loss is preventable. If left untreated, the child can experience many health issues such as delayed language development and academic underachievement as well as social isolation, which can lead to depression, poor self-esteem, and a higher risk of injuries. These are unfortunately just a few of a much larger list of consequences.

The WHO estimates infections account for 31 percent of hearing loss cases. (Genetic and other causes account for 40 percent). Many infections that cause hearing loss can be prevented through vaccinations against such diseases as the mumps, measles, rubella, and meningitis. Although ear infections do not have a direct vaccine, the influenza shot can help in the prevention ear infections, another cause of hearing loss. Only 4 percent of childhood hearing loss is related to the use of ototoxic (toxic to the ear) medicines in expectant mothers and newborns.

To help prevent and care for childhood hearing loss, the WHO suggests these strategies: strengthen the child's immune system through vaccinations; implement better and more wide-spread early-intervention programs; train healthcare providers on how to better care for those with hearing loss; make hearing devices more readily accessible; push for legislation that regulates and restricts the sale of ototoxic medicines and environmental noise as well as implements standards for safe listening; and raise public awareness around the need for ear and hearing healthcare and programs worldwide.

Preventing hearing loss is a challenging task. However, there are already a few programs in action to help us out. In the U.S., thanks to Universal Newborn Hearing Screening legislation, which HHF was instrumental in establishing, 94 percent of newborns are tested for hearing loss before leaving the hospital, compared with just 5 percent in 1995! There are two tests that are currently available, both are reliable, and they can be used either separately or together. In the optoacoustic emissions test, a soft foam earphone and microphone are placed in the ear. The hearing specialist plays various sounds and measures the response. For the auditory brainstem response test, noninvasive electrodes are placed on the baby's head to detect auditory nerve responses to sounds the hearing specialist plays.

Hearing loss can be devastating for a child as well their family. Not being able to hear can affect all aspects of life, but learning how to prevent and to care for hearing loss can change a child’s life. In addition to the WHO’s “Childhood Hearing Loss: Act Now, Here’s How!”, here are HHF resources on children and hearing loss: 

• Ages and Stages: A speech-language pathologist discusses the process of verbal communication.

• Tips for Hearing Well In the Classroom: Tips on how to work with a child’s teacher to implement a hearing regimen.

• Visual Learning, Visual Teaching: Everything in life has a silver lining, even hearing loss.

• "Listen to Me, Right Now!": What to do if your child doesn’t respond to repeated entreaties—especially when you’re not facing him or her.

• New Beginnings: Advice from parents for parents for how to prepare for the 1st day of school when your child has hearing loss.

• The Dangers of iPod Use: Answers to common questions about hearing protection for children and teens.

Sports Life in Silence

Chase Ross and his wife, Amy

The crowd is roaring, cheerleaders cheering, coaches are yelling and teammates are making play calls. As hearing impaired athletes, my sister and I did not necessarily hear all of this. Growing up in a small town atmosphere and loving sports, teammates and coaches found ways to communicate with us to ensure we were part of the team, part of the family, by making sure he/she was standing next to us when talking or giving us hand signals during play.

My sister and I were very fortunate to have a close, caring, understanding and loving family to help guide us through life. But they made sure we had to work for everything we earned and did not take anything else in life for granted, much less our hearing. My sister, who has cochlear implants, provided me with a great example of how not to let our hearing loss keep us from doing anything we dreamed. Growing up she was very active with sports. Even as she went on to college, she was a football cheerleader while earning her degree.

Growing up I had a strong passion for playing sports – football, basketball, baseball and track. Sometimes the sweat would get into my hearing aids causing them to not work correctly and I would still have to play parts of games without hearing – relying solely on reading lips and using hand signals that our team had put together for such cases. It was a challenge that my teammates had recognized. That is when you learn to connect with friends, family and teammates on a new level.

To help bridge that gap, last year I founded Sports for Sound, a non-profit entity designed to raise funds and help hearing impaired patients who need financial assistance with obtaining new hearing aids, molds, FM systems for the classrooms or whatever his/her needs may be. After making appointments with my audiologist and needing new hearing aids for the first time since I have been on my own, it hit me how costly they can be, even with insurance. This is what motivated me to want to help those who may need assistance.

To help better educate the participants with hearing and show them why hearing is truly important, participants in the running events must wear ear plugs. This helps the participants better understand what hearing impaired people go through and how much we need to rely on our other senses.

Our first year (2014) was dubbed a success raising over $23,000 and providing assistance to 10 applicants. In 2015, 2015 we raised $18,000 & we were able to provide new hearing aids to 8 recipients. Sports for Sound is having its 3rd annual event on May 21st, 2016 at the Eastern Ohio Sports Complex in Sherrodsville, OH. The event is held in May to coincide with “Better Hearing & Speech Month.” This year our event will feature a 5K obstacle run, 10K road run and 5K cross country walk. The event will also have food, raffles, silent auction and a Chinese auction.

Chase Ross is the founder of Sports for Sound. His goal is to grow SFS to help assist hearing impaired patients beyond its established location, Tuscarawas County, OH., all while giving participants the experience of being hearing impaired while participating in SFS events.

Special Request for Meniere's Disease & Stria Vascularis Applications

By Laura Friedman

Thanks to generous donations, Hearing Health Foundation is requesting Emerging Research Grants (ERG) proposals in the areas of:

• Ménière's disease, for innovative research that will increase our understanding of the inner ear and balance disorder.
  

• Stria vascularis, for research that will increase our understanding of strial atrophy and/or development of the stria.

Letters of intents (LOIs) are required before a full application can be submitted. Full applications are due Thursday, March 31. 

Please review our Policy on Emerging Research Grants for eligibility requirements. If you are eligible, please make note of the deadlines below and review the instructions for submitting a LOI.

Deadlines:

• Full Application: March 31, 2016

• Award Notification: Spring 2016

• Grant Period: July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017

If you have any questions about the ERG program and process, please contact us at grants@hhf.org

Thank you for your interest in the ERG program. Please forward and share this information with your colleagues. 

We need your help in funding the exciting work of hearing and balance scientists.
To donate today to support HHF's groundbreaking research,

please visit hhf.org/name-a-grant.

Hearing Loss vs. Dizziness: If I Could Choose!

By John V. Brigande, Ph.D.

I was about 9 when hearing loss in my left ear was first detected. The audiologist explained to me that as a result, I may not be able to hear birds singing as easily, and that I may need to concentrate more to understand words starting with “sh,” “k,” or “t.” Sensing my alarm, she tried to reassure me by saying it was unlikely that the hearing loss would affect both ears, and if it did, it would likely not be to the same extent.

Managing the loss of a primary sense is all about adaptation. In grade school, I simply tilted my right ear toward sound sources. Over time my hearing loss became bilateral and progressive, and its cause remains unknown. In graduate school I began using hearing aids and later received a cochlear implant in my left ear. I continue to use a hearing aid in my right ear, and thankfully for the past eight years, my hearing has remained stable, if stably poor.

I have always compensated. At Boston College (where I received my undergraduate, Master’s, and Ph.D., all in the biological sciences) I sat in the front seat of my classes, as close to the speaker as possible. I asked my professors and classmates to face me when they spoke so I could use visual cues to enhance oral comprehension. During postdoctoral training in auditory neuroscience at Purdue University, I was given complimentary assistive listening technology upon my arrival to the lab.

While I do not consider my hearing loss to be a profound limitation personally or professionally, it has certainly sculpted my career path. When picking my area of scientific focus, I settled on a career in auditory neuroscience to better understand hearing loss.

I also reasoned that the auditory research conferences and meetings I’d be attending would likely have assistive listening technology to allow me to participate more fully. I have benefited immeasurably from the scientific community that makes up the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, whose meetings have world-class assistive listening technologies and interpreter services plus overwhelming support of members who have hearing loss.

As I entered my 40s, I experienced vertigo for the first time. The clinical data do not fit with a diagnosis of Ménière’s disease, and the link between my vertigo and hearing loss is unclear.

When I have an acute attack of dizziness, my visual field scrolls from right to left very quickly so that I must close my eyes to avoid profound motion sickness and vomiting. I must lie down until the dizziness subsides, which is usually 12 to 16 hours. I honestly cannot do anything—I can only hope to fall asleep quickly.

Vertigo is a profound limitation for me. With no disrespect or insensitivity intended toward the hearing impaired community—of which I am a passionate member—I would take hearing loss over vertigo in a heartbeat. Dizziness incapacitates me, and I cannot be an effective researcher, educator, husband, or father. Some people perceive an aura before their dizziness occurs, but I do not get any advance warning. Unlike hearing loss, I cannot manage my dizziness—it takes hold and lets go when it wants to.

I recall one episode especially vividly. I was invited to give a seminar at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Disorders (NIDCD) and experienced a severe attack just hours before my flight. Vertigo forced me to reschedule my visit, which was tremendously frustrating. That night, I slept in the bathroom (my best solution when vertigo hits). Vestibular (balance) dysfunction is quite simply a game changer.   

A satisfying part of my research involves trying to define treatments for hearing loss and dizziness. Usher syndrome is a condition combining hearing, balance, and vision disorders. In Usher syndrome type 1, infants are born deaf and have severe vestibular problems; vision abnormalities appear by around age 10. In working with a group of dedicated colleagues at various institutions, we have evidence that fetal administration of a drug in mice with Usher syndrome type 1 can prevent balance abnormalities.

As part of HHF’s Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) consortium, I have been working on testing gene candidates in mice for their ability to trigger hair cell regeneration. This research is exciting as it is leading the HRP into phase 2 of its strategic plan, with phase 3 involving further testing for drug therapies. The probability is that manipulating a single gene will not provide lasting hearing restoration, and that we will need to figure out how to manipulate multiple genes in concert to achieve the best therapeutic outcomes.
It is an exciting time to be a neuroscientist interested in trying to find ways to help patients with hearing loss and balance issues. I am hopeful that we will make progress in defining new ways to treat and even prevent vertigo in the near future and ultimately to discover a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus.

Hearing Restoration Project consortium member John V. Brigande, Ph.D., is a developmental neurobiologist at the Oregon Hearing Research Center. He also teaches in the Neuroscience Graduate Program and in the Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Oregon Health & Science University.

Your financial support will help ensure we can continue this vital research in order to find a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus in our lifetime. Please donate today to fund the top scientific minds working collaboratively toward a common goal.For more information or to make a donation, email us at development@hhf.org. 

Your help provides hope.

New Mexico State University (NMSU) professor receives prestigious grant for research on children's hearing

By New Mexico State University NewsCenter

Srikanta Mishra, an assistant professor in the New Mexico State University College of Education’s Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, and 2014 Emerging Research Grantee, recently received a prestigious research grant to study hearing mechanisms in children.

The R03 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health is the college’s first NIH grant, which is known to be highly competitive and supports outstanding research. It provides a total amount of $438,000 for three years.

Mishra said the grant signifies the research capacity of the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, and showcases the cutting-edge hearing health research conducted at NMSU.

The project will investigate auditory mechanisms in children, particularly how the descending hearing pathway works in children.

“The descending efferent neural pathway runs from the brain to the inner ear. The results of this project will help us understand the role of the efferent system in auditory perception during childhood development,” Mishra said. “The knowledge gained from this project can be applied to develop tools to identify children at risk for auditory deficits and guide intervention efforts for children with listening problems.”

Mishra called the grant “one of the major the pinnacles of my academic career thus far. This will also expose NMSU students from minority and underprivileged backgrounds to high-quality health research.”

Robert Wood, interim academic head of the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, called Mishra’s research “critical” to both NMSU and audiology in general.

“First, and most importantly, his work has the potential to advance the field of audiology, which is why the National Institutes for Health is funding the work,” Wood said. “In addition to that, this funded project is really the first of its kind here at NMSU, and this will put the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders as well as the College of Education on the map with federal funding agencies and in the field of audiology. This is a very big deal for us and for NMSU.”

Mishra earned his doctorate in audiology from the University of Southampton, England. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. Mishra holds a clinical competence certificate in audiology from the American Speech Language & Hearing Association and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Audiology. He also maintains a license as an audiologist in New Mexico.

In the past, Mishra has also received funding from the Hearing Health Foundation to support his research in otoacoustic emissions and pediatric audiology. Mishra serves on review panel for several scientific journals in audiology and hearing sciences and also serves on a NIH study section. For his editorial contributions, he received the 2013 Journal of the American Academy of Audiology Editor’s Award.

Information from NMSU.

We need your help supporting innovative hearing and balance science through our Emerging Research Grants program. Please make a contribution today.

Tell Us Your Tips!

By Yishane Lee

Here, at HHF, we're working on Hearing Health’s Spring issue and our theme is…..drum roll please.….“Living Better With Hearing Loss.” We’d like to include expertise and advice from YOU, our readers, because who's better than you to give your insights and experiences with living with hearing loss?

We truly appreciate your time and help with any of the questions below! Please respond in the comments section, email us at editor@hearinghealthmag.com, or provide your answers via this survey, here.

• What are your best hearing aid tips? For example, do you have a trick to maximize battery life? Or a foolproof way to make sure you never misplace your devices?
  

• Have you ever accidentally gotten your hearing aid wet? What did you do? Did it work?
  

• What steps do you take to hear better in a noisy setting? Do you use your hearing aids combined with certain assistive devices?
  

• Do you have tinnitus? How do you cope with it? Does your hearing aid have a tinnitus setting, do you use white noise, or something else?
  

• What have you learned about yourself or your family after being diagnosed with hearing loss?
  

• Are you the parent of a child with hearing loss? What advice do you have for parents getting a diagnosis of hearing loss for their child?
  

• Are you an adult with hearing loss? What is advice you would tell your younger self, or the parents of your younger self?
  

• What is your go-to accessory or assistive listening device? A mini mic? A neck loop? Earplugs?
  

• Do you protect your hearing in noisy settings? What steps do you take?
  

• Have you ever had a scary situation where you could not hear?
  

• Do you tell people about your hearing loss as soon as you meet them, or do you wait till later? Or do you let them figure it out themselves? Tell us why.
  

• If you could design the perfect hearing aid, what would it include?

Thank you for sharing your experiences living with
hearing loss and tinnitus with us. 

Please subscribe here to receive a FREE copy Hearing Health magazine! 

Interested in sharing your story ? Email us today!

Examining the Relationship Between Race and Hearing Loss

By Emily Shepard

February is Black History Month, a time dedicated to celebrating achievements and spreading awareness about issues that affect the African-American community.  

With this in mind, we want to publicize the prevalence of hearing loss among black Americans: Nearly two million have a hearing impairment.1 However, research suggests that the odds of hearing loss are substantially lower for blacks than those who are white.2  Epidemiologic studies of large populations have found that the rate of hearing loss is 40 to 60 percent lower in black individuals compared with white individuals.3 While the basis for this connection remains largely unknown, research has identified a potential biological influence. 

In the study “Association of Skin Color, Race/Ethnicity, and Hearing Loss Among Adults in the USA” by Frank R. Lin, M.D., Ph.D., et al., the authors examine the degree to which skin tone is correlated to hearing loss. The authors argue that melanocytes, which produce the melanin pigment that determines skin color, are present in both the skin and cochlea. Increased melanin in the inner ear may help protect the cochlea against age-related cellular declines and hearing loss in darker-skinned individuals. Differences in noise exposure or in genetic determinants may also factor into the connection between race and hearing loss.4

These findings support the idea that race and hearing loss may be connected. For their study, Lin et al. relied on the Fitzpatrick scale to classify skin types. This scale uses the skin’s tendency to burn and tan to differentiate skin tone. For example, it says that if one always burns and never tans, they are likely to have pale white skin. If someone never burns, they are more likely to have deeply pigmented dark brown to black skin.5 The authors found that darker skin color as assessed by Fitzpatrick skin type was independently associated with better hearing thresholds in black and Hispanic individuals. On the other hand, race and ethnicity were not associated with hearing thresholds after stratification by skin color. The authors argue that these results “serve as preliminary evidence that skin color is independently associated with hearing loss,” and that skin color “may mediate the strong association between race and hearing loss observed in previous epidemiological studies.”6

Nonetheless, it is necessary to remember that although black individuals are at less of risk to experience some form of hearing loss, they are not exempt from it. The role of melanin as it relates to hearing loss is likely to be perceived similarly to its relationship to skin cancer. A Washington Post article titled “Many Blacks Are Unaware of a Skin Cancer That Primarily Affects Dark-Skinned People” explains that those with darker skin tones produce more melanin overall, and that since melanin helps block damaging ultraviolet rays, people of color have greater protection against skin cancer than whites.

But the Washington Post article works to dispel the belief that melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is a “white person’s disease.” Melanoma is indeed much more common in whites (1 in 50) than in African Americans (1 in 1,000). However, research from the American Academy of Dermatology reports that the five-year survival rate for African Americans with melanoma is 73 percent, compared with 91 percent for Caucasians. In addition, acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is a rare form of skin cancer that primarily strikes people of color. The disease affects areas of the body that have less pigment and receive less exposure to the sun, such as the soles of the feet, and are areas that are more likely to be ignored. ALM can be lethal; reggae musician Bob Marley died from ALM in 1981 at age 36.7

It is important to recognize that things that seem improbable are not impossible. Even if your race or ethnicity decreases the chance that you will contract a form of hearing loss, the best way to ensure healthy hearing is to take protective measures.

HHF strives to spread the word about how you can protect your hearing.

HHF is also committed to finding a cure for the millions of Americans who currently experience hearing loss or tinnitus. 

Donate today to help us make a difference.  

1. “How the African American Community Deals with Hearing Impaired Individuals: A Qualitative Analysis Using Social Learning Theory”- 2012- By Lakeisha O’ Neil

2. Lin, Frank R. et al. “Association of Skin Color, Race/Ethnicity, and Hearing Loss Among Adults in the USA.” JARO: Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 13.1 (2012): 109–117. PMC. Web. 21 Dec. 2015.

3. Lin FR, Thorpe R, Gordon-Salant S, Ferrucci L. Hearing loss prevalence and risk factors among older adults in the United States. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2011; 66:582–590. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glr002.

4. Lin, Frank R. et al. “Association of Skin Color, Race/Ethnicity, and Hearing Loss Among Adults in the USA.” JARO

5. Fitzpatrick TB. The validity and practicality of sun-reactive skin types I through VI. Arch Dermatol. 1988;124:869–871. doi: 10.1001/archderm.1988.01670060015008.

6. Lin, Frank R. et al. “Association of Skin Color, Race/Ethnicity, and Hearing Loss Among Adults in the USA.” JARO

7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/many-blacks-are-unaware-of-a-skin-cancerthat-primarily-affects-dark-skinned-people/2014/08/04/14164ada-e68a-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html

How Society Treats Hearing Loss

By ConsumerAffairs

According to the National Institutes of Health, about 3 of every 1,000 children are born with a detectable level of hearing loss, and around 30 million Americans over age 12 have disabling hearing loss. However, only about 20% of the people who could benefit from hearing aids use one.

By themselves, those statistics are unsettling. However, compared to the fact that 75% of U.S. adults use some sort of vision correction, they highlight the stark differences in how society treats hearing loss versus a similar disability like vision loss.

Price

According to the Better Hearing Institute, 68% of people with hearing loss cite finances as the main reason for not using hearing aids.

Availability

While glasses have been adopted as must-have fashion accessories for NBA players and presidential hopefuls alike, hearing aids are still lacking in aesthetic options.

Accommodations

Don't count on your favorite hotel or restaurant offering a pair of complimentary hearing aids if you leave yours at home.

At work and school

Untreated hearing loss is proven to affect children's attention and comprehension in classroom lectures, and adults with untreated hearing loss lose as much as $30,000 in salary and wages annually.

In social settings

Kids with hearing loss struggle in social situations, and their difficulty interacting or following along in conversation is often mistaken for aloofness.

In relationships

The say communication is the key to any good relationship, but communication can be challenging for hearing impared individuals, especially in a relationship with a person with normal hearing.

According to the World Health Organization, 360 million people worldwide are hearing disabled. Hearing loss is a major public health issue, the third most common after arthritis and heart disease. Yet because we can’t see hearing loss, only its effects, many mistake it as aloofness, confusion, or personality changes. To learn more about how hearing aids can help with hearing loss, and to find the one that’s right for you, check out ConsumerAffairs' Hearing Aids guide.

Receive updates on life-changing hearing research and resources by subscribing to HHF's free quarterly magazine and e-newsletter.

Professor seeks to improve diagnosis process of Meniere's disease

Dr. Wafaa Kaf, professor of audiology, has spent many of her 10 years at Missouri State researching ways to evaluate the hearing of these challenging populations.

Vertigo, dizziness, a sense of ear fullness and ringing in the ears are all symptoms for a variety of illnesses, like migraine. According to Dr. Wafaa Kaf, professor of audiology in the communication sciences and disorders department at Missouri State University, these symptoms may not immediately raise a red flag to a patient with Ménière's disease, and that’s one of the major challenges of this disease.

“There are two challenges with this disease,” said Kaf. “We can’t diagnose it as early as we want because current diagnosis is only based on clinical reports from the patient without the use of objective measures to confirm clinical diagnosis, and thus appropriate treatment isn’t offered soon enough. In addition, there is no known definite cause for it.”

According to Kaf, Ménière's disease is a common disease of the inner ear affecting adults in their fourth decade of life. The disease is believed to be due to an abnormal increase in the amount of the inner ear fluid. If left untreated, this progressive disease may lead to deafness.

Improving the diagnosis process

The current technique for objective diagnosis of Ménière's disease is Electrocochleography, but Kaf knows that it lacks sensitivity to accurately detect Ménière's disease in its early stage. She wants to improve the diagnosis process to understand the origin of the disease and its long-term effects.

Currently to test patients, an electrode is placed behind the ear and another in the ear canal. Clicking sounds will be presented to the patient’s ear via earphone and the system will record responses from the inner ear and the hearing nerve, which will be analyzed by an audiologist. The diagnosis is based on whether there is an abnormally large response from the inner ear compared to the hearing nerve response.

“My research is to modify the current technique to allow it to detect the disease earlier by presenting the click sounds at faster rates of up to 500 clicks per second,” said Kaf.

She explained that this increased speed is a stressor to the inner ear and the hearing nerve similar to a doctor putting a patient with heart condition on a treadmill while undergoing an echocardiogram (EKG). The stress during an EKG allows physicians to detect early dysfunction of the heart. In Kaf’s research, the modification to the current measure has the potential to detect Ménière's disease and distinguish it from other inner ear or nerve lesions.

Participate in the study

Kaf and her research team are recruiting people who have been recently diagnosed with Ménière's to participate in a three-hour long study, testing is being conducted at Dr. Kaf's lab at Missouri State University, Springfield, MO. Participants will be compensated $75 and will also receive free comprehensive hearing evaluations to assess hearing sensitivity and middle ear status as well as inner ear and nerve function using both the standard and the modified, experimental procedures.

To participate in the study, contact Kaf’s research assistant, Alana Kennedy, audiology doctoral student, at (417) 860-2556 or contact Kaf at (417) 836-4456 or via email wafaakaf@missouristate.edu.

Kaf has received generous funding for this research study from the Hearing Health Foundation.

Spotlight On: Stefan Heller, Ph.D.

By Stefan Heller, Ph.D.

CURRENT INSTITUTION: 

Stanford University

EDUCATION:

Studied Biology at the University of Mainz, Germany

Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany

Postdoc at The Rockefeller University, New York, NY

We are grateful for your interest in Hearing Health Foundation (HHF). Through Spotlight On, HHF aims to connect our supporters and constituents to its Hearing Restoration Project (HRP) consortium researchers. We hope this feature helps you get to know the life and work of the leading researchers working collaboratively in pursuit of a cure for hearing loss and tinnitus

What is your area of focus? 

My laboratory seeks to understand how a small patch of embryonic cells forms the inner ear, particularly the sensory hair cells of the cochlea and vestibular organs. We are also very interested in the biology of supporting cells, which in chickens have the ability to regenerate lost hair cells. Another research interest of ours is the use of stem cells to generate inner ear cells “from scratch.”

Why did you decide to pursue scientific research? 

As a kid, I convinced my parents to buy me a chemistry lab kit. On numerous occasions the basement needed to be evacuated because of nasty fumes that filled the room. This experience probably gave me an edge when studying science in school, where I had encouraging teachers who inspired interest in neuroscience and genetics. I realized that science provides an endless playing field to connect basic discoveries to the development of useful applications.

Why hearing research? 

Serendipity! My Ph.D. thesis focused on how nerve cells are affected by so-called neurotrophic factors. This field of research was popular in the early 1990s because it promised to lead to cures for disorders such as ALS, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. With many researchers already working on finding cures for these conditions, I believed a cure was right around the corner and I’d be out of a job quickly. So I looked for a new challenge and found the laboratory of Jim Hudspeth, an HHF Emerging Research Grantee in 1979 and 1980, whose research focuses on inner ear hair cells. Five minutes with Jim and I was hooked.

What do you enjoy doing when not in the lab?

I enjoy renovating our family’s 65-year-old midcentury modern house one step at a time. After 10 years, I am about half done. I also enjoy camping trips with my wife and dog; we like hiking and being off the grid to recharge our batteries.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would you have done?

I’ve always felt that research is the best fit for me. I like modern architecture, and although I am not necessarily talented in drawing, I might have liked to do something in that field.

What do you find to be most inspirational?

Interacting with creative people and living in the Bay Area, a region where innovation is cherished and rewarded. All of my mentors have one important trait in common, and that is generosity. They were generous in volunteering their time to discuss wild ideas and scientific problems, giving me resources to explore and experiment. I try to apply this principle to my laboratory group as well.

Hearing Restoration Project

What has been a highlight from the HRP consortium collaboration?

The most valuable aspect of the HRP is that we get together as a group and talk about experiments, approaches, and the problems at hand. There are not many researchers focusing on hearing restoration, so bringing them together frequently is very helpful. We meet twice a year in person and once a month via conference calls, which is optimal for fruitful discussions. Having unlimited access to this talented group brings a lot of value.

How has the collaborative effort helped your research?

Without the HRP, I would not have started to focus on chicken hair cell regeneration. The collaborative approach, made possible through funding from HHF, has helped us to implement novel tools and the latest technology. Combining resources and technologies strengthens our research and expedites projects that help us reach our goal to find a cure for human hearing loss and tinnitus.

What do you hope to have happen with the HRP over the next year? Two years? Five years?

I envision that we will have started to fill in some of these missing components and that we have identified ways to reactivate hair cell regeneration in the mammalian cochlea. I also hope that people connected to the cause, such as individuals living with hearing loss and HHF’s generous supporters, remain patient, because science takes time in order to reach a desired result. We are working on a very complicated problem, and with each new discovery we find new roadblocks that need to be eliminated. I dream of the day when these roadblocks are all gone and we do not encounter new ones. This will be the day we realistically can expect a cure.

What is needed to help make HRP goals happen?

Ongoing funding. HHF is currently supporting research projects at a dozen laboratories, and increased funding per laboratory would allow for even more research to be conducted. HRP researchers benefit from sharing knowledge and small collaborations, but I feel that large-scale concerted efforts and sustained funding are essential to make the HRP’s goals a reality. Hopefully one of the currently funded, small-scale, concerted collaborations will lead to a “eureka” moment that will allow us to leapfrog directly to testing new drugs. Finally, patience is a must! Combined, all of the laboratories working on finding cures for hearing loss and tinnitus totals fewer than 500 researchers worldwide. It is a small field with limited resources, but I am very encouraged about the progress we’ve made so far.

Empower the Hearing Restoration Project's life-changing research. If you are able, please make a contribution today.