Using gene therapy in a mouse model, Emerging Research Grants scientist Megan Beers Wood, Ph.D., and team boosted natural hearing protection in the ear, making the hair cells more resistant to noise damage and significantly reducing hearing loss from loud noise exposure

Emerging Research Grants scientist Francisco Barros-Becker, Ph.D., and team have detailed how life-saving aminoglycoside antibiotics are able to kill hair cells, which may provide new therapeutic avenues to make these important bacteria-fighting drugs safer for hearing.

In an hour-long research webinar, Hearing Restoration Project member Stefan Heller, Ph.D., of Stanford University shares how his lab has uncovered the principal mechanism of hair cell regeneration in the chick model, a cell division-based mechanism that his lab has meticulously tracked.

The Ménière’s Disease Symposium brought together clinicians and researchers to discuss advancements in diagnosis, treatments, and future investigative directions for this condition that affects balance and hearing and causes vertigo, tinnitus, and fluctuating hearing loss.

Hearing Restoration Project members Andy Groves, Ph.D., and Litao Tao, Ph.D., and team recently showed it is possible to design gene therapies for the ear that are carefully targeted at supporting cells, an essential first step in applying gene therapy to treat hearing loss in humans.

Emerging Research Grants (ERG) scientist Timothy Balmer, Ph.D., shows that unipolar brush cells, a type of neuron, may help compensate for age-related balance decline in older mice, maintaining stability.

Hearing Restoration Project member Ksenia Gnedeva, Ph.D., and team identified key gene regulators that enable some deafened animals—including fish and lizards—to naturally regenerate their hearing.