Determining the limits for reversing hearing loss

Hearing loss is very common as we get older, and it can isolate affected people from society. We have no treatments to reverse hearing loss or even to slow down its progression. In this project, we will investigate whether some types of hearing loss can be reversed and develop new methods for diagnosing which structures within the inner ear are malfunctioning. This knowledge will be important to focus our efforts on developing new treatments for the types of hearing loss that are most likely to respond, and to select the best treatment for each individual depending on what the problem is. For this research we will use mutant mice with similar types of dysfunction as in human deafness. In the mouse we have the advantage of knowing exactly what is going on inside the ear including the primary site of the pathology, while in humans currently we can only guess.