deafness

The research, led by Russian biologist Denis Rebrikov, has not led to the birth of gene-edited babies—yet.

After a decades-long pursuit, researchers have confirmed the identity of the pore of the mechanotransduction channel in vertebrates’ inner ear hair cells.

Researchers reduce the severity of hereditary deafness in mice with the delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 protein-RNA complexes that inactivate a mutant gene in their inner ears. 

Using the mutagenic chemical N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea, researchers confirm the role of a gene in a piglet deformity and identify potential models for human diseases. 

Deficiency in a protein called pejvakin makes inner ear cells more vulnerable to sound, unable to brace themselves against oxidative stress stimulated by noise. 

Until recently, auditory brainstem implants have been restricted to patients with tumors on their auditory nerves.

Expressing a gene for a component of the inner ear’s hair cells treated a form of genetic deafness.

The surgically implanted device can be tweaked to provide short electric bursts that send a nerve-growing gene into local cells, a study on guinea pigs shows.

Scientists are using genetic techniques to target diseases that affect how we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.

The brains of people who cannot hear adapt to process vision-based language, in addition to brain changes associated with the loss of auditory input. 

A drug applied to the ears of deaf mice has prompted the regrowth of noise-damaged hair cells and resulted in slight improvements in the animals’ hearing.

Altered touch perception in deaf people may reveal individual differences in brain plasticity.

People with a defect in an ion channel that causes deafness are more sensitive to certain types of touch.