Hearing Loss

A one-time treatment using small molecules to target progenitor cells, pioneered in the lab of a Harvard Stem Cell Institute researcher, may potentially restore hearing lost from some of the most common causes By Alice McCarthy Often regarded as a quasi...

HSCI scientists identify role of protein behind rare Norrie disease A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Mass Eye and Ear, led by Principal Faculty member Albert Edge, has identified the mechanism that can lead to deafness in the rare...

Improved delivery vector better penetrates the inner ear, also restores balance in a mouse model of Usher syndrome Adapted from a Boston Children's Hospital and Massachusetts Eye and Ear press release In the summer of 2015, a team at Boston Children’s...

Newly formed cochlear hair cells contain intricate hair bundles with many stereocilia (critical for sensing sound) and other components that are critical for proper function and neural transmission. Photo courtesy of Will McLean HSCI researchers developed...

Harvard stem cell scientists have made an unexpected and potentially useful discovery that the sound-sensing cells of the mammalian ear—called hair cells--can be replaced, at least at low levels. Despite years of evidence indicating that ear sensory cells...