"Dynamite:" Human stem cells restore hearing in gerbil study
This Associated Press article, featured in USA Today on Sept. 13, quotes Dr. Yehoash Raphael, one of the original Taubman Scholars at the Taubman Instittue.
By Malcolm Ritter, Associated Press
NEW YORK -- For the first time, scientists have improved hearing in deaf animals by using human embryonic stem cells, an encouraging step for someday treating people with certain hearing disorders.
"It's a dynamite study (and) a significant leap forward," said one expert familiar with the work, Dr. Lawrence Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco.
The experiment involved an uncommon form of deafness, one that affects fewer than 1% to perhaps 15% of hearing-impaired people. And the treatment wouldn't necessarily apply to all cases of that disorder. Scientists hope the approach can be expanded to help with more common forms of deafness. But in any case, it will be years before human patients might benefit.
Results of the work, done in gerbils, were reported online Wednesday in the journal Nature by a team led by Dr. Marcelo Rivolta of the University of Sheffield in England.
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