Researchers discover therapy for regenerating ear hair cells

A team of scientists from Harvard Medical School has developed a substance resembling medicine that may restore inner ear hair cells, paving the way for gene therapy clinical trials and benefitting those with hearing loss. More than 90% of people with hearing loss have sensorineural hearing loss, which is caused by the destruction and damage of the hair cells that carry sound signals to the brain. 

Since they don’t divide, hair cells in the inner ear are different from most other cells in the body in that they cannot regenerate. The study, published in PNAS, shows that hearing loss may be…