Using gene therapy to treat hereditary deafness is safe and effective in both children and adults, according to new findings from a multicenter clinical trial.

“Cochlear implantation has been the only treatment for deafness, but it does not address the root cause,” says Fan-Gang Zeng, PhD, an esteemed hearing scientist in the Department of Otolaryngology in the UC Irvine School of Medicine, where he’s also a Chancellor’s professor and director of the Center for Hearing Research. “Gene therapy restores biological hearing while removing the need for electronics and batteries.”

Zeng collaborated with an international team of researchers during a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, which included 10 participants between the ages of 1.5 and 23.9 years old… Continue reading.