Using Stem Cells to Combat Hearing Loss

Medicine

MSI PI Walter Low (professor, Neurosurgery) is featured in an article in the Fall 2019 issue of the University of Minnesota Foundation’s magazine, Discovery. The article describes the work of University researchers who are looking for a way to use stem cells to regenerate nerve cells in the inner ear. These nerve cells, spiral ganglion neurons, are necessary for cochlear implants to work. Cochlear implants greatly improve hearing for many people who have disabling hearing loss, but don’t work in patients with too few spiral ganglian neurons. If the cells can be regenerated, it is hoped that cochlear implants would then be effective. The article can be read on the UM Foundation website: Unique Technique.

Professor Low uses MSI resources for analyses of the genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabalome associated with the brain.

 

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