Within earshot
Friday January 25th 2013, 12:18 am
Filed under: Life

The boots don’t fit. Ah well.

I stumbled across this article. For the first time, researchers were able to regenerate some of the hair cells in the inner ears of mice. Actual mammals. I want to jump up and down yelling at the top of my lungs, Do you know what this means?!!

(The link seems not to be working. Hmm. Well, the url was this: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensory-hair-cells-regenerated-mammal.html    Okay, that works.)

Historically there has been a huge gap between basic research and having it be applicable to actual patient care, and a lot of breakthroughs that could possibly have done much haven’t gotten the attention nor the funding to bridge that gap; if there’s not a clear path towards making a lot of money, companies won’t spend the millions it takes to jump through the FDA’s hoops–especially because historically the hoops could get yanked out from under them if/when a new head comes in. Politics happens.

As happened with a once-promising lupus drug that a company had believed in to the tune of, if I remember correctly, $21 million worth of development. Vanished. Would the med have worked? We don’t know.

President Obama made a point awhile ago of noting the problem and saying we need to move forward past those gaps–there was much cheering at places like the National Institutes of Health in my hometown.

Given the number of aging people with aging hearing, I’m thinking this one could be one of the most profitable drugs ever.

C’mon guys, I’m waaaitingggg…! Hurry up!

In the Jan. 10 issue of Neuron, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School researchers demonstrate for the first time that hair cells can be regenerated in an adult mammalian ear by using a drug to stimulate resident cells to become new hair cells, resulting in partial recovery of hearing in mouse ears damaged by noise trauma.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensory-hair-cells-regenerated-mammal.html#jCp

In the Jan. 10 issue of Neuron, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School researchers demonstrate for the first time that hair cells can be regenerated in an adult mammalian ear by using a drug to stimulate resident cells to become new hair cells, resulting in partial recovery of hearing in mouse ears damaged by noise trauma.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensory-hair-cells-regenerated-mammal.html#jCp

In the Jan. 10 issue of Neuron, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School researchers demonstrate for the first time that hair cells can be regenerated in an adult mammalian ear by using a drug to stimulate resident cells to become new hair cells, resulting in partial recovery of hearing in mouse ears damaged by noise trauma.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensory-hair-cells-regenerated-mammal.html#jCp

In the Jan. 10 issue of Neuron, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School researchers demonstrate for the first time that hair cells can be regenerated in an adult mammalian ear by using a drug to stimulate resident cells to become new hair cells, resulting in partial recovery of hearing in mouse ears damaged by noise trauma.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sensory-hair-cells-regenerated-mammal.html#jCp


4 Comments so far
Leave a comment

Thank you so much! There’s been a recent conversation about autoimmune deafness on the Sjogren’s list I belong to, and I’ve forwarded your pointer.
Why do I have “We get by with a little help from our friends” going through my head?
Carol in MA

Comment by Carol Telsey 01.25.13 @ 7:50 am

Anything that makes the population healthier should be made available. That should make conservatives happy because the healthier we are, the less costly is health care.

Comment by Don Meyer 01.25.13 @ 10:17 am

that whole idea is awesome — I think we should spend more on finding ways to help each other be healthy instead of fighting wars — well, I can dream anyway

Comment by bev 01.25.13 @ 11:20 am

I’m waiting. UVA does some fabulous medical research too… when some silly something doesn’t cog the wheel.

Comment by Channon 01.25.13 @ 1:57 pm



Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)