Stem cells and cell therapy for sensori-neural deafness – Stem Cells and Hearing Loss

Sensori-neural hearing loss (SNHL) represents a major public health problem and the most common sensory deficit in humans, affecting 1 in 1000 newborns and a significant portion of the elderly population. In most cases, SNHL is associated with a permanent loss of auditory hair cells (HCs) within the cochlea (the auditory part of the inner ear) and can be caused by either environmental (i.e. exposure to noise, ototoxic drugs, aging...) or genetic factors.

In mammals, including human, the cochlear HCs are not replaced and the resulting hearing loss is often irreversible. The objective of this project is to contribute to the emergence of a stem cell-based therapy to treat SNHL which still actually beyond therapeutic intervention.

To reach our objective, we will develop innovative experimental protocols to derive HC progenitors from both embryonic stem cells and inner ear tissue-stem cells in standardized cell culture models. Then, we will characterize these inner ear sensory progenitors at the molecular and cellular levels.

In the last step, we will explore their transplantation capacities to induce regeneration of functional HCs in both in vitro and in vivo models of SNHL.