# Hearing Restoration by Virally Expressing Mechano-Sensitive Channels in Spiral Ganglion Neurons

> **NIH NIH R21** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $195,000

## Abstract

Project Abstract
 Hearing impairment is one of the most prevalent human disabilities. For patients with severe and
profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) beyond the range that could be helped by amplification-based
external devices (e.g., hearing aids or personal listening devices), currently the only effective treatment is the
cochlear implant (CI). Research communities have spent large amounts of effort and money to improve the
quality and lower the cost of CIs, as well as finding alternative treatments that do away with the need for a
prosthesis altogether.
 In this R21 we propose a high-risk and potentially high-reward approach to restore hearing without
using any implanted prosthetic device that could produce a feasible sound perception quality predicted to be
significantly better than that theoretically-achievable by CIs. We hypothesize that mammalian hearing can be
restored without any prosthetic device if the spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) can be transformed to directly
respond to basilar membrane vibration. We believe our approach may have a better chance of translational
success than many gene-based and cell-based therapies currently under investigation, because its
requirements for cellular survival and cochlear integrity are similar to that of CIs.
 We will perform feasibility studies in this R21 to characterize candidates of membrane-based mechano-
sensitive channels (MSCs) by testing naturally-occurring as well as engineered MSCs in vitro. We will then
virally express the identified membrane-based MSCs in SGNs of mouse models of common human deafness
caused by connexin26 and connexin30 null mutations, in order to examine if acoustical hearing is restored.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9987588
- **Project number:** 5R21DC017272-02
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** James Q Zheng
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $195,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9987588

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9987588, Hearing Restoration by Virally Expressing Mechano-Sensitive Channels in Spiral Ganglion Neurons (5R21DC017272-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9987588. Licensed CC0.

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