Hope this turns out to be viable. It looks promising.

https://news.mit.edu/2022/freq...a41kh5dhvb60x2lX2Kc8

Good stuff!

Hope it works.
Went through being recommended and tested for cochlear implants.

The blasting that went on as part of the testing seemed to restore the hearing in my worst ear.
The hearing in that ear was considerably better after the testing. It has gone downhill some since, but it is better than before.

Wow. Very interesting. And hopefully timely for this old geezer....no hearing loss yet but I'm sure it's coming...

This does sound very exciting indeed! Pretty much the holy grail for hearing loss.

Sounds good to me .... pun intended.

I'd love to get rid of this tinnitus.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Sounds good to me .... pun intended.

I'd love to get rid of this tinnitus.

The Chinese therapy place I’ve been going to sent me a notice that acupuncture can help with tinnitus. Have you tried it?

I have tinnitus too but it’s more complicated…

What a difference that could make for those losing their hearing. (I'll bet it will also make a great difference in deterring dementia and social distancing, all shown be so much a function of deafness.)

Sounds a bit like the breakthrough scientists are making with macular degeneration blindness. Not progenitor cells per se but with undifferentiated embryonic stem cells. They've managed to transform them into retinal cells which can be transplanted to replace dead/scarred macular cells (what causes the central blindness which typifies AMD - age-related macular degeneration).

It works for mice so far, and many clinical trials are promising for human AMD. Sadly, for those whose AMD has transformed to the wet kind (tiny abnormal capillaries grow into the retina, leaking because of their fragility. What destroys central vision).

Not quite sure why the transformed retinal cells don't work for the leaking kind, but hopefully eventually they will. "Wet" AMD is the primary cause of blindness in the aged (60+ - including, gulp, me).

I sure hope they find a way to restore vision in time for me. Transforming stem cells into normal ones wherever they've gone bad is one of the greatest modern miracles.

I've already benefited in my full length spinal fusion, by surgeons using "BMP". (That's bone morphogenetic protein which turns into a very expensive stem cell "glue"which vastly helps the reformed bones to fuse).

The only risk (as with the transformed retinal cells) is that the revamped cells can - rarely- become malignant. That's especially dangerous here as they can grow into the spinal cord. Spinal surgeons refuse to forego BMP, though, because it has so dramatically improved fusion healing.

Yay, stem cells! For spinal fusions, (hopefully) eventually replacing scarred retinal cells, and now replacing hair cells in damaged ears. Ever more life-changing applications are being discovered.