For decades, the only remedies for hearing loss were devices such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. Now, the first pharmaceutical treatments might be on the way.
It was the late 1980s, and Boston College undergraduate John Brigande was exhausted. It wasn’t because he had been partying too much or because he had pulled too many all-nighters. He was wearing himself out simply trying to hear. “A hearing-impaired person burns an enormous amount of energy working to understand the meaning behind sounds in their environment, especially voices,” says Brigande, who started losing his hearing by age nine. “At the end of the day, I was totally spent doing the work to hear.”
Now an associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Brigande works to identify genes involved in development of the mammalian inner ear and to prevent congenital genetic hearing loss by reprogramming cells during embryonic development in mouse models of human hearing loss. He feels that his experiences give him a deeper connection to the disorders he hopes to treat. “I live the life of the patient,” he says.