In this project, Dr Carmen Unzu at Fundación para la Investigación Médica Aplicada, Spain, investigates gene editing as a method to treat a genetic form of hearing loss.
Project start date: April 2025
Project end date: April 2026
About the project
Around one to two babies out of every thousand are born each year with hearing loss, and for half of them, their hearing loss is genetic. It might be possible to treat some types of genetic hearing loss using gene-based therapies.
In this project, the research team will look at gene editing as a potential treatment for people with genetic forms of hearing loss.
How it works
Unlike traditional gene therapies, which carry a new version of a gene into a cell to treat a condition, gene editing makes direct changes to the cell’s own DNA, meaning that the changes will likely persist for the lifetime of the cell and may therefore be more effective than traditional gene therapies.
In this project, the researchers will study the safety and effectiveness of a gene editing method based on a technique called ‘CRISPR-Cas’ to treat the most common form of genetic hearing loss. They hope to develop systems that can deliver the gene editing technology to cells of the inner ear as effectively as possible.
How will this research benefit people with hearing loss?
This project will advance the development of gene-based treatments for hearing loss and could ultimately benefit many people affected by genetic hearing loss.
About the researcher
Dr Carmen Unzu is a group leader at CIMA-University of Navarra, Spain. This RNID Innovation Seed Fund was awarded in April 2025.
Hearing loss care is conventional[ly] hearing aids or cochlear implants. However, these devices cannot mediate a full recovery of hearing sensitivity and have elevated maintenance costs.
With our research we aim to move a step forward on the durability, safety, and effectiveness of gene therapy to treat the most frequent form of genetic hearing loss.”
