The key to restoring lost hearing is finding a way to re-grow hair cells in the cochlea.  We’re born with about 30,000 of these tiny sound detectors and because of exposure to noise, age and some types of antibiotics they die off.

The good news: researchers around the world are working to develop techniques to regenerate hairs cells.  Now comes word that a team at MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Massachusetts Eye and Ear have discovered a combination of drugs that does just that.  At least it works in mice.

The MIT press release and another from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have some of the details about the research that was published in the scientific journal The Cell Reports.

For more on the search for a cure check out my posts on CFG166, research at Sunnybrook in Toronto and the Pasteur Institute in Paris.