An Israeli Discovery Could Cure Deafness

Genetics Professor Karen Avraham of Tel Aviv University's (TAU) Sackler School of Medicine, postdoctoral researchers in her lab and Dr. Lilach Friedman have discovered how the function of tiny molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs) in the inner ears of mice could lead to the cure of human deafness in adults caused by aging, disease, drugs and noise, or genetic disease in children. 

The TAU team - working in collaboration with Weizmann Institute of Science molecular genetics department and biologists at Indiana's Purdue University - has discovered for the first time that these molecules are vital to the development and survival of hair cells in the inner ear and for normal hearing.

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