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Bridget M. Kuehn

JAMA. 2005;293:1715-1716.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Unraveling the mystery of the sense of smell won two researchers the Nobel Prize in 2004. Now, two other senses, sight and hearing, are taking center stage as researchers report advances they hope will point the way to new treatment strategies for patients with certain types of impaired vision and hearing.

In mid-February, news that a team of US and Japanese researchers had restored hearing in deafened guinea pigs captured the headlines. Just 2 weeks later came reports that another group of scientists working with mice had successfully regrown the optic nerve—a key step toward restoring sight in individuals with glaucoma and injuries that destroy the optic nerve.

One of a guinea pig’s inner ears remains denuded of hair cells after treatment with a toxin (left), but hair cells regenerate in the other ear after gene therapy with a gene (Atoh1) that regulates hair cell . . . [Full Text of this Article]

HEARING RESTORED