Children with total deafness regain hearing after groundbreaking gene therapy [Video]

Five children who were born completely deaf have had some reversal of hearing loss after receiving a “groundbreaking” gene therapy.

The clinical trial, which was co-led by Mass Eye and Ear in Boston and the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, was the first in the world to apply gene therapy to children in both ears, according to the researchers.

The research has just been published in Nature Medicine on June 5.

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In addition to regaining their hearing, the children participating in the trial — who ranged in age from 1 to 11 years old — were also able to identify the origins and locations of sounds, even in noisy environments, researchers said.

This was a follow-up to an …