Hearing disorders
Overview
What do genes have to do with hearing loss?
A lot, though there remains much that is not fully understood. Admittedly, research into age-related hearing loss is made extremely challenging by environmental factors such as noise and infections. But genetic factors play significant role in about half of all cases of hearing loss among children.
Screening efforts at the Laboratory have identified more than 60 hearing-related mutations to help begin to sort out the complicated problem. Research into single-gene mutations that affect hearing also sheds light on the basic mechanisms of hearing.