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Attempt to regenerate hair cells is an important goal in hearing research. Some progress has been made in the recent past that gives us hope that hair cell regeneration is possible. However, it is going to be long time before we can generate a full complement of hair cells to replace damaged/lost hair cells in the inner ear. Prosthetic devices such as Cochlear Implant (CI) restore some degree of hearing function to those who suffer from severe to profound hearing loss. CI is an artificial hearing device, designed to produce useful hearing sensation by electrically stimulating nerves inside the inner ear through electrode array. CI represents a significant improvement compared to the old-fashioned hearing aids in terms of speech recognition but it is far from restoring normal hearing. This project will address the following question: can we create microdevices that would respond to specific frequencies like hair cells? We are trying to design a micro device that will act as a mechanotransducer. We are currently carrying out ‘engineering feasibility' test.
Personnel Involved:
Department of Otolaryngology-HNS
Kumar Alagramam, Ph.D.,
Cliff Megerian, M.D.
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
Darrin Young, Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department)
Middle Ear Microphone:
Micro sensor for cochlear and middle ear implant systems. We are developing a middle ear microphone for use in a totally implantable cochlear implant. This first phase of the project involves studying the mechanical and acoustic properties of the ossicular chain for this purpose.
PI: W. Ko, PhD – Department of Electrical Engineering,
Co-Investigator: Cliff A. Megerian, MD – Department of Otolaryngology-HNS
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