Dr. Debara Tucci Named as the Next Director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
BETHESDA, MARYLAND — National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., has selected Debara L. Tucci, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., to lead the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) as its new director. Dr. Tucci is currently professor of surgery and director of the cochlear implant program in the Division of…
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Biotech Startup Receives $2M NIH Grant for Drug Development to Prevent Antibiotic-Related Hearing Loss
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Oricula Therapeutics, LLC, a biotech startup firm based in Seattle, announced today that it has received a Phase 2 Grant of approximately $2 million dollars from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award funds will support…
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Institute of Medicine panel seeks ways to make hearing care more accessible and affordable
By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—As part of an ambitious, two-year study to identify ways to make hearing health care (HHC) for adults more accessible and affordable, a 13-member ad hoc committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will hold a daylong open session on Monday, April 27. IOM, the health arm of the National…
Read MoreNew type of otoscope may enable parents to diagnose kids’ ear infections at home
ORLANDO, FL—A new smart phone-enabled otoscope may give parents a DIY way to diagnose ear infections in their child at home rather than having to take the youngster to the pediatrician’s office. That is the potential of the CellScope Oto, developed by CellScope, Inc., a San Francisco-based start-up. On Monday (October 28), an abstract was…
Read MoreStudy suggests that sound therapy may help protect ears against cancer drugs
ROCKVILLE, MD—Next to being exposed to excessive noise, one of the most common causes of irreversible hearing loss in people of all ages is exposure to chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer. Cisplatin and the aminoglycoside antibiotics, two classes of drugs commonly used with cancer patients, are both toxic to mechanosensory hair cells, the receptor…
Read MoreTom Harkin, an ardent advocate for people with hearing loss, to leave Senate
WASHINGTON, DC–Senator Tom Harkin (D, IA), perhaps the U.S. Senate’s leading champion of people with hearing loss, announced on January 26 that he will not seek re-election when his fifth term expires at the end of 2014. Harkin, who is 73 and has been in the Senate since 1985, cited his age in explaining his…
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