Saturday, August 1, 2020

More Clues to the Genes Behind Hearing Loss


Article: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-07-16/more-clues-to-the-genes-behind-hearing-loss 
Related Article: https://www.technologynetworks.com/genomics/news/common-genetic-variant-identified-as-frequent-cause-of-deafness-337136

    This past month, Dutch scientists have been able to research and identify a common genetic variant that can cause deafness. There are about 118 genes identified to be linked to deafness, most of these exressed at birth or early childhood. A study of about 200 people was conducted and it was found that a missing section of the RIPOR2 gene was detected in 20 of 23 families with inherited deafness. With more studies, it was found that the gene variant could be found in those with hearing loss and those with no hearing loss yet. It is predicted that the gene variant is present in more than 43,000 people who can either be present with hearing loss or are at risk. Identifying this gene is going to open up doors to making a targeted gene therapy. 

2 comments:

  1. This is very interesting! I actually read an article explaining that gene therapy for patients with hearing loss is very promising. Scientists have been testing the techniques on animals who have hearing loss and the results from the studies are positive. Scientists feel very hopeful that gene therapy can be very beneficial for people who have lost their hearing!

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  2. I hope that people continue to study this so that maybe one day the gene can be turned off. I also found it interesting that gene might not be active in beginning of someones life but lay dormant for a period of time.

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