Dr. Zheng-Yi Chen Named Principal Investigator of Hearing Restoration Research Program Grant by Department of Defense

Zheng-Yi Chen, DPhil, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School, has been named a principal investigator of a three-year Hearing Restoration Research Program (HRRP) grant from the Department of Defense.

The grant, worth $1.4 million, will fund a study led by Dr. Chen that explores a possible treatment for hearing damage from exposure to loud noises. Such exposure can harm the neural synapses bridging sensory cells inside the inner ear—which detect sounds entering the ear—to the auditory nerve used to relay sound signals to the brain.

With the support of the new grant, Dr. Chen, who also serves as an Associate Scientist in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories at Mass Eye and Ear, will collaborate with Ying Wang, MD, of the Walter-Reed Army Institute of Research, to evaluate whether two drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can help regenerate the neural synapses lost between the auditory nerve and sensory cells. More specifically, the study will evaluate the ability of the drugs to regenerate inner-ear synapses lost to noise and blast exposure in mice and pigs and explore their potential application in humans.