Cochlear Signaling and Tissue Engineering Laboratory
Josef M. Miller, Ph.D., Laboratory Director
The Cochlear Signaling and Tissue Engineering Laboratory located in Kresge Hearing Research Institute has a primary focus of investigating the mechanisms of protection and repair of the traumatized cochlea. Prevention of noise-induced hearing loss has emerged as a personal health and safety issue for the global workforce and the public. Therapies for prevention of acquired deafness and enhancing treatment and rehabilitation through tissue engineering technology are the impetus for our research. This research strategy focuses on the translation of basic research findings to applications in the clinic and the workplace. Via tissue engineering we envision the efforts of our laboratory, along with our international collaborators, guiding treatment of deafness into the 21st century with:
- Intervention and treatments for protection from acquired deafness
- Early interventions into the stress and cell death pathways
- Interventions to enhance protective mechanisms
- Interventions to enhance tissue recovery and repair
- Interventions to enhance re-introduction of hearing following deafness
- Next generation cochlear prosthesis
- Re-engineer the deafened auditory pathways
- Interventions to prevent nerve cell death after deafness
- Interventions to stimulate regrowth of the auditory nerve
- Genetic interventions
- Germ-line therapy to treat genetic deafness
- Gene transfer to prevent and treat acquired deafness
- Ex-vivo gene transfer on cochlear and central auditory prostheses
- Stem Cell implants to replace the auditory nerve
