Thanks to gene therapy, 5 deaf children regain their hearing

Partially restoring the hearing of children born profoundly deaf with gene therapy: this is the feat achieved by a team of researchers from Fudan University, in Shanghai (China). None of the five little patients could hear at the start of the experiment. Only one month after receiving the treatment, they were able to recognize their name, locate the Source of a noise, hear music or even pronounce a few syllables. Progress continued to be observed during the six and a half months of follow-up. These extraordinary results are detailed in a study published Wednesday in Nature Medicine.

“It’s a real revolution, we will perhaps finally have a treatment in a medical field which until now had none.rejoices Professor Christine Petit, geneticist and neuroscientist at the Pasteur Institute, founder of the Hearing Institute. At the moment, only hearing aids can be offered..

This is not the first clinical trial…