In this project, Professor Jonathan Gale at University College London investigates the role of stress granules in the development of antibiotic-induced hearing loss.
Project start date: June 2024
Project end date: February 2027
About the project
Aminoglycoside antibiotics are one of the so-called ototoxic (ear-toxic) medicines (medicines that as a side effect can damage the inner ear). They can cause permanent hearing loss. Aside of restricting the use of aminoglycoside antibiotics, currently there is no way to prevent the hearing loss associated with these drugs.
The researcher’s lab previously found that a cellular process called the ‘stress granule response’ may play a role in the development of this type of hearing loss.
It is thought that cells use stress granules as a way of protecting themselves from harm. However, sometimes, abnormal stress granules may develop which persist in the cell even after it is no longer stressed.
In this project, the researchers will try to determine the role of abnormal stress granules in age-related and antibiotic-induced hearing loss.
How it works
The team will investigate how stress granules behave in response to chronic cellular stress, like the accumulated stress that plays a part in age-related hearing loss, and in hearing loss caused by aminoglycoside antibiotics. They’ll characterise the formation of normal and abnormal stress granules and they’ll compare their composition.
This will allow them to identify shared and unique molecules in the stress granules. These molecules will provide potential targets for future investigation and drug development to prevent hearing loss.
Finally, they will test whether a drug they have identified from previous work on stress granules can protect the sound-sensing cells of the inner ear.
How will this research benefit people at risk from hearing loss?
This work could ultimately lead to ways to reduce or prevent hearing loss caused by treatment with aminoglycoside antibiotics, and to treat or prevent age-related hearing loss.
About the researcher
Jonathan Gale is Professor of Auditory Cell Biology at The Ear Institute, University College London. He became Director of the UCL Ear Institute in 2015 until 2023 when he stepped down from the role to focus on his research programs. He was awarded an RNID Discovery Research Grant for this project in 2024.
I have a unilateral hearing loss myself, so I am very aware of the difficulties that hearing loss brings. This has been a driving force that has motivated me, and to this day I am captivated by the incredible and exquisite structural complexity of the inner ear that is perfectly designed for its function. It’s just an amazing sensory system!”
