Gene editing may be a path to restore partial hearing
When Wei Hsi “Ariel” Yeh was an undergraduate, one of her close friends went from normal hearing to complete deafness in one month. He was 29 years old. Doctors didn’t know why then and still don’t. Frustrated and fearful for her friend, Yeh, who graduated last month with a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, dedicated her research in chemistry to solving some of the vast genetic mysteries behind hearing loss. One in eight people aged 12 years or older in the U.S. has hearing loss in both ears. Technologies like hearing aids and cochlear implants can amplify sound but can’t correct the problem. Perhaps gene editing could, scientists decided, since genetic anomalies contribute to half of all cases. Two years ago, Yeh and David R. Liu, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences and a member of the Broad Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI),...