An SIU School of Medicine researcher is hoping a national grant will help push her study of hearing loss into the next stage.
Assistant Pharmacology Professor Brandon Cox landed the nearly $400,000 grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research. She says her focus on regenerating cells that allow people to hear is getting a big boost from this two-and-a-half year project, and she hopes to have results soon:
"I'm hoping to have some pathways or some genes that are definitely involved, and then I'm going to figure out how they're involved - or which cells are needing these genes or pathways. We'll validate that in the animal model, so then we can really define the pathway more specifically for the drug development."
Cox says this research could particularly benefit military personnel and veterans, many of whom suffer from hearing loss because of their experiences with artillery and other equipment. She says long term goals would create drug or genetic treatments to help people regrow their hearing cells. This is the second national grant Cox has scored for her research.
