Cochlear implants boosted by gene therapy plus tiny LEDs
By Clare Wilson,
New Scientist
| 07. 07. 2016
Can light restore hearing in deaf people? Researchers hope that through optogenetics, they can use micro-LED lights to make better cochlear implants than those used by deaf people today.
Standard cochlear implants function by stimulating nerves using an electrode placed inside the cochlea, a tiny spiral cavity inside the ear. These work, but sounds are distorted and muffled.
That’s because people who aren’t deaf can normally discriminate between about 2000 different sound frequencies, whereas cochlear implants allow only about a dozen to be distinguished. As a result, these implants make human speech sound a bit like that of a dalek, and music can be unpleasant.
Continue reading on New Scientist
Image via Flickr/Jessica Merz
Related Articles
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Emily Galpern] | 03.29.2026
More Americans are turning to surrogacy to build their families, as the practice becomes more common and more publicly discussed.
Why it matters: As surrogacy becomes more visible and accessible, ethical, legal and cultural tensions become harder to ignore...
By David Jensen, The California Stem Cell Report | 03.26.2026
SACRAMENTO, Ca. -- California’s $12 billion stem cell and gene therapy program scored a historic first today, announcing that it had for the first time helped to finance a revolutionary treatment that will now be available to the general public...
Cathy Tie seems to be good at starting businesses but not so dedicated to maintaining them. CGS, like many others, first heard of her thanks to Caiwei Chen and Antonio Regalado in MIT Technology Review, May 2025, as the partner (perhaps bride) of the notorious Chinese scientist He Jiankui, described in the headline as “China’s Frankenstein.” He prefers “Chinese Darwin.” She ran his Twitter account for a while, contributing such gems as:
Get in luddite, we’re going gene editing...
By Laura DeFrancesco, Nature Biotechnology | 03.17.2026
The first gene editors designed to fix genetic lesions in mutation-agnostic ways are poised to enter the clinic. Tessera Therapeutics and Alltrna, two Flagship Pioneering-funded companies, are gearing up to test novel genetic medicines in humans. Tessera received regulatory clearance...
