Genetic Hearing Loss May Be Reversible Without Gene Therapy

... A large proportion of genetically caused deafness in humans may be reversible by compensating for a missing protein. Researchers have found that in mice, increasing the amount of the protein connexin26 in the ear's cochlea compensates for an absence of another protein, connexin30. The findings come 10 years after scientists first discovered that connexin26 mutations cause much of the deafness diagnosed at birth. ...