Gene therapy restores hearing in toddlers and teenagers born with congenital deafness

SS: Scientists have successfully restored hearing in kids & teens born deaf using gene therapy. They inject modified viruses packaged with healthy genes directly into the inner ear, & patients started to hear within days to weeks. Some achieved near-normal hearing levels.

This is huge because it’s actually fixing the genetic problem rather than just depending on assistive devices such as hearing aids or implants. The team is now working on treatments for other types of genetic deafness, which could eventually make many forms of inherited hearing loss curable.