David Corey’s lab closes in on revolutionary interventions to treat hereditary deafness

The laboratory of David Corey, PhD, Bertarelli Professor of Translational Medical Science at Harvard Medical School, is developing strategies to treat hereditary deafness. The Corey lab focuses on common forms of hereditary deafness and two forms of Usher syndrome—a condition causing both deafness and blindness—as they work toward clinical treatments.

Dr. Corey has spent nearly 50 years studying how hair cells in the inner ear contribute to hearing and deafness. A decade ago, he realized that the tools and knowledge his lab had developed over the years finally had the potential to turn basic science into clinical cures for deafness—a goal he had never dreamed was possible.

NIH grants have fueled the Corey lab’s decades-long progress, pushing clinical treatments closer to reality. Dr. Corey warns, “If the funding is cut back…there are going to be fewer cures, they’re going to take longer to get there—there just won’t be the medicines that there might have been otherwise.”