Bilateral gene therapy restores hearing in children with genetic deafness

A new bilateral gene therapy successfully restored hearing in five children with inherited deafness in both ears, improving speech perception and sound localization. The study, published in Nature Medicine, is the first to administer gene therapy bilaterally. Over 430 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss, with genetic factors causing up to 60% of childhood deafness. The therapy shows promise for treating DFNB9 and may expand to other causes of deafness.