News

With World Hearing Day this year focused on changing mind-sets concerning attitudes to hearing care, researchers at Nottingham BRC are working on a wide range of studies that will help address hearing problems that affect many people in the UK and beyond.

The World Health Organization’s campaign day, on Sunday, 3^rd March, intends to challenge the common misperceptions relating to ear and hearing problems in global communities and among healthcare professionals.

The WHO is calling on countries and society to “address misperceptions and stigmatising mind-sets related to hearing loss, as a crucial step towards ensuring equitable access to ear and hearing care”. 

Dr Derek Hoare, Theme Lead for the Nottingham BRC Hearing Theme, said: “On World Hearing Day, we want to highlight Nottingham’s contribution to investigating hearing disorders, which remain under researched nationally, affect around 12 million people in the UK alone and account for high morbidity levels.

“Hearing loss is often referred to as an ‘invisible disability’ and can be stigmatised in some communities. As well as the human cost of hearing conditions, the WHO estimates that unaddressed hearing loss incurs an annual cost of $980 billion each year. This cost is incurred due to the impact of hearing loss without rehabilitation access, including productivity losses and social exclusion.”

He continued: “As one of just three NIHR specialist centres of excellence for hearing research in the UK, we are pressing ahead with our programmes of research to continue to make better hearing care a reality for people living with a range of debilitating hearing conditions.”

Among the Nottingham BRC’s current research projects to address hearing needs are:

The COACH Trial (COmpAring Cochlear implants with Hearing aids in adults with severe hearing loss). COACH is a ground-breaking trial that is working out which intervention is better for patients with severe hearing loss – hearing aids or a cochlear implant.

The trial is recruiting participants at audiology departments in NHS hospitals around the UK, including at Nottingham University Hospitals, and managed by Nottingham BRC and hearing scientists at the University of Nottingham.

COACH is investigating the most effective treatment for people whose hearing loss greater than 65 dBHL. The group of patients included in this pioneering research are people with hearing test results and speech understanding scores that fall just outside the range where they would be eligible to receive a cochlear implant on the NHS.

Meanwhile, in a collaborative project involving the Nottingham BRC and the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, Senior Research Fellow Dr Rebecca Dewey is looking for participants aged between 30 and 45 years to join a study on noise exposure.

Rebecca is running a large MRI study that will enrol 200 people. It is applying some new ways of using MRI to look at the auditory nerve, the nerve that sends information from the ears to the brainstem.

She wants to find out if it is possible to identify the effects of noise exposure in MRI MRI scans and how these differ from those generated by normal healthy ageing. Anyone interested in finding out more about this study should e-mail her at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Another BRC study concerns the objective assessment of cochlear health utilising cochlear implants. This is about advancing biological therapies for hearing loss.

Rincell-1, a novel cell therapy for hearing loss developed by Rinri Therapeutics, holds promise in restoring auditory function by repairing specialised neurons in the inner ear.

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of Rincell-1 therapy, Cochlear Implants (CIs) offer unique access to measure the health and function of the cochlea, which is otherwise challenging to reach. The electrodes of CIs enable the continuous objective monitoring of cochlear neuron health. While some of these metrics are utilised in clinical settings, many remain confined to research.

This study aims to identify and optimise the most effective tests for assessing cochlear neuron health, bridging the gap between research and clinical practice and helping to accelerate the development of transformative therapeutics for hearing loss addressing this significant unmet medical need. The research is funded by Rinri Therapeutics.

Our BRC researchers are also exploring perspectives within the hearing loss community on advanced therapeutic approaches.

Cutting-edge therapies such as Rincell-1, a pioneering cell therapy for hearing loss developed by Rinri Therapeutics, mark significant progress in the field of hearing loss. While conventional treatments like hearing aids and cochlear implants are familiar to hearing loss professionals and individuals with hearing impairments, cell therapies represent a novel frontier of truly regenerative therapeutics.

To ensure the development of therapies that align with patient needs and prioritise safety, BRC researchers have actively engaged members of the hearing loss community in all stages of their research efforts. This includes conducting a comprehensive survey to identify key barriers and facilitators influencing participation in cell therapy clinical trials.

Additionally, researchers have facilitated focus group discussions to refine clinical trial design, bolster participant support mechanisms, and mitigate potential risks. Furthermore, we have established a participant advisory group to guide our research initiatives.

This collaborative approach is generously supported by Rinri Therapeutics. It enables investigators to foster meaningful dialogue and incorporate invaluable insights from those directly affected by hearing loss into the development of advanced therapeutic interventions.

The CHEAR Study (COVID and Hearing, otherwise known as ‘Measuring Hearing, Tinnitus and Balance following COVID-19’) is an in-depth study launched in April 2022, which is investigating the possible effects of COVID-19 on patients’ hearing, tinnitus and balance.

It has involved around 100 patients living around the East Midlands and is due to complete remote follow-ups in July this year.  The study attracted nationwide participation from as far away as Scotland for remote participants, although most participants came from the East Midlands.

The study may help patients with hearing conditions that may be caused by infection with COVID-19, and it has seen successful recruitment from the community with support from the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN).