Cilcare's CIL001 Targets Cochlear Synaptopathy — An American/French Collaboration

[Joeseph Stope]

Turning to poetry here, and this is on the topic of discovery.

I don't have a degree in English literature, so this is just my interpretation of some lines by Keats that I remember from high school:

"…Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien…"

The gist of it is that when Cortés, the conquistador, conquered Mexico and reached the Pacific coast, one of his men supposedly said to him, "Listen, this isn't India. I've been there and back. I know what I'm talking about."

So Cortés stood there, staring out at the vast Pacific, completely dumbfounded, and probably thought, "Where on earth are we?"

But the spirit of discovery continued. Not long after, an explorer named Magellan, either Spanish or Portuguese, managed to navigate through Cape Horn at the tip of South America and sail around the world back to Europe. Bingo! The world had discovered that the world was round, if you follow.

It feels like in our drive to understand how the auditory system works, we're now in the calm before the breakthrough. It's great that Professor Susan Shore's device lowers the tinnitus volume for some sufferers, but the real prize will be figuring out the big picture and ultimately finding a way to restore hearing to normal.

The number of new studies underway gives me real optimism that the cavalry is on the way.

As sad as it is that the United States is struggling with enormous debt, it's even sadder that Trump wants to cut research funding for tinnitus and other health issues.

 

[Joeseph Stope]

Just to emphasize this, I was in a seminar today where one of my colleagues presented unfavorable data for a new vaccine candidate he was testing. It was heartbreaking. The results in mice and non-human primates were spotless and very encouraging, yet the vaccine didn't show even a measurable signal in humans, let alone a significant response.

The biological gap between animal models and humans is a huge limitation in medical research. Any progress made toward addressing this is such a relief to me. It doesn't necessarily mean that these ex vivo cochleae will be better than animal models, but they might be. And if they are, they'll be meeting a major need.

It's great to have a dedicated scientist here who is close to the cutting edge and can explain things.

It seems the problem you've raised could be rephrased as follows:

"The scientists need to create or design an ex vivo cochlea organoid that matches or closely resembles the human one."

It sounds like a trial-and-error challenge.

Does anyone happen to have a spare billion dollars lying around for the research?