Frequency Therapeutics — Hearing Loss Regeneration

@Aaron123 Devastated. I already named myself Goro and applied to be an extra on Star Trek.

 

Try to stick to the research of Frequency TX please..

 

Holy moly, look how many honorary degrees and awards Bob Langer has:

http://web.mit.edu/langerlab/publications/RSL-CV.pdf

 

Wow this is great that we have this guy working on this project! Everyone who is worried about what if's. example what if they don't make the new hair cells in the right place. Mother Nature does this already! Our body's are way smart! This guy is thinking of everything! They will have it figured out at some point it may not be right off at first.

 

From Frequency's website:

Dr. Robert Langer is an award-winning Institute Professor at MIT. He has written more than 1,350 articles and has over 1,100 issued and pending patents worldwide. Dr. Langer has launched over 30 companies and his patents have been licensed to over 300 companies. He is one of the 10 most cited individuals, and the most cited engineer, in history. Dr. Langer has received over 220 major awards around the world, and is one of four living people to receive both the U.S. National Medal of Science and the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation. He is also the only engineer to receive the Gairdner Foundation International Award, of which 82 recipients of this award have subsequently received a Nobel Prize. Dr. Langer completed his undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering at Cornell University and obtained his Sc.D. in Chemical Engineering at MIT.

If you want a hope boost, I think it's worth reading the bios of other people involved:

http://www.frequencytx.com/our-company/our-leadership.php
http://www.frequencytx.com/our-company/our-board-of-directors.php
http://www.frequencytx.com/our-company/our-scientific-advisory-board.php
http://www.frequencytx.com/our-company/our-clinical-advisory-board.php

A highly prestigious startup company

 

@jcloth

Do we know which of these scientists is "The-Leviathan" on Reddit?

 

Well he posted: "I am founding a science company based on my research. I will be a co-founder and the person conducting the experiments" two years ago. He mentions having a PhD in stem cell research and seems quite young. I think it's Will McLean

 

@lymebite its will mcclean.

 

I have no doubt they have figured it out. On whether they will get it "right" (meaning perfect long lasting hearing that doesn't degrade over time in the presence of noise) it won't be because of what they're doing rather what they are not doing which is presenting a drug that focuses only on dramatic enhancement of synaptic growth.

 

Wow.
Just reading all of this hopeful news about FTX, but at the same time knowing how far away this probably is. And not knowing how far.. And when every second is total torture.
Also, say it biologically is all good, will the brain unlearn T and H???
I don´t know about you guys. But it all puts me in a really weird state.
Really good to have hope though!
Thanks to all that keeps this thread alive!

 

Far away? Maybe I'm way too optimistic, but do you realize that we could be tinnitus free in 5-6 years from NOW? Frequency's stuff looks so promising I know it won't be another failure for us.

 

@acufenero
Come on. 5 to 6 years? Really? I'm not trying to be insulting. Perhaps I'm just... way too cynical.

 

Yes the brain will easily unlearn T. H is probably caused by physical damage and thus would not able to be unlearned.

Yep you are being too cynical. But the reality will be more nuanced than is being discussed. At the 5 year mark for some with minor hearing damage T be "cured" for others there will only be a reduction. Also the "cure" rate will impacted by the distribution of damage within the ear and the progress of other companies outside of Frequency. Also "we" of a cure won't necessary be access by all (monetary cost, restrictions on access based on location etc).

 

@Jim51042
I only say this because, if you go back 5 - 6 years on this forum alone, you can see the exact same posts. "In 2 - 3 years tinnitus will be cured", "it's just around the corner!", etc.. I apologize for my cynicism as tinnitus has done quite a number on my personality and frankly my life, I'm normally not like this. It's hard to see the light.

I'm also not discounting the incredible, amazing work and research Frequency and the rest are doing. There is nothing more that I would want, and I pray for, than for these selfless researchers to succeed. I'm getting ready to max the f*** out of my credit cards for whatever cure comes out in the future.

A reduction alone would be a life saver for me

 

Could you provide references to published studies that show that the brain "unlearns T"?

 

Those weren't researchers making predictions they were people guessing based on press releases. Today there has been extensive lab and animal work by a diverse field testing a trying diverse methods. This diversity and amount of effort and increased tools (crispr) better diagnostics etc make 2017 much different than 2011. This will only further snowball as the years progress. I'm not saying we won't discover this more difficult than we expect right now. However for the select few tinnitus will be reversed within 2-3 for the masses within 5-15 years.

 

@Jim51042
Wow... that's crazy... thank you... great points as well, enlightening!

 

That's totally understandable. However It would be fantastic if finally there's one true big step to be taken.

 

Do it like me and many other people. set yourself a goal for a cure/reduction. Mine is around year 2030, i know when i get sad about my T i just think about my date for a cure, and i think dat date look promising I would recommend you guys do the same thing it helps alot, but lets say if there is no cure in 2030, i will just look around about the latest research again and see what date could look promising
sorry bad english :/

 

can you provide references to published studies where the brain says it can't unlearn T? Reading this sort of stuff is highly annoying. The brain responds to input, i.e a pinching in your arm is registered in the brain as pain. Remove the input the pain will go. aka fix the cells causing T(input) and the ringing (pain) will most likely go or diminishes. You always seem so bloody pessimistic in all of your responses, it's highly annoying

 

it's not 2-3 years away, you keep spreading false things on this forum. Nobody knows, you dont know better than clinical researchers either so no idea why you think you do. Only truth is that they are somewhat closer than they were a few years ago as their understanding increases. Stefan Heller see's gene therapy might be used in 20 years. Have a look i cant be bothered providing the source

 

The hair cells or ribbon synapse. Either one is the broken input that is causing the ringing . The brain obviously has a role in this because the brain controls literally everything in our body. But, the brain responds to input. Without the input or broken input there normal functionality

 

@Aaron123 There are no published studies that say restoring hair cells will definitively end tinnitus. The best we have is to have faith in a MIT PhD, Harvard Post Doc, Frequencytx co-founder that has been saying for 5 years now (well just on reddit) that restoring hearing will get rid of tinnitus. He also uses anecdotal evidence that some people with tinnitus and hearing loss have seen a decrease in tinnitus when they got hearing aids/cochlear implants, because the brain got increased input.

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I agree with you though and definitely would like to see scientific proof that hearing cell regeneration will end tinnitus. Much too early for that though.

 

Agreed. I would also note the number of places where he says "could".

It's a very reasonable hypothesis - particularly given that some people improve with hearing aids. However, many people do not improve. This may be because there is damage that the hearing aid cannot compensate for - increased firing rates due to synaptic damage that is not helped by HAs - or it could be for some other reason.

It's simply unclear how frequently it might improve things or by how much. It will be interesting to get to a point where it is possible to induce hearing loss in mice, verify tinnitus (assuming you believe existing animal models), restore hearing, and then see if there is evidence the tinnitus is gone.

 

Could it be someone has loss up 8 hz and hearing aid fixes that. But what about someone with with loss in 8 hz and below range also has high frequency hearing loss above 8hz then hearing aid can't help that.

 

Seems very plausible.

 

To be honest I don't even think it will work I mean I have read some old stuff like this and it always turns out not to work after the trial why would it be any different now?

 

If we follow your logic we will never get new cures for any kind of disease. Try, fail, try, fail, try, succeed... That's how researchers work I think.

 

Tinnitus is a symptom of a diverse pathogenesis. As he said and we already know tinnitus is often linked with HL. On the other hand there are people with HL who don't get tinnitus. So except for nerve damage we assume there are mechanisms that trigger and sustain tinnitus which involve imbalances among many parts of the brain. Auditory cortex, limbic system, amygdala etc. That's probably why tinnitus is so stubbornly resistant in treatments. There is intense argument on the subject but this clinical trial seems really possible to provide the data on the HL aspect of tinnitus which is essential to go towards a cure. It may be a big step. That is a good thing! Let's hope they succeed.