Marcelo's Research Profile said:

Hearing loss has substantial personal, social and economic implications. It is most commonly caused by damage to the sensory hair cells and/or the auditory neurons in the cochlea. One possible therapeutic path would be to use otic progenitors generated in vitro to functionally replace the damaged cells.



Our group has made key advances developing stem cell technologies into a potentially viable therapy. We isolated a population of stem cells from the human fetal cochlea, and we have developed robust protocols to drive otic differentiation from human pluripotent stem cells. We also have established the proof of concept that hESC-derived otic progenitors can repair the damaged cochlea. We demonstrated that transplanted cells can graft into an animal model of auditory neuropathy, and elicit functional recovery as measured by auditory brainstem thresholds.



In an integrative regenerative medicine strategy, we are now exploring the combination of stem cells with cochlear implants, aiming to develop a true bionic implant. This device should conceptually combine stem cells with stimulatory electrodes. For this we are developing animal models of cell transplantation and implantation. On a parallel strategy, we are also using stem cells to develop in vitro platforms that would facilitate drug discovery and analysis.



We have several collaborations with industry and academia, within the UK as well as worldwide. We are part of Otostem, an international consortium with partners in Stanford, Harvard, Geneva, Uppsala, Tübigen and Marseille.

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