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Rotarians for Hearing Regeneration

By PDG Dave Sclair

Rotary Club of Lakewood, Washington USA

Birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians can do it. Recently a guinea pig accomplished the task. So the big question is, why can’t human beings do it, too? That question preoccupies a team of scientists laboring at  the University of Washington’s Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center (VMBHRC) in Seattle, Wash, USA.

Why so many animals are able to regenerate hearing after a traumatic incident is the secret that researchers at the VMBHRC are striving to unlock. When they finally figure out exactly how humans can accomplish the chore, a cure for deafness will have been achieved.

Hearing deficiency affects an estimated 500 million people world wide and it is this huge group of suffering people that the researchers are trying to help. Assisting in this major project are members of Rotarians for Hearing Regeneration (RfHR), a Rotarian Action Group and one of Rotary’s first fellowships dedicated to health and human services instead of strict fellowship activities.

Clover Park (Lakewood, Wash. USA) Rotarian Gene Pankey, a retired auto dealer who has suffered his entire life from hearing loss, led the way in organizing  RfHR, along with friends Dave Sclair and Dr. David Cotant, neither of whom suffer from hearing woes. “We saw Gene’s problems in life and after hearing him explain the possibilities of hearing regeneration we joined with him in starting the fellowship,” Sclair said.

The organization’s self-established mission is to educate Rotarians and others  around the world about the problems of the hearing impaired and to encourage means of protecting people against hearing loss and working with the VMBHRC by helping them raise the funds they need to complete the research.

          The project at the University of Washington has been underway for a number of years, with slow but steady progress being achieved. In 1988, Ed Rubel, PhD, discovered that birds spontaneously regrow hair cells, resulting in recovery of their hearing.  After learning of Rubel’s progress, Seattle timber magnate Prentice Bloedel gave the university $10 million to fund further research. It was named for his wife Virginia who had suffered from acute deafness during her life.

Since then, the VMBHRC has expanded and grown into one of the world’s largest and most advanced hearing research centers.  Organized as a part of the University’s medical center, more than 60 scientists representing a dozen different medical disciplines are active in chasing down the secret that will unlock the gene that will allow humans to regenerate the inner ear hair cells that will mean hearing restoration.

By manipulating genes,   the VMBHRC scientists are continually trying to figure out how hair cells regenerate in birds but why it doesn’t happen in people, like many Rotarians.

In the last year or so research scientists induced the beginning stages of hair cell regeneration in the inner ears of mice and guinea pigs. This definitely has proven that the research is gaining ground and is within reach of being transferred to humans.

Unfortunately, the timeline to reach their goal may be as many as 25 years away to achieve. One way RfHR and the VMBHRC are hoping to cut this time is through a project called the Hearing Regeneration Initiative (HRI). It is visualized as a 10-year, $25 million research effort calling for the coordination of a number of research labs around the world. The coordination of the efforts of the scientists would cut out duplication of tests, encourage more participation by scientists and ultimately result in a less costly process that would achieve success earlier.

RfHR is using its public education forum to encourage support for the HRI by speaking to Rotary Clubs throughout the Northwest and spreading the story by means of the internet and a video. The nine minute film on hearing regeneration was written and produced by the organization and is available for viewing online. (Note: the video link on this site has been removed by the request of the author as the number of viewers were exceeding their monthly bandwidth allowance.)

More than 1,500 copies of the program were distributed during the Rotary International Convention in Chicago in 2005, another thousand were available for free distribution during the Salt Lake City Convention in June 2007 and again at the Los Angeles Convention in June 2008.

As a result of the free videos given out at the Chicago, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles conventions, interest in RfHR has increased and members have signed up from a dozen countries.  Projects in India and Australia have been discussed by the leading VMBHRC scientists and attempts to integrate these projects into the mainline are being made.

With the estimated 500 million people worldwide suffering with hearing problems, the loss in economic terms is thought to be in the billions of dollars. The cost in human suffering is, of course, impossible to calculate.

Recently US Veterans Affairs has reported to the media that 70,000 veterans of the Iraq war are receiving disability payments for tinnitus.  Another 58,000 are receiving disability payments for permanent hearing loss.  The report says that hearing loss is the major disability of the Iraq war. The costs are staggering.

While hearing aids are of help, they don’t solve the problem and these devices aren’t readily available in third world countries. Cochlear implants are another partial solution, but they are costly, require invasive surgery and also don’t solve all the problems. Only inner ear hair cell regeneration has the promise of restoring full hearing, improve the economic potential of millions and allow people to enjoy a dignified future.

For more information, please contact hearingregeneration@msn.com

About the author: PDG Dave Sclair has been involved in newspapers for more than 50 years as a reporter, photographer, editor and publisher. Since 1970 he has been involved with publishing a national newspaper for general aviation pilots, General Aviation News. He has been an active member of Rotary since 1976, having served as a club president of Clover Park Rotary and as district governor for Rotary District 5020, which is one of the few international Rotary Districts in the world encompassing parts of Washington State as well as the entire Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Dave is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow, Benefactor and member of the Bequest Society. He serves as Vice-chair of Rotarians for Hearing Regeneration