M. Charles Liberman, PhD, whose probe everlastingly changed the mode experts recognize the underlying causes of proceeding loss, has been awarded the Scientific Grand Prize from the France-based La Fondation Pour l'Audition.
The grant is 1 of the highest honors fixed successful proceeding subject and was presented to Dr. Liberman successful a ceremonial successful Paris, France, connected October 20, 2022. The Scientific Grand Prize carries a €100,000 honorarium.
La Fondation Pour l'Audition is simply a public-interest instauration that is committed to bringing unneurotic research, wellness attraction and illness prevention for proceeding loss. As portion of this mission, it rewards and supports pioneering proceeding researchers.
Dr. Liberman, the Harold F. Schuknecht Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery astatine Harvard Medical School, antecedently served arsenic the manager of the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories astatine Mass Eye and Ear for much than 25 years, wherever helium remains an investigator. In his five-decade career, Dr. Liberman has led cutting-edge probe into the pathological causes of proceeding nonaccomplishment rooted successful the interior ear. In 2009, Dr. Liberman co-discovered a improvement called cochlear synaptopathy, besides referred to arsenic "hidden proceeding loss," a landmark find that has since informed the planetary knowing of the causes of proceeding loss.
Dr. Liberman's probe upended the dogma of what was known astir the origin of proceeding nonaccomplishment successful the interior ear, and that enactment has had a profound and lasting interaction passim the tract of proceeding science. His assemblage of enactment and enactment astatine Mass Eye and Ear propelled the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories into the premier proceeding probe halfway successful the world, and we congratulate him connected this well-deserved designation of his awesome vocation and lasting contributions."
Mark A. Varvares, MD, FACS, main of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery astatine Mass Eye and Ear and the John W. Merriam/William W. Montgomery Professor and Chair of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery astatine Harvard Medical School
Transformative find of hidden proceeding loss
Hearing nonaccomplishment affects much than 5 percent of the world's population, an estimated 430 cardinal individuals, according to the World Health Organization.
One of the much communal complaints proceeding clinicians person from patients is trouble proceeding successful noisy environments. However, galore of these patients bash not amusement measurable proceeding nonaccomplishment deficits connected an audiogram, wide considered the golden modular proceeding test. The audiogram measures the nonaccomplishment of hairsbreadth cells, the sensory cells wrong the interior ear. Dr. Liberman and Sharon Kujawa, PhD, the Sheldon and Dorothea Buckler Chair successful Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery astatine Mass Eye and Ear and Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery astatine Harvard Medical School, uncovered the ground of this discrepancy successful 2009 erstwhile their seminal survey showed that sound vulnerability and aging archetypal harm the synapses, which link the hairsbreadth cells to auditory nervus fibers and yet transportation neural signals to the brain. This proceeding harm is present known arsenic cochlear synaptopathy. Since audiograms measurement hairsbreadth compartment function, this synaptic nonaccomplishment is typically undocumented, inspiring the fashionable word "hidden proceeding loss."
Dr. Liberman's probe has besides shown that it is imaginable to successfully reestablish the connections betwixt hairsbreadth cells and auditory nervus fibers successful carnal models by administering therapeutics called neurotrophins. This enactment has led biotechnology companies to make caller therapies for treating proceeding nonaccomplishment successful people.
About Dr. Liberman
Dr. Liberman earned a PhD successful physiology from Harvard University successful 1976 earlier joining Mass Eye and Ear arsenic a probe associate. He was appointed manager of the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories successful 1996, helping to foster immense maturation and an endowment which has grown to $12 cardinal for proceeding research. Dr. Liberman besides served arsenic vice seat of basal probe for the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery from 2011-2022. He is simply a past president of the Association for Research successful Otolaryngology.
Dr. Liberman has authored much than 200 peer-reviewed articles passim his career. He and his colleagues proceed to survey hidden proceeding nonaccomplishment and different proceeding conditions, similar tinnitus, successful hopes of processing much delicate tests and caller treatments. Future probe led by Dr. Liberman volition beryllium divided betwixt a collaborative National Institutes of Health (NIH) P50 assistance connected hidden proceeding nonaccomplishment and an idiosyncratic NIH R01 assistance connected the mechanisms and imaginable treatments of noise-induced proceeding loss successful carnal models.
English (US)