#  Wei Hsi "Ariel" Yeh (SHBT) 

 





June 05, 2020

 

 

 In a first, researchers use base editing to correct recessive genetic deafness and restore partial hearing.

 When Wei Hsi “Ariel” Yeh was an undergraduate, one of her close friends went from normal hearing to complete deafness in one month. He was 29 years old. Doctors didn’t know why then and still don’t. Frustrated and fearful for her friend, Yeh, who graduated last month with a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, dedicated her research in chemistry to solving some of the vast genetic mysteries behind hearing loss.[One in eight people](https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-hearing#:~:text=One%20in%20eight%20people%20in,based%20on%20standard%20hearing%20examinations.&text=About%202%20percent%20of%20adults,adults%20aged%2055%20to%2064.) aged 12 years or older in the U.S. has hearing loss in both ears. Technologies like hearing aids and cochlear implants can amplify sound but can’t correct the problem. Perhaps gene editing could, scientists decided, since genetic anomalies contribute to half of all cases.

 Two years ago, Yeh and David R. Liu, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences and a member of the Broad Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), repaired a dominant mutation and [prevented hearing loss](https://hms.harvard.edu/news/disruptive-therapy) in a mouse model for the first time. But, Liu said, “Most genetic diseases are not caused by dominant mutations. They’re caused by recessive ones, including most genetic hearing losses.”

 Now, Liu, Yeh, and researchers at Harvard, the Broad, and HHMI have achieved another first: They restored partial hearing to mice with a recessive mutation in the gene TMC1 that causes complete deafness, the first successful example of genome editing to fix a recessive disease-causing mutation.

 [READ MORE](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/06/gene-editing-may-be-a-path-to-restore-partial-hearing/)



 

 

 



 

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