At its 50th anniversary celebration held at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago on November 8, 2006, the American Hearing Research Foundation (AHRF) announced that there would be two recipients of the Birtman Grant, a one-year, $75,000 grant for research in hearing and balance disorders related to the inner ear.
“This grant is supposed to go to one lab per year,” says Richard G. Muench, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the AHRF, “but this year there were two truly outstanding proposals that we felt both merited the Birtman Grant.”
The recipients are Donna Whitlon, Ph.D., Associate Research Professor of Otolaryngology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who is an expert on nerve fiber development and regeneration in the cochlea; and Timothy Hain, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, who is an expert on the treatment of patients with balance disorders. Both were on hand at the 50th anniversary celebration to get the news. Drs. Whitlon and Hain will each recruit a research fellow to work in their labs on their Birtman Grant research projects.
The Georgia Birtman Grant is made possible through the AHRF and Northwestern Memorial Foundation. It supports the advancement of research and education in otology and neurology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. This annual $75,000 grant is named in honor of Georgia Birtman, a hearing impaired teacher who gave $2.1 million to the American Hearing Research Foundation in 1991. This year, two Birtman Grants were given.
“We were happy to see strong applications for the grants and to have the resources to fund two proposals through the Birtman Fund this year,” says Dennis Murphy, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “The Fund promotes research into hearing and balance disorders, and both projects have the potential to significantly impact our knowledge of these disorders.”
Dr. Whitlon’s research focuses on the roles of chemical signaling in inducing the regrowth of neurons whose fibers are associated with hair cells. These neurons help transmit sound information from the hair cells in the cochlea to the brain. When hair cells are damaged or destroyed due to loud noises or ototoxic drugs, hearing loss results, and the neurons either die or undergo degeneration of their disconnected nerve fibers. Understanding the roles specific enzymes (called kinases) play in regenerating these neurons, can help lead to therapies aimed at inducing the regrowth of nerve fibers.
Dr. Whitlon and her team have already identified several signaling substances that seem to encourage neurite regrowth. Dr. Whitlon hopes that her research will suggest specific sites in the inner ear where pharmacological interventions may be applied that will stimulate nerve fiber growth. Her research is relevant to other research projects funded by the AHRF that aim to regenerate damaged hair cells, cells that will need to be reconnected to the brain stem by nerve fibers in order to reestablish hearing. In addition, this work has potential applications to the design of higher resolution cochlear implants.
Dr. Hain’s research focuses on modifications to the VEMP (Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials) test to make it more sensitive and accurate. VEMP tests assist in diagnosing dizziness disorders and can help to identify specific sites of injury to the inner ear, brain, neck and/or nerves associated with balance. During the non-invasive VEMP examination, small recording electrodes are taped to the neck of the patient. Sounds are presented to one ear while the patient’s neck muscles are contracted.
While VEMP testing is rapidly being adopted throughout the world, the nature of how the test is administered poses some problems. First, the electrical output recorded from the patient’s neck may be contaminated by other reflexes at work in the muscle during recording. Second, the test requires the patient to tense the neck muscles for the approximately 2 minutes it takes to administer the test, which can be difficult and tiring for some patients. By moving the electrodes to the triceps muscle of the arm, Dr. Hain hopes to improve the comfort of the patient as well as develop a method to diagnose cervical vertigo (vertigo due to neck injury). His research project involves investigating the accuracy and feasibility of VEMP testing at the triceps.