Description du projet
Traiter la perte d’audition par des approches de thérapie génique
Des millions de personnes dans le monde sont atteintes d’une perte d’audition en raison du vieillissement, de causes congénitales ou d’une exposition prolongée à des bruits forts. Le projet iHEAR, financé par l’UE, entend développer une approche de thérapie génique pour traiter la perte d’audition. Le projet implique l’étude du meilleur vecteur pour transférer les gènes thérapeutiques vers les cellules responsables de la perte neuronale sensorielle d’audition, à savoir les cellules ciliées de l’oreille interne et les neurones du ganglion spiral. Les chercheurs utiliseront des cellules issues de patients atteints d’une perte d’audition comme modèle pour tester les stratégies de thérapie génique et d’édition génomique. Collectivement, le projet iHEAR fera progresser les outils actuels pour étudier et traiter la perte d’audition.
Objectif
To address the substantial financial and social burden caused by hearing loss in 360 million people world-wide, I aim to improve hearing via gene therapy to correct inherited and protect from acquired hearing loss. In vitro experiments will establish the best vector configurations for transfer of therapeutic genes and miRNAs into inner ear hair cells (HC) and spiral ganglion neurons (SGN). The efficiency of the best-performing vector designs will then be explored in vivo using fluorescent marker proteins. Cell-type specific and inducible promoters as well as receptor-targeted vectors will be employed as a safety measure and to ensure transgene expression in HC and SGN target cells. Once efficient transduction of appropriate target cells and proper expression of therapeutic proteins are demonstrated, I will perform proof-of-concept studies in hearing loss models, incl. established mouse models, to correct (WP1) or protect (WP2) from impaired hearing. To ensure translatability of these findings, I will generate human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from patients with hearing loss (WP3), so that I can test optimized constructs in human otic cells. Moreover, I have access to a collection of well-characterized samples from over 600 hearing loss patients, including children with congenital hearing loss in whom many novel monogenetic alterations were identified. These resources provide the unique opportunity to generate a novel toolbox for the treatment of hearing loss. In addition to lentiviral and adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector delivery of corrective or protective genes to treat hearing loss, I will apply state-of-the-art genome editing tools to model and correct mutations causative for hearing loss in cell lines, primary cells from murine models, human patients and patient-derived iPSC. This work will contribute to development of clinically translatable approaches for precision medicine strategies to improve hearing loss treatment.
Champ scientifique
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologygenetic engineeringgene therapy
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologycells technologiesstem cells
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsmutation
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespersonalized medicine
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
30625 Hannover
Allemagne