The strength and impact of hearing research in Australia was highlighted at Macquarie University Hearing’s first Hearing Research Symposium. Led by early and mid-career researchers from across Australia, it was a great success, drawing more than 100 online attendees.
Patients, practitioners, researchers, industry and association representatives tuned in to hear local researchers update on studies and programs which ranged from helping audiologists assist patients with hearing loss to improve their mental health and wellbeing, to delivering gene therapy via cochlear implant electrodes.
Ms Michele Nealon, Macquarie University Hearing coordinator, and the Macquarie University Hearing Grassroots Network, organised the event on 25 August 2025. She said it showcased the talent and passion of Australia’s next generation of hearing researchers.
Chair was Dr Heivet Hernandez-Perez, Macquarie University postdoctoral research fellow.
AIMER supports wellbeing
Dr Bec Bennett, principal research audiologist from the National Acoustic Laboratories, explained how an Australian-developed world first program to help audiologists better support the social and emotional wellbeing needs of adults with hearing loss is going global.
The AIMER (Ask, Inform, Manage, Encourage, Refer) program is already used successfully in Australia’s Lions Hearing Clinics, Audika and several independent audiology clinics across Australia.
“Groups overseas are now adopting the AIMER framework,” Dr Bennett said.
She said people with hearing loss were at high risk of social isolation, loneliness, anxiety and depression. Her 2019 survey of hearing practitioners found approximately half focused only on audiological issues, overlooking the social and emotional wellbeing concerns raised by clients. “Awareness of the need for this support was high,” she said, “but many practitioners felt they lacked the skills and confidence to provide holistic care.”
The AIMER framework was developed to bridge this gap, offering tools to help practitioners address clients’ broader needs, she said.
A recent trial showed it to be highly effective, enabling clinicians to more frequently discuss and support social and emotional wellbeing during appointments. More information about AIMER and its resources is available at youtube.com/@DrBecBennett.
Developing a new cochlear implant electrode coating
Dr Jacqueline Ogier is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Melbourne who focuses on molecular biology in the inner ear. She described the early stages of developing a novel bioactive coating for cochlear implant electrodes.
This work built on her PhD at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute where she focused on oxotoxicity and identified that apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) is an important mediator of sensory hair cell death.
Around the same time, several research groups also found ASK1 was a molecular target for preventing inflammation and fibrosis in models of kidney, liver and cardiac disease. As a result, Selonsertib, an ASK1 inhibitor, was tested in phase one to three human clinical trials.
With this in mind, Dr Ogier has been investigating if Selonsertib can be used to prevent inner ear hair cell death, inflammation, and fibrosis post cochlear implantation to improve hearing outcomes.
She described the process of evaluating polymer coatings and their drug elution profiles, plus her subsequent proteomics that evaluate the molecular effect of the new electrode coating.
“The interface between cochlear implants and electrodes is the next step of safe and effective interventions,” she said.
Gene therapy via cochlear implants
Neuroscientist, Dr Jeremy Pinyon described his work of the past 15 years with co-investigators on the cochlear implant neurotrophin gene therapy clinical trial. The research is investigating improving the quality of hearing, particularly tone, delivered through cochlear implants.
Dr Pinyon is a lecturer at the University of Sydney’s School of Medical Sciences where he heads the Neuroregenerative Gene Therapy group.
He co-developed close-field electroporation – gene electrotransfer using cochlear implant electrodes to deliver therapeutic genes into the inner ear.
“We’re working to close the neural gap by introducing nerve growth factors (neurotrophins) into the cochlea,” he said. “This non-viral gene therapy creates an electric current to drive transfer of the genes.”
The growth factors create an augmented and improved interface, he said.
The team found delivering these growth factors during cochlear implant surgery stimulated auditory nerve fibres in the cochlea to regrow towards cochlear implant electrodes in animal studies.
Additionally, studies in deaf guinea pigs showed enhanced performance of cochlear implants when the growth factors stimulated auditory nerve fibres to re-grow towards the electrode array, Dr Pinyon said.
A trial in humans is continuing.
Fewer safety concerns
Lead audiologist in the trial hosted by the Translational Neuroscience Facility at UNSW, Dr Fadwa Alnafjan, a Macquarie University lecturer and research audiologist, said that during the gene electrotransfer, brief electrical pulses helped cells take up the therapeutic DNA.
“One advantage of this method (of delivery) is that there are fewer safety and research barriers of provoking the immune system,” she said.” It offers a promising clinical way of delivering genes and the therapy is targeted exactly where it’s needed.”
In 2020 a trial involved 24 adults with profound hearing loss, 16 who received the therapy and eight controls. One year follow-up revealed no adverse reactions,
Dr Alnafjan said.
“There were no safety flags, including recoding impedance, which is a marker for inflammation,” she said. “Steep and rapid improvements suggested the gene therapy had driven accelerated recovery of functional hearing.”
Further follow-up indicated encouraging, early evidence of the pace and quality of auditory nerve regeneration and improved hearing performance rehabilitation post implantation. “There were stronger and faster neural responses in the treated group than controls, and faster and bigger differences were maintained post operatively,” she said.
Self-guided mental health support
Audiologist Dr Emma Laird, La Trobe University senior audiology lecturer, discussed Luminear, a Melbourne innovation to provide mental health support for those with hearing loss through a personalised self-guided digital program. She worked on the program with Soundfair and The University of Melbourne.
“People wanted a solution in between what psychologists and audiologists were offering,” she said. “We’ve just started analysing preliminary results of our randomised controlled trial in 105 participants.”
Participants were mainly female, aged in their late 50s and early 60s, most used hearing aids and had had hearing loss for an average 24 to 26 years. Half were given three months’ access to the program.
Dr Laird said the dropout rate and lack of improvement in wellbeing or quality of life six months post intervention were possibly due to the wrong demographic being targeted – participants who had had hearing loss for many years and may have learnt their own coping strategies. Aiming for those within ten years of starting their hearing loss journey might deliver different results.
Dual sensory impairment
Macquarie University Hearing postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Diana Tang, discussed her research on wellbeing in adults with dual sensory impairment (DSI) and their communication partners. “One in four people over 80 have dual sensory vision and hearing impairments such as age-related macular degeneration and hearing loss,” she said. “They have two to three times higher incidence of anxiety and depression than those without dual sensory impairment.”
Dr Tang studied barriers to wellbeing in people with DSI over 65 and their communication partners. She is working on a project to co-design a wellbeing program with Macquarie University and University of Sydney colleagues, older people with DSI from age-related causes and service providers.
National Deafblindness Conference
She is also joint organiser of the 2025 National Dual Sensory Impairment – Deafblindness Conference in Sydney from 27 to 28 November. It brings together people and families living with DSI – deafblindnes plus professionals, practitioners, researchers and organisations.
Visit dsiproject.org.
