A free virtual symposium in August will showcase the latest in translational hearing research from dynamic early and mid-career researchers across Australia.
The inaugural EMCR Frontiers in Translational Hearing Research Symposium will be from noon to 3pm on 25 August 2025. Topics range from gene therapy for hearing loss to embedding holistic hearing care into everyday clinical practice, and a cochlear implant electrode coating that aims to prevent hair cell death.
Ms Michele Nealon, Macquarie University Hearing coordinator, said all were welcome to the mini hearing research symposium led and delivered by the researchers.
“This event is an opportunity to hear from emerging leaders in the field, explore cutting-edge research, and foster new collaborations,” she said.
Symposium chair, Dr Heivet Hernandez-Perez, has explored how auditory steady state responses (ASSR) can be objectively measured in free sound field conditions in typical hearing individuals and cochlear implant users. She worked as a research associate at the Speech and Hearing Department at the Neuroscience Cuban Centre (CNEURO) where she led projects on the use and improvement of objective measures to assess hearing function in newborns and paediatric cochlear implant candidates.
Her research at Macquarie University focuses on understanding how cortical and subcortical structures and efferent pathways, referred to as ‘listening loops’ contribute to hearing and speech perception.
Speakers and topics
- Dr Bec Bennett is principal research audiologist at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), where she leads research focused on adult audiological rehabilitation, client empowerment, and holistic models of hearing care. Her session will offer a curated snapshot of ongoing research that aims to embed holistic hearing care into everyday clinical practice. She will highlight insights from studies exploring the lived experience of hearing loss, and barriers clinicians face in addressing psychosocial needs in standard models of care. Dr Bennett will introduce translational tools, interventions and recent work on development of a client empowerment measure to help clinicians better understand their clients’ sense of agency and confidence in managing their hearing care.
- Dr Jackie Ogier is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology at the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on molecular biology in the inner ear such as how hair cells develop and die. She said surgical implantation of cochlear implant electrodes could trigger biological responses, including cell death, inflammation, and fibrotic tissue growth that reduce implant longevity and auditory clarity. She is developing a novel bioactive coating for electrodes that releases an inhibitor that regulates known mediators of hair cell death.
- Dr Emma Laird is a senior lecturer in audiology at La Trobe University. Her research focusses on the psychosocial impacts of hearing loss and tinnitus, and ways to implement psychologically informed practice in hearing healthcare. A three-phase NHMRC project has explored the feasibility and efficacy of Luminear, a self-guided digital health program to support the wellbeing of people with hearing loss. Dr Laird will present preliminary results of the randomised controlled trial and explore how the program could be used in hearing healthcare.
- Dr Jeremy Pinyon is an auditory neuroscientist and lecturer at the University of Sydney’s School of Medical Sciences where he heads the Neuroregenerative Gene Therapy group. His research bridges basic neuroscience and translational medicine, with a focus on improving hearing outcomes with cochlear implants. He co-developed close-field electroporation, a technique that uses cochlear implant electrodes to deliver therapeutic genes directly into the inner ear. He is extending this technology through RNA-based approache His research advances a novel electrotransfer-based gene therapy platform that transforms the CI into a precision gene delivery device. The technology has been used in a clinical trial for cochlear implant recipients, pushing the boundaries of auditory science.
- Dr Fadwa Alnafjan is a lecturer in audiology at Macquarie University and an adjunct lecturer at UNSW. Her primary research focus is on improving cochlear implant outcomes, with a particular interest in understanding and reducing variability in performance across recipients. She is the lead audiologist for the Cochlear Implant Neurotrophin Gene Therapy clinical trial, which aims to ‘close the neural gap’ for CI users. She will present results from the first-in-human trial of neurotrophin gene therapy delivered during cochlear implantation. The presentation will focus on objective electrophysiological and psychophysical measures from the trial, highlighting targeted effects of the gene therapy and early auditory performance gains.
- Dr Diana Tang is a Macquarie University Research Fellow, dietitian and early career researcher at Macquarie University Hearing. She translates research evidence and co-designs health and wellbeing solutions for people with hearing and/or vision loss. Her research aims to enhance the social health and wellbeing of older adults with dual sensory impairment (combined hearing and vision loss), working collaboratively with lived experience individuals and service provider She will present on her study which aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to participation in wellbeing programs from the perspective of older adults with dual sensory impairment and their communication partners.
Register here. Captioning will be available.
