Optogenetic-stimulated cochlear implants to soon help hearing-impaired: Erwin Neher

HYDERABAD: Professor Erwin Neher, who was awarded the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1991, on Thursday said that in 5-10 years, there might be cochlear implants that would work on optogenetic stimulation of auditory nerves rather than using the present technique of using electrodes. 
Cochlear implants working on optogenetic stimulation will help the hearing-impaired hear much more clearly and efficiently against the present-day implants utilizing electrodes, he said.

Speaking to Express on the sidelines of the Hyderabad Lecture Series in University of Hyderabad (UoH), Prof Neher said that scientists in Germany have already tested optogenetics-stimulated cochlear implants on mice which gave successful results, and will be soon tested on monkeys. Optogenetic stimulation uses light for stimulation of nerves. Cells in human body do not respond to light but to electrical impulses. However, Prof Neher said that change can be achieved by transfecting the human genes with that of an organism, like a virus, which has cells that respond to stimulation by light.

Once this alteration of is achieved, light can be used to stimulate the nerves. At the lecture in UoH, Prof Neher, who had received the Nobel prize along with Bert Sakmann “for their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells”, spoke on how ion channels in cells play an important part in everyday bodily functions in different types of cells like nerves, kidney cells and lymphocytes. The professor stressed that defects in ion channels can cause a wide range of diseases in humans as about 200 of the 30,000 genes in humans are coded for ion channels.