ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
The UCL Ear Institute Newsletter
Contents
What’s inside
What’s inside
1
New starters
2
Jobs, courses & seminars
2
In the media
2
Grants awarded
3
Featured papers
4
More recent publications
6
PhD updates
8
A word from Sound Seekers
8
Other news
9
Wordsearch13
It’s been a few months since the last issue of
All Ears hit your inboxes, which means that we
have lots of things to brag about inside Issue 6!
Editors: Dr Debi Vickers
Mrs Kate Faxen
The Ear Institute Newsletter is an update on
our research and teaching achievements
to demonstrate our progress and activities
that are impacting on the world of hearing
and ENT.
www.ucl.ac.uk/ear
facebook/earinstitute
@uclearinstitute
Hear about the IEB workshop in Kyoto, discover
what happened when three of our PhD students
climbed the BT Tower and read an insider’s
view of SoapBox Science. We also have our
usual lists of publications, grant successes and
PhD updates.
And, new to this issue, as a treat for those
who make it through to the end; a festive/eary
wordsearch (with a chance to win a prize).
Page 1
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
New starters
Jobs, courses and seminars
Elizabeth White joined the evidENT team
in May as a Clinical Trials Recruitment
Officer, with over ten years’ experience
in the field of clinical research. She
graduated from Waikato University
with a BSc in Science International.
Her career in clinical research started
working for a private Clinical Research
Organisation that specialised in Phase I
trials. Since then she has held a variety of
posts in academic, NHS and commercial
endeavours. She has spent several
years working within Local Clinical
Research Networks focusing on clinical
research into Stroke and Parkinson’s
Disease. Within the evidENT team she
assist’s with the set-up of clinical trials,
but mainly focuses on the recruitment of
patients to UKCRN Portfolio supported
ENT clinical research.
CPD course coming up in the new
year
Marianne Simmonds joined the evidENT
team in May as the administrator to the
NIHR ENT Specialty Group (chaired
by evidENT team lead Professor Anne
Schilder). She also works closely
with Dr Natalie Bohm supporting the
GENERATE project; developing a UK
national research agenda for ENT,
Hearing and Balance.
Cian Hughes was appointed as an
NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in
Otolaryngology in October and will
combine research as part of the evidENT
team at the UCL Ear Institute with
Surgical Training in the London Deanery.
During his research time with evidENT
he will be focusing on electronic health
records research; using routine clinical
data for surgical outcomes research, and
the use of linked primary and secondary
care data to explore the prognosis of
common ENT conditions.
Course Title
For
Structure
Masterclass:
Counselling
for Hearing
Healthcare
Professionals
Audiolo- 10 week
12
gists
course
Jan
(Monday
2015
afternoons)
Masterclass:
Paediatric
Assessment
Audiolo- 5 week
gists
course
(Fridays)
16
Jan
2015
Masterclass:
Tinnitus &
Hyperacusis
Audiolo- 3 day
gists
course
20
Jan
2015
Masterclass:
Paediatric
Habilitation
Audiolo- 5 week
gists
course
(Fridays)
27
Feb
2015
Masterclass:
Advanced
Amplification
and Aural
Rehabilitation
Audiolo- 4 day
gists
course
3 Mar
2015
GIR:
Presentation
Skills for
Medics
Medics
& Audiologists
23
Mar
2015
Masterclass:
Vestibular
Rehabilitation
Audiolo- 3 day
gists
course
1 day
course
Start
Date
22 Apr
2015
In the media
The worrying rise of hidden hearing
loss
Professor David McAlpine explains how
we start losing our hearing as babies,
and by mid-40s most people will have
some hearing loss that affects their dayto-day life. Read the full article in the
Daily Mail Online:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/
article-2856461/Hearing-loss-soundedmuddy-door-worrying-rise-rise-hiddenhearing-loss.html
Page 2
Regenerating Man: Past, Present,
and Future: Martin Birchall at
TEDxWarwick 2014
Professor Martin Birchall discuses the
progress made in regenerative medicine
and explores what it might be like in the
future. “That was the first time that a
transplant an organ built from stem cells
had ever been performed in a person
and it seemed to work first time. It was
a major breakthrough for science and
technology,” says Martin.
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=odtGzuo3IDg
Grants awarded
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
Maria Chait shares in €4M Euro grant
to investigate whether brain signals
can be used to steer hearing aid
hardware
Maria Chait shared in €4M Euro grant
(€1M to Maria) in a EU H2020 grant
entitled ‘Cognitive Control of a Hearing
Aid (COCOHA) with partners including
ENS in Paris and Oticon. The COCOHA
project revolves around a need, an
opportunity, and a challenge. Millions
of people struggle to communicate in
noisy environments particularly the
elderly: 7% of the European population
are classified as hearing impaired.
Hearing aids can effectively deal with
a simple loss in sensitivity, but they
do not restore the ability of a healthy
pair of young ears to pick out a weak
voice among many, that is needed for
effective social communication. That
is the need. The opportunity is that
decisive technological progress has
been made in the area of acoustic scene
analysis: arrays of microphones and
beamforming algorithms, or distributed
networks of handheld devices such
as smart phones can be recruited to
vastly improve the signal-to-noise ratio
of weak sound sources. Some of these
techniques have been around for a
while, and are even integrated within
commercially available hearing aids.
However their uptake is limited for one
very simple reason: there is no easy
way to steer the device, no way for the
user to tell it to direct the processing to
the one source among many that he or
she wishes to attend to. The COCOHA
project proposes to use brain signals
(EEG) to help steer the acoustic scene
analysis hardware, in effect extending
the efferent neural pathways that
control all stages of processing from
cortex down to the cochlea, to govern
also the external device. To succeed
we must overcome major technical
hurdles, drawing on methods from
acoustic signal processing and machine
learning borrowed from the field of Brain
Computer Interfaces. On the way we
will probe interesting scientific problems
related to attention, electrophysiological
correlates of sensory input and brain
state, the structure of sound and brain
signals. This is the challenge.
Joerg Albert receives £500K BBSRC
Grant
Fantastic news from Joerg Albert
on being awarded a BBSRC grant
to the tune of half a million pounds!
Congratulations Joerg and also to Ryan
Kavlie who is now set to stay with us at
the Ear Institute, working with Joerg on
the project - ‘The Transcriptomic and
Biophysical Basis of Mechanosensory
Submodality: A Drosophila Model
Organ Study’. This project examines
the molecular and cellular composition
Page 3
of different mechano-sensory organs in
the Johnston’s Organ, part of the fly’s
second antennal segment linked to the
processing of sound, wind and gravity.
By now, everyone at the Ear Institute
is aware of the fascinating and highly
relevant aspects of sensory processing
in flies, and the importance of the fly
as a model system for understanding
development and disease. Following on
from his recent ‘Science’ paper, Joerg’s
grant success is evidence not only of
the interesting nature of this relatively
simple (although still complex) animal,
but also of his talent in communicating
the relevance of fly models to many
aspects of sensory function, from
sensory ethology to models of deafness.
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
Sally Dawson receives £160K Action
on Hearing Loss grant
Sally received a £160K AOHL grant to
study the Genetic Basis of Otosclerosis,
with Shak Saeed, following on from Joey
Ziff’s PhD work.
Jennifer Linden receives £6K from
the Royal Society
The
Royal
Society
International
Exchanges grant is for travel and
research expenses associated with
a collaboration with Conny KoppScheinpflug of the University of Munich
in Germany. Jennifer and Conny are
going to look at the role of an auditory
brainstem nucleus called the superior
paraolivary nucleus in abnormal
auditory processing in mouse models of
neurodevelopmental disorder.
Prof Andy Forge receives a £400K
BBSRC Project Grant
This grant will be used to look at “3D
ultrastructural analysis of the subcellular
organisation of inner hair cells and of
their innervation during ageing”. Prof
Forge will be working with Anwen Bullen,
Jonathan Ashmore and Carolyn Moores
over 3 years.
Dr Ruth Taylor £75K from Dunhill
Ruth will be using her Dunhill Medical
Trust Project Grant to investigate
“Repopulating vestibular epithelia with
sensory cells to ameliorate age-related
balance dysfunction” over 15 months.
Anwen Bullen wins £30K Action on
Hearing Loss Pauline Ashley Award:
She will be looking at the organisation
of inner hair cells and their innervation
following noise exposure: searching for
the basis of “hidden hearing loss” over
6 months.
Featured papers
Non-invasive brain imaging on small
animals
Hearing requires the ears, but also the
brain. The decoding of the ongoing
complex acoustic patterns from the
world involves neural processing
within auditory cortex, much of which
is still poorly understood. Magnetoencephalography
(MEG),
which
measures the tiny magnetic fields
produced outside the skull by currents
within the brain, is a tool of choice to
probe cortical activity in human subjects.
Here, we used a specially-designed
MEG system to record similar magnetic
activity from the cortex of a guinea
pig. We found that the anaesthetized
animal produced responses to changes
in ongoing sound streams that were
qualitatively similar to those recorded in
humans.
Page 4
Such results are useful because of
the wealth of knowledge about the
intricate neural mechanisms behind
such macroscopic responses that
can be accrued from more invasive
electrophysiological experiments in
animals. Small animal MEG serves as
a stepping stone between non-invasive
brain imaging in human, and invasive
electrophysiology in animal models.
evidence available was based on
earlier generations of cochlear implant,
unilateral rather than bilateral implants,
and/or analogue rather than digital
hearing aids (e.g. Boothroyd, 1993;
Leigh et al 2011).
Policy-makers
struggle to define the minimum degree
of hearing impairment at which children
should be offered bilateral CIs, rather
than bilateral HAs.
Christianson GB, Chait M, de Cheveigné
A, Linden JF. (2014) Auditory evoked
fields measured non-invasively with
small-animal MEG reveal rapid repetition
suppression in the guinea pig. J
Neurophysiol
We tested seventy-one children, aged
46 to 86 months (mean 64 months).
Twenty-eight used bilateral cochlear
implants and 43 used bilateral digital
hearing aids.
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
Changing Candidacy for Bilateral
Cochlear Implants in Children
A recent study funded by Action on
Hearing Loss supported Dr Rosemary
Lovett to work as a post-doctoral
researcher with Dr Deborah Vickers at
the Ear Institute and Professor Quentin
Summerfield at York University.
This study was designed to use upto-date evidence to inform decisions
regarding candidacy and compare
outcomes for children with bilateral
cochlear implants to those for children
with bilateral hearing aids, with the
aim of developing audiometric criteria
for candidacy for bilateral cochlear
implantation in children, in the UK.
In the UK, children are considered
candidates for bilateral implantation
if their unaided pure-tone thresholds
exceed 90 dB HL at 2 and 4 kHz (National
Institute for Health and Care Excellence,
2009).
There are limited data to support the
audiometric criteria and the published
We tested their speech perception
abilities in quiet and in noise using the
“Crescent of Sound” equipment in a
sound proof booth (Kitterick et al., 2011).
We found, using a conservative 4:1 odds
ratio, that better outcomes with CIs were
associated with an unaided 4-frequency
pure-tone audiogram of 80 dBHL or
poorer in both ears or a 2-frequency
pure-tone audiogram of 85dBHL or
poorer in both ears. More commonly
now-a-days health economists use a
3:1 estimate which would result in a 5
dB reduction in the pure-tone average
threshold calculation.
If adopted by policy-makers, these
recommendations
would
expand
provision of cochlear implants for
children in England and Wales.
Lovett R. E. S, Vickers D. A., Summerfield
A.
Q.
(2014)
Bilateral
Cochlear
Implantation
for
Hearing-Impaired
Children: Criterion of Candidacy Derived
from an Observational Study. Ear and
Hearing. Epub ahead of print
Page 5
Article References
Boothroyd, A. (1993). Profound Deafness. In
Cochlear implants: audiological foundations. RS
Tyler (Ed.), Whurr
Kitterick, P. T., Lovett, R. E., Goman, A. M.,
Summerfield, A. Q. (2011) The AB-York crescent
of sound: an apparatus for assessing spatiallistening skills in children and adults. Cochlear
Implants Int. 12:164-9.
Leigh, J., Dettman, S., Dowell, R., Sarant, J.
(2011) Evidence-based approach for making
cochlear implant recommendations for infants
with residual hearing. Ear Hear. 32:313-22
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
(2009).
Technology
appraisal
guidance.
Cochlear implants for children and adults with
severe to profound deafness http://publications.
nice.org.uk/cochlear-implants-for-children-andadults-with-severe-to-profound-deafness-ta166
- accessed 06/06/14
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
Other recent publications
Al-Malky G, Dawson SJ, Sirimanna T,
Bagkeris E, Suri R . (2014) High-frequency
audiometry reveals high prevalence of
aminoglycoside ototoxicity in children with
cystic fibrosis. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis
Al-Malky G, Suri R, Sirimanna T, Dawson
SJ. (2014) Normal hearing in a child with
the m.1555A>G mutation despite repeated
exposure to aminoglycosides. Has the
penetrance of this pharmacogenetic
interaction
been
overestimated?
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
OF
PEDIATRIC OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY
Bamiou DE, Ceranic B, Vickers D,
Zamyslowska-Szmytke E, Cox R, Chadwick
P, Luxon LM. (2014) Mobile telephone
use effects on perception of verticality.
Bioelectromagnetics
Bechstedt S, Albert JT, Kreil DP, MüllerReichert T, Göpfert MC, Howard J. (2014)
Corrigendum: A doublecortin containing
microtubule-associated protein is implicated
in mechanotransduction in Drosophila
sensory cilia. Nat Commun ; England
Belliveau L, Lyamzin DR, Lesica NA. (2014)
The neural representation of interaural
time differences in gerbils is transformed
from midbrain to cortex. The Journal of
Neuroscience ; Society for Neuroscience
Birchall MA, Seifalian AM. (2014) Tissue
engineering’s green shoots of disruptive
innovation. Lancet
Blacker, TS; Mann, ZF; Gale, JE; Ziegler,
M; Bain, AJ; Szabadkai, G; Duchen, MR.
(2014) Separating NADH and NADPH
fluorescence in live cells and tissues using
FLIM. Nature Communications
Blackshaw H, Philpott C, Bhutta MF, Cooper
S, Schilder AGM. (2014)Getting involved in
ENT clinical research in the UK; how can
the NIHR Clinical Research Network help?
Clin Otol;39(6):328-33.
Bohm N, Schilder AGM, Lund V. (2014)
Setting the research agenda for ENT,
hearing and balance: the GENERATE
project. Clin Otolaryngology 2014 Jun 20
Chait M. (2014) Change detection in
complex acoustic scenes. J Acoust Soc Am
; United States
Chen J, Ingham N, Kelly J, Jadeja S,
Goulding D, Pass J, Mahajan VB, Tsang
SH, Nijnik A, Jackson IJ, White JK, Forge
A, Jagger D, Steel KP. Spinster homolog
2 (spns2) deficiency causes early onset
progressive hearing loss. PLoS Genet ;
United States
Christianson GB, Chait M, de Cheveigné
A, Linden JF. (2014) Auditory evoked fields
measured non-invasively with small-animal
MEG reveal rapid repetition suppression in
the guinea pig. J Neurophysiol
Cosentino S, Falk TH, McAlpine D, Marquardt
T. (2014) Cochlear Implant Filterbank Design
and Optimization: A Simulation Study.
IEEE-ACM TRANSACTIONS ON AUDIO
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING
Cosentino S, Marquardt T, McAlpine D,
Culling JF, Falk TH . (2014) A model that
predicts the binaural advantage to speech
intelligibility from the mixed target and
interferer signals. JOURNAL OF THE
ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
de Cheveigné, A., & Parra, L. C. (2014).
Page 6
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
Joint decorrelation, a versatile tool for
multichannel data analysis. NeuroImage,
98(C), 487–505.
Dietz M, Marquardt T, Stange A, Pecka M,
Grothe B, McAlpine D. (2014) Emphasis of
spatial cues in the temporal fine-structure
during the rising segments of amplitude
modulated sounds II: Single neuron
recordings. J Neurophysiol
Fishman JM, Lowdell M, Birchall MA.
(2014) Stem cell-based organ replacements
- airway and lung tissue engineering.
Seminars in Pediatric Surgery
Fishman JM, Wiles K, Lowdell MW, De
Coppi P, Elliott MJ, Atala A, Birchall MA.
(2014) Airway tissue engineering: an
update. Expert Opin Biol Ther
Fishman JM, Wormald JC, Lowdell MW,
Coppi PD, Birchall MA (2014) Operating
RegenMed: development of better in-theater
strategies for handling tissue-engineered
organs and tissues. Journal article ; Regen
Med ; England
Jagger DJ, Forge A. (2014) Connexins and
gap junctions in the inner ear - it’s not just
about K(+) recycling. Cell Tissue Res
Jagger DJ, Nickel R, Forge A. (2014) Gap
Junctional Coupling is Essential for Epithelial
Repair in the Avian Cochlea. The Journal of
Neuroscience ; Society for Neuroscience
Jagger J, Nickel R, and Forge A. (2014)
Gap Junctional Coupling is Essential for
Epithelial Repair in the Avian Cochlea. The
Journal of Neuroscience, 34(48): 1585115860
Kuipers D, Mehonic A, Kajita M, Peter L,
Fujita Y, Duke T, Charras G, Gale JE. (2014)
Epithelial repair is a two-stage process
driven first by dying cells and then by their
neighbours. J Cell Sci
Kumpik DP, Roberts HE, King AJ, Bizley
JK. (2014) Visual sensitivity is a stronger
determinant of illusory processes than
auditory cue parameters in the soundinduced flash illusion. J Vis ; United States
Lund VJ, Stammberger H, Fokkens WJ,
Beale T, Bernal-Sprekelsen M, Eloy P,
Georgalas C, Gerstenberger C, Hellings P,
Herman P, Hosemann WG, Jankowski R,
Jones N, Jorissen M, Leunig A, Onercin M,
Rimmer J, Rombaux P, Simmen D, Tomazic
PV, Tschabitscher M, Welge-Luessen A.
(2014) European Position Paper on the
Anatomical Terminology of the Internal
Nose and Paranasal Sinuses. RHINOLOGY
Mat Baki M, Wood G, Alston M, Ratcliffe
P, Sandhu G, Rubin JS, Birchall MA.
(2014) Reliability of OperaVOX against
Multidimensional Voice Program (MDVP).
Clin Otolaryngol
Mistry N, Nolan LS, Saeed SR, Forge A,
Taylor RR. (2014) Cochlear implantation in
the mouse via the round window: Effects
of array insertion. Hear Res
Morozko EL, Nishio A, Ingham NJ, Chandra
R, Fitzgerald T, Martelletti E, Borck G,
Wilson E, Riordan GP, Wangemann P,
Forge A, Steel KP, Liddle RA, Friedman TB,
Belyantseva IA. (2014) ILDR1 null mice, a
model of human deafness DFNB42, show
structural aberrations of tricellular tight
junctions and degeneration of auditory hair
cells. Hum Mol Genet
Munro KJ, Turtle C, Schaette R. (2014)
Plasticity and modified loudness following
short-term unilateral deprivation: Evidence
of multiple gain mechanisms within the
auditory system. J Acoust Soc Am ; United
States
Ottaviano G, Lund VJ, Nardello E, Scarpa B,
Frasson G, Staffieri A, Scadding GK. (2014)
Comparison between unilateral PNIF and
rhinomanometry in healthy and obstructed
noses. RHINOLOGY
Remme MW, Donato R, Mikiel-Hunter J,
Ballestero JA, Foster S, Rinzel J, McAlpine
D.
(2014)
Subthreshold
resonance
properties contribute to the efficient coding
of auditory spatial cues. Proc Natl Acad Sci
USA
Rimmer J, Lund VJ, Beale T, Wei WI, Howard
D. (2014) Olfactory Neuroblastoma: A 35Year Experience and Suggested Follow-up
Protocol. LARYNGOSCOPE
Page 7
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
Saeed SR, Selvadurai D, Beale T, Biggs N,
Murray B, Gibson P, Risi F, Boyd P. (2014)
Comparison of the benefits of cochlear
implantation versus contra-lateral routing
of signal hearing aids in adult patients with
single-sided deafness: study protocol for a
prospective within-subject longitudinal trial.
BMC Ear Nose Throat Disord ; England
Saeed SR, Selvadurai D, Beale T, Biggs
N, Murray B, Gibson P, Risi F, Boyd P.
(2014) The Use of Cone Beam Computed
Tomography to Determine Cochlear Implant
Electrode Position in Human Temporal
Bones. Otol Neurotol
Schang L, De Poli C, Airoldi M, MortonA, Bohm
N, Lakhanpaul M, Schilder AGM, Bevan
G. (2014) Using an epidemiological model
to investigate unwarranted variation: the
case of ventilation tubes for otitis media
with effusion in England. J Health Serv Res
Policy 2014 Jul 29. pii: 1355819614536886.
[Epub ahead of print]
Simoni A, Wolfgang W, Topping MP, Kavlie
RG, Stanewsky R, Albert JT. (2014) A
mechanosensory pathway to the Drosophila
circadian clock. Science; United States
Simpson AJ, Harper NS, Reiss JD, McAlpine
D. (2014) Selective adaptation to “oddball”
sounds by the human auditory system. J
Neurosci ; United States
Taylor R, Bullen A, Johnson SL, GrimmGünter EM, Rivero F, Marcotti W, Forge
A, Daudet N. (2014) Absence of plastin 1
causes abnormal maintenance of hair cell
stereocilia and a moderate form of hearing
loss in mice. Hum Mol Genet
Tornari C, Towers ER, Gale JE, Dawson SJ.
(2014) Regulation of the Orphan Nuclear
Receptor Nr2f2 by the DFNA15 Deafness
Gene Pou4f3. PLoS One ; United States
van Dongen TM, van der Heijden GJ,
Venekamp RP, Rovers MM, Schilder
AGM. (2014) A Trial of Treatment for Acute
Otorrhea in Children with Tympanostomy
Tubes. New England Journal of Medicine
370(8):723-733
PhD/MDRes updates
Congratulations to the following new
Doctors of Philosophy!
• Ghada Al-Malky
• Stefano Cosentino
• Dmitry Lyamzin
Upgrades
Sara Weber and Claudia Goncalves
both had successful upgrades on their
projects, “Id4: an inhibitory role in hair
cell formation?” and “Understanding the
role of stress granules in the inner ear”
(respectively).
Welcoming new students:
Soraya Dunn, Theofilos Petsas,
Matthieu Recugnat, Camille Tardieu,
Tara Zinnamin, Ross Harper, Janos
Hodsagi, and to Dr Logan Manikam
who has begun his PhD on ‘Respiratory
Tract Infections In Children With Down’s
Syndrome: Towards Better Management
Using Health Informatics.’ Following his
successful application to NIHR Research
Training Fellowship Programme, he
is now working at the Farr Institute of
Health Informatics Research supervised
by Profs Anne Schilder, Monica
Lakhanpaul and Andrew Hayward.
A word from Sound Seekers
Dear Ear Institute friends and colleagues,
Season’s greetings from all of us at
Sound Seekers! We hope that 2014 has
been a good year for you and that 2015
will be even better.
We are issuing an end of year plea. We
have been at the Ear Institute for nearly
two years now, and we don’t think we
have been very successful in engaging
you lovely ear people with our work (sad
Page 8
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
face). But we sit metres away from each
other, and we’re all involved in the same
line of work (ie. improving the lives of
people with hearing loss), so we’re
not giving up! We just want to take the
opportunity to remind you that we would
really appreciate your involvement with
our activities, which could mean:
• coming to fundraising events
(eg we had a fundraising gig in
November and a Christmas concert
in December)
• ’like’ us on Facebook and follow us
on Twitter - share things we post that
you find interesting
• help us grow our network - tell
colleagues who work in hearing
loss about us, link us up with useful
contacts
• if you’re doing an event like running
a marathon or jumping out of an
aeroplane (with a parachute),
consider fundraising for us
• be available to offer us advice and
support if needed
Thank you! A tangible way you can
support us as early as January 2015 is
to come to the premiere of our short film
‘Hear in Malawi’ on 15th January 2015 at
1pm in the Ear Institute Lecture Theatre.
We will ask for a small donation for
entrance and are keen to get as many
people through the door as possible as
all donations will be doubled by UK Aid.
This will be our last fundraising event for
the aid match appeal, which lasts until
20th January only. Please come along!
With all best wishes for a very merry
Christmas and happy new year,
Lucy, Emily, Stuart (outgoing),
Sophie and Alice (incoming)
Other news
IQR complete
After completing our IQR last week, the
initial feedback has been positive. There
will of course be recommendations
for improvements, but the panel
commended us on the strong
collegiate perspective to our education
programmes, the great progress made
in the last five years, and encouraged
us to continue the good developments
we have made. This couldn’t have been
done without you all, but an especially
big thank you to Priya and to Robert
for their dedication and hard work over
the last months in putting together what
is a complex and significant body of
information – and this at a time when
many other things were happening too.
Book: Living with Hearing Loss
Hot off the press! “An up-to-date,
comprehensive book on how to manage
hearing loss, by three experienced
audiologists”, two of whom are from the
Ear Institute! Congratulations Cherilee
and Lucy!
Jenny Bizley discusses her soapbox
stand in June
SoapBox
Science
(www.
soapboxscience.org), now in its 4th
year, takes place annually on London’s
Southbank. The general idea is that
scientists interact directly with the public
by standing on ‘soapboxes’ for an hour
or so while talking about their work.
The event’s mission is to help eliminate
gender inequality in science by raising
the profile, and challenging the public’s
view, of women and science. It’s a
great idea – although not necessarily
Page 9
something I’d ever envisaged doing.
However, Drs Seirian Sumner and
Nathalie Pettorelli, the event’s founders,
are very persuasive and this year I’d
more or less run out of excuses as to
why I shouldn’t do it, so I applied for and
was accepted onto the London event.
kids and adults. I armed myself with a
number of props – a model ear always
helps when you’re talking about hearing!
I borrowed some beeper boxes from
Medical Sciences to run some basic
spatial hearing demos and had Doris the
Donkey to demonstrate auditory-visual
integration. In the end it was great fun
and I’d definitely recommend doing it!
Jennifer Bizley
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
Inner Ear Biology Workshop: Kyoto,
Japan
Despite it being June, the day of the event
was cold and threatening to be wet. As
I was scheduled for the last slot of the
afternoon I spent some time listening
to other people’s talks and generally
trying not to freeze. Four soapboxers
participate at anyone time, with the idea
being that people can mingle between
different people and topics. The prospect
of standing in a public place and
attempting to draw people in, without
really having any control over what
might happen next is a little unnerving to
say the least! You definitely don’t want
to be the person that everyone walks
past; being left talking to yourself was
everyone’s biggest fear. Fortunately
there was a crowd from the beginning
that grew throughout the session. As it
was a Sunday, there was a good mix of
In November several members of the
Ear Institute attended the Inner Ear
Biology Workshop in Kyoto, Japan. This
was an extraordinary meeting of the IEB,
as the first of its kind outside of Europe.
The main meeting was preceded by
satellite symposia on “Stem Cells” and
“Genetics of Hearing”. Within the main
4-day meeting the dedicated sessions
included Ototoxicity, Omics, Inner Ear
Damage, Cochlear Implants, Tinnitus,
Physiology, Regeneration, and Gene
Therapy. Jonathan Gale gave a Keynote
Lecture on “Cell Death & Repair in Hair
Cell Epithelia”. The social program
included authentic Japanese dining
experiences, a traditional Noh theatre
performance, and a concert held within
the Kiyomizu Temple (a UNESCO World
Heritage Site). The Workshop was a
great success, with >400 attendees, and
the hosts should be applauded for their
excellent organisation and for the warm
welcome extended to all participants.
Dan Jagger
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BSA Balance Interest Group (BIG)
Biennial Conference at the Ear
Institute
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
On the 7th November 2014 the Ear
Institute hosted the BSA BIG Biennial
Conference which was organised by
the BIG steering committee and led by
Dr Ghada Al-Malky. The conference
was very well attended with around
seventy national and international
delegates coming from a wide range
of specialties with interest in Balance
Disorders, including Clinical Audiology,
Audiovestibular
medicine
(AVM),
Physiotherapy and Nursing.
The overarching theme of the conference
was ‘Balance Testing- Past, Present
& Future’ with a programme filled with
exciting and interesting topics presented
by experts in different fields related to
Balance disorders. As part of the ‘Past
theme’, Dr Diego Kaski, a neurologist
at Imperial College & Charing Cross
Hospital, talked about Heroes and
Villains in Balance testing across
history; as part of the ‘Present theme’,
Dr Veronica Kennedy, Consultant AVM
at the Royal Bolton NHS Trust, talked
about Balance Assessment in Children,
Dr Andrew Wilkinson, Clinical Scientist
at Southmead Hospital, talked about the
current status of Balance Services in
the UK and Dr Jas Sandhu, Academic
Foundation Doctor at University of
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, talked
about the role of VEMPs in assessing
the Otolithic organs. Last but not least,
as part of the ‘Future theme’, Prof Andy
Forge from the Ear Institute gave an
excellent talk on the the mechanisms of
sensory vestibular epithelial cell repair,
survival and regeneration with guidelines
into how this knowledge can aid in
future protection/treatment of vestibular
disorders. Dr Peter West, Consultant
AVM at Portsmouth Queen Alexandra
Hospital, provided a comprehensive and
practical overview on bedside-testing of
dizzy patients and the rest of the BIG
committee members all contributed to the
afternoon workshops. The Conference
was also very well supported by
sponsors from all four major companies
in the UK that provide Balance testing
equipment (Biosense, GNotometrics,
Interacoustics and Guymark).
The delegate feedback was extremely
positive and everyone enjoyed and
benefitted from this event. This was
a good example of how the Ear
Institute collaborates with the different
professional bodies in Audiology and of
its continuously growing contributions to
dissemination of knowledge and support
of the profession through the BSA and
BAA.
Ghada Al-Malky
The Ear Institute launches two new
MSc programmes.
Since September, the Ear Institute has
been running two new MSc courses:
Medical Otology and Audiology has
been created by Professor Shak Saeed,
Dr Doris Bamiou and Mr Peter Andrews.
The programme is for practising ENT
Surgeons, Audiovestibular Physicians,
Paediatricians, General Practitioners,
Neurologists and Trainees with an
interest in otology and audiology.
Students taking the one-year programme
will have the option to specialise in
either ENT Practice or Audiovestibular
Medicine and will have the opportunity
to undertake clinical observations at
UCL’s partner hospitals.
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Audiological Science with Clinical
Practice is a new, innovative, 2-year
course which combines all the theoretical
and clinical knowledge, understanding
and skills required to practice as an
Audiologist and a Hearing Aid Dispenser
in the UK in one single graduate
qualification. The course includes 12
months’ in-service clinical training.
Both Medical Otology and Audiology
and Audiological Science with Clinical
Practice are available as MSc and
Postgraduate Diplomas and both
programmes will be accepting their first
students in September 2014.
Full information about both programmes
can be found on UCL’s online prospectus
or by contacting Robert Heller at the Ear
Institute on robert.heller@ucl.ac.uk
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
Promotions/new jobs
Congratulations go to Doris Bamiou,
Joerg Albert and Jenny Bizley, all of
whom have been promoted to Reader.
Fantastic achievements and well
deserved. I would note that senior
promotions is taken very seriously
and the Provost is a key member of
the committee meeting that decides
these. Apparently the committee was
impressed with the quality of those
being put forward by the Ear Institute
– testimony to the excellence of the
candidates and a credit to all of you.
Congratulations again to our three
candidates.
Bjorn Christianson moves to UCL-C
Bjorn will be working as Consultancy
Manager for the Sensory Systems and
Therapies programme supporting the
endeavours of the Ear Institute, the
Institute of Ophthalmology and the
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
As many of you can vouch, it has been
fantastic working with Bjorn since he first
joined Jen Linden’s lab from Caltech. In
preparation for his new role, Bjorn has
been upping the ante on the fashion
stakes recently, and I for one have been
feeling the pressure. Expect to see him
suited and tied (is that the right term?)
more often from now on!
David McAlpine
The British Academy of Audiology
Conference – 2014: Today’s Vision,
tomorrow’s reality
In November 2014, Drs Priya Singh and
Cherilee Rutherford formed the scientific
panel for the BAA conference. This
resulted in a diverse and cutting edge
scientific programme for which Priya and
Cherilee received a great deal of praise.
The quality of the keynote speakers
was extremely high with speakers such
as Brian Fligor, Doug Beck, Marshall
Chasin, Carol Flexer and Valerie Looi
taking the podium. The conference
was inspirational to all attendees from
the well-accomplished researchers
to up-and-coming students. We were
extremely proud when the poster prize
was awarded to Razun Miah for his
work looking at “pitch perception in
children with cochlear implants”. One of
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the most valuable achievements of the
conference was to bring together leading
clinicians and leading researchers to
discuss ideas and promote translational
research and excellence in practice.
Congratulations to Priya and Cherilee,
such a wonderful success.
Debi Vickers
Sara, Warren & Fitim climb BT tower!
Wordsearch
There are 18 words hidden in our slightly
festive (but mainly auditory) wordsearch.
17 of the words are listed below, but
keep an eye out for the secret 18th word
and if you find it, send me an email for
your chance to win a prize!
Entries to: kate.faxen@ucl.ac.uk (to be
received by 31st March 2015 please)
ALL EARS Dec 2014: #6
In October, three of our PhD students
signed up to climb the BT Tower stairs to
raise money for Action on Hearing Loss.
Sara Weber, Warren Bakay and Fitim
Fetahu raised more than £600 between
them. Sara had this to say about her
experience:
“It was a rewarding experience, it was a
beautiful sunny day and the view from the
tower was amazing. I could even see the
Institute and thought of people back at work.
We got a massage up there and Prosecco..
hm, what else? It was the last BT tower
climb, sadly. Next we’ll have to do skydiving”
Well done you three!
CHRISTMAS
COCHLEA
COFFEE
CONNEXINS
DEAFNESS
EAR
INCUS
LARYNX
MISTLETOE
OTOSCLEROSIS
SANTA
SCALA
SNOWFLAKE
SOUND
SPROUTS
STAPES
WAX
?
Submissions
Donate
If you would like to submit something for
the next newsletter please email:
• kate.faxen@ucl.ac.uk and
• d.vickers@ucl.ac.uk
Donations can be made to the Ear
Institute from our website or via the
following link:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/online-giving/
giving-to?PROJECT_CODE=18
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