APA Entry
Wan, G., Gómez-Casati, M. E., Gigliello, A. R., Liberman, C., & Corfas, G. (2014). Neurotrophin-3 regulates ribbon synapse density in the cochlea and induces synapse regeneration after acoustic trauma. eLife, 3.
This article was focused around the process of enabling deaf mice to hear again. In this study, the scientists would give a certain gene to one set of mice, while leaving the others alone. They then observed brain activity in the mice, noting that the mice that were given the gene suddenly had a heightened activity level in the area of their brain associated with hearing. These results show a very early positive step that may enable humans to cure deafness in other humans. This research does note that it is still very early in the research process to be thinking about human subjects.
This research is very interesting to me. Fighting sensory deficiencies is a topic that always intrigues me, as me and my mother are both anosmic, meaning we have no sense of smell. Although this article was about deafness, the overall topic still interests me. This is very interesting research, as we are beginning to be able to manipulate genes with great control. This would seemingly open the door to more intensive forms of therapy via gene manipulation, for genetic diseases such as ALS.
This research appears to be very well done. There are many sources cited, signalling that these researchers did extensive research before conducting their own experiment. This gives the researchers great validity. The methodology of measuring brain activity based on whether the mice had received the gene treatment or not was the most logical way to conduct that research. This gave the results that meant the most for the researchers purpose.
This research shows that, through careful gene manipulation, there is a way to cure deafness. While the results are momentarily limited to mice, there is hope to eventually it will be able to be applied to humans. The findings on mice give researchers a rough blueprint of how they would begin to apply this treatment on other animals, and eventually on people.
By reading this article, I learned the process humans are taking in order to cure blindness. Although early, there are promising signs that we can one day reach this goal. This article written in heavy jargon, with many of the words being meaningless to me as I wasn't an expert in the field. It is important to both have enough jargon to establish oneself as a reliable researcher and to keep the research simple enough for somebody only mildly familiar with the field can read and understand the topic.
