| The Harvard Medical School Center for Hereditary Deafness has
a mission to bring researchers, clinicians and families together
to better understand hereditary hearing loss. Our center includes
clinicians and researchers from Harvard Medical School, Children's
Hospital Boston, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General
Hospital, Massachusetts Ear & Ear Infirmary, Harvard School
of Public Health and other Harvard-affiliated institutions.
Some of the goals of our center include:
1. The development of a standard protocol for clinical assessment
of deafness/hearing impairment identified at various stages from
the newborn, to the young child, to the adult.
2. The development of a non-medical advisory committee and Institutional
Review Board proposals to ensure the ethical implementation of
genetic studies on deafness/hearing impairment and to generate
appropriate consent and questionnaire forms.
3. The development of cost-effective methods for genetic screening
to supplement and/or modify the clinical workup of a patient with
hearing loss and to develop gene tests for all appropriate hearing
loss genes that have been identified or may be identified in the
future.
4. The development of longitudinal studies to make genotype/phenotype/treatment
correlations among deaf/hearing impaired individuals.
5. The development of appropriate methods for communicating the
results of genetic tests to patients and of appropriate protocols
for genetic counseling.
6. The development of a confidential database to collect and
store information from deaf/hearing impaired patients and relevant
family members.
7. The creation of an internet accessible web site and educational
resources to communicate information on deafness/hearing impairment
to the patient, clinician and researcher.
8. The development of research groups that will use resources
generated from this effort to identify and study genes involved
in hearing and deafness.
9. The development of new methods for identifying genes expressed
in the inner ear and for determining their chromosomal locations,
as a means for discovering candidate genes for deafness. The development
of databases that make such information easily accessible to participating
laboratories.
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