Deafness researchers win M-euro prize

Two European researchers have won Denmark's biggest science prize for their pioneering work into the genetics of hearing and deafness, the award organizers announced here Monday. France's Christine Petit and Britian's Karen Steel were awarded the one million euro Brain Prize 2012, for helping explain causes of many forms of inherited deafness. In a press statement, the award committee praised the two researchers for "their unique, world-leading contributions to our understanding of the genetic regulation of the development and functioning of the ear, and for elucidating the causes of many of the hundreds of inherited forms of deafness." One in a thousand children inherits deafness at birth, and inherited conditions cause as many children to go deaf before maturity, the statement said. This leads to problems or failure in learning to speak, and disadvantages their communication and learning ability. Genetic abnormalities also contribute to some forms of age-related and progressive hearing loss. In all, around one-tenth of the human population in the developed world suffers from significant hearing impairment. Steel and Petit, who are recognized for their work in the field of hereditary deafness, have led research into understanding the molecular mechanism of the specialized hair cells in the inner ear, which are responsible for the sense of hearing and balance, the organizers said. Steel, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, and pioneer of the use of mouse models, studied mutations in mice and their functional consequences, to understand human disorders. Petit, a geneticist and neurobiologist at the College de Paris and Pasteur Institute in Paris, made genetic analysis of patients, and later investigated the role of the identified genes in animal model systems. "Together, the work of these two Europeans scientists illustrates the value and power of interdisciplinary approaches in neuroscience, and the way in which cutting-edge fundamental research is needed to understand complex clinical problems and to accelerate benefit for patients,"said Prof. Colin Blakemore of Oxford University, who is chairman of the prize selection committee, in the statement. The prize, now in its second year, is awarded by non-profit organization Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation. It is a personal prize given to outstanding researchers in European neuroscience. Petit and Steele will receive the prize from Denmark's Queen Margrethe II at a ceremony in Copenhagen on May 9.