Massachusetts Eye and Ear ยท 3 days ago
Postdoc Fellows in Gene Therapy and Inner Ear Regeneration
Boston, MA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior LevelMassachusetts Eye and Ear is a world-renowned specialty hospital focused on treating disorders of the eye, ear, nose, throat, and head and neck regions. They are seeking postdoctoral fellows for groundbreaking projects in gene therapy and inner ear regeneration, aimed at restoring hearing through innovative research and clinical applications.
Health CareMedical
Responsibilities
Gene and Editing Therapy for Genetic Hearing Loss: We are working on gene and editing therapy for genetic hearing loss and advancing our findings toward clinical applications. Our gene and editing therapies have successfully restored hearing in multiple mouse models (Du et al., Mol Ther, 2023; Yong et al., Nat Commun, 2023; Zhu et al., Sci Transl Med, 2024; Wei et al., JCI, 2025). The projects include the development of new technologies (e.g. RNA editing, epigenetic modifications) for different forms of genetic hearing loss. We are conducting multiple IND-enabling studies for gene and editing therapies with the goals to initiate clinical trials in 3 years. The work is supported by NIthe H SCGE program
Regeneration of Inner Ear Cells: We target the regeneration of diverse cell types, including hair cells, neurons, and supporting cells, in adult mouse models. Our approach leverages Myc/Notch co-activation for reprogramming (Shu et al., Nat Commun, 2019), complemented by a drug-like cocktail we have developed that successfully induces hair cell regeneration in the adult cochlea in vivo (Quan et al., PNAS, 2023). We have identified critical molecules that promote ganglion neurite outgrowth, which demonstrated therapeutic effects on speech recognition deficiencies mediated by synaptopathy. The projects aim to bring the new approaches of regeneration of hair cells, neurons and synapses to restore hearing from noise-induced and age-related hearing loss from animal models to humans
Our laboratory employs state-of-the-art technologies, including in vitro adult cochlea explant culture, reprogramming, scRNAseq, genome editing, gene therapy, viral and nanoparticle delivery, and physiological function analysis. We are collaborating with the industry, working with CROs and interacting with the FDA to bring our work towards the clinic
We are pioneers in clinical translational applications, having conducted the first successful OTOF gene therapy trial in children born with complete hearing loss, resulting in restored hearing and speech capabilities (Lv et al., The Lancet, 2024; Wang et al., Nat Med, 2024)
Our lab is part of Eaton-Peabody Laboratories, the largest hearing research center globally, renowned for its diverse research programs in hearing science
Qualification
Required
Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D., or M.D
Strong background in genetic hearing loss
In vivo animal inner ear study
AAV-mediated gene therapy and editing technology
Strong background in molecular biology
Strong background in cellular biology
Promoter analysis
Gene editing
RNAseq
Animal models
Strong track record of scientific publications
Company
Massachusetts Eye and Ear
Massachusetts Eye and Ear is a specialty hospital dedicated to excellence in the care of disorders that affect the eye, ear, nose, throat, and adjacent regions of the head and neck.
Founded in 1824
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Massachusetts Eye and Ear has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (8)
2024 (3)
2023 (5)
2022 (9)
2021 (3)
2020 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
unknownKey Investors
Microsoft
2019-05-15Grant
2017-01-27Acquired
Leadership Team
J
Jennifer Street
Vice President of Communications & Planning
C
CarolAnn Williams
President
Company data provided by crunchbase