Highlights

We recently celebrated the life of Professor Robert White, a former Chair of Electrical Engineering at Stanford. He worked with Professor Blair Simmons, a then-Chair of Otolaryngology at Stanford, to enable the first multichannel cochlear implantation. Together, they launched a new era in otologic surgery, medical engineering, and neuroscience.

Dr. Shayna Cooperman, our OHNS resident, was a panelist in this symposium, providing invaluable insights into cochlear implants as both a user and a surgeon. Her co-panelists included former graduate students of Professor White, who together developed the first multi-channel cochlear implant speech processor. Note the staggering difference in scale between Shayna’s speech processor and the original one that fit in an attaché case.

Professor White's article, published in 1980, provides a first-hand historical account of Stanford's development of a multi-channel cochlear implant. As you will see, the Stanford team selected the winning mix of technologies—multichannel electrodes and digital signal processing. Professor White, who left us earlier this year at the age of 96, was an engineer with a keen interest in understanding otology and neuroscience. Even after 44 years, the remarks of this master researcher remain fresh and indicate a deep interconnectedness between science, engineering, and medicine.

The development of cochlear implant technology is undoubtedly a California story, with contributions from the House Ear Clinic in LA, Stanford, and UCSF, a Utah story, and a global story, with contributions from France, Belgium, Austria, and Australia. It is a story of collaborations and vehement scientific disagreements. Above all, it is a true story of diversity—the art of thinking independently together.

Our commitment to advancing the field of cochlear implants is unwavering. We are not only making strides in surgical innovations, such as endoscopic-assisted cochlear implantation via a “microfacial recess,” but also gaining novel insights into how the brain recognizes and understands sounds. 

In a Viewpoint article in the July 8^th issue of JAMA titled “The Tobacco Industry Has No Business Funding Continuing Medical Education” OHNS faculty member Robert Jackler, MD, and UCSF Professor Pamela Ling described how Philip Morris International, maker of #1 selling cigarette brand globally (Marlboro), recently began offering accredited CME providers funding to cover tobacco-related curriculum. The JAMA paper analyzed the series of PMI-funded courses on Medscape, a for-profit provider of “free” CME, and found that they were rife with commercial bias.  Not surprisingly, the educational content aligned with PMI’s business interests and offered opinions not supported by scientific evidence.

To their credit, Medscape took down the PMI courses and adopted a policy that it will no longer accept tobacco industry funding for their CME offerings. The accrediting body for CME in the US (ACCME) currently has no policy regarding tobacco industry funding, likely because the issue has never arisen before, but is currently engaged in a policy review.

The collaborative team between the Porteus (Pediatrics), Nayak, Desai (Adult Pulmonary Med) and Milla (Pediatric Pulmonary Med) Labs has been awarded a $6M grant from the CA Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). 
 
The proposed new therapy may potentially provide treatment options for sinus disease in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients with mutations unresponsive to current treatments or those who cannot tolerate existing therapies. While sinus disease in CF does not directly affect mortality, it significantly impacts quality of life and may have implications for lower respiratory tract disease. The proposed approach aims to permanently correct CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) mutations (the protein that helps to maintain the balance of salt and water on many surfaces in the body), offering a potentially transformative improvement over current standards of care with longer-lasting effects.

Dr. Sunwoo has been awarded a U01 grant from NIH via the University of Pacific titled “Pacific-Stanford PRIMED Program: Training the Next Generation of Clinical Oral Health Researchers.”

The Department’s Division of Head & Neck Surgery has been collaborating with the University of the Pacific (UoP) Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco to develop impactful clinical, research, and educational initiatives that span the two institutions, particularly on the subject of premalignant oral lesions and oral cancer.

Investigators at UoP and Stanford were awarded a $3.8 million, 5-year NIH U01 grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) to develop a program designed to train oral health clinician-scientists. The program will engage research faculty, clinical faculty, students, and residents to conduct practice-based research in three areas: (1) oral cancer and premalignant lesions, (2) sleep medicine, and (3) developing the Pacific-Stanford biobank. Importantly, the program will utilize the resources of the Stanford Spectrum Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA).

In addition to Prof. Sunwoo, the principal investigators of the new U01 grant are Prof. David Lam, Chair of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Associate Dean for Medical Integration at UoP, Prof. Rebecca Moazzez, Chair of the Department of Preventive and Restorative Dentistry at UoP, and Prof. Ruth O’Hara, Senior Associate Dean for Research at the Stanford School of Medicine.

Dr. Valdez received an R01 grant from the NIH titled, “Molecular Imaging for diagnosis and monitoring of Otitis Media.”

Dr. Valdez’s research aims to enhance the diagnosis and monitoring of otitis media through three innovative approaches. First, the team developed a shortwave infrared (SWIR) fluorescence otoscopy that uses a maltotriose probe to image bacterial infections by targeting gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria via an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter unique to prokaryotic cells. This method helps identify bacterial otitis media infections, reducing unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and combating antibiotic resistance. Second, the team designed a Spatial Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) probe compatible with existing ear speculums to provide molecular insights into changes in the eardrum and middle ear fluid, offering prognostic information on the progression or resolution of otitis media. This approach, combined with middle ear sample analysis, aims to differentiate serous from mucoid effusions. Third, the team developed a SWIR otoscope to diagnose middle ear effusion based on the increased absorption of light by water at around 1450nm and plans to conduct a pilot clinical trial at two institutions. Collectively, these novel imaging modalities aim to refine non-invasive diagnostic strategies for both preclinical and clinical applications in otitis media.

Dr. Matern received a K99 grant from the NIH for her project, “A CRISPR-based toolkit for investigating hair cell transcription factors in inner ear organoids.”

Hair cells are the specialized sensory cells of the inner ear that transmit sound and motion information to the brain. In adult mammals, hair cells cannot naturally regenerate, prompting extensive research into their development to identify potential regenerative therapies. Advances in studying transcriptional control have highlighted the roles of various transcription factors in hair cell development. However, using state-of-the-art tools like CRISPR to study transcription factor involvement in hair cell development has been challenging due to the limited number of hair cells in the mammalian inner ear. Recently, a scalable protocol was developed to guide mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) toward inner ear sensory cells in culture, resulting in thousands of hair cells within 2-3 weeks. This model enables high-throughput assays for studying hair cell development and testing treatments for sensory cell loss.

This project aims to use the inner ear organoid model to identify essential transcriptional regulators for hair cell development that can be utilized for regenerative therapies.

Dr. Meister received a Human and Planetary Health initiative’s Early Career Award (HPHECA) award from the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment for her proposal, “Measuring Nano/Microplastics in Human Tissue".

This project, funded by the Woods Institute, unites multiple labs and research groups across our campus to develop the best methods for measuring nanoplastics and microplastics in human tissue. Measuring plastics is complex, akin to assessing the dirt in your yard: you could measure it by weight, area, or its capacity to support your favorite succulent. Similarly, dirt can be defined as sand, soil, clay, etc. This complexity mirrors the challenge of quantifying nano and microplastics in human tissues, which can consist of various “forever chemicals” conjugated to different dyes, compounds, and other materials.

Dr. Meister’s collaborative effort aims to understand how to measure both the quantity and distribution of these chemicals in human tissues. This project exemplifies the unique collaborative opportunities at Stanford and how they can extend to teams beyond our University. She is excited to see these partnerships develop and anticipates that the team’s findings will not only influence personal behaviors but also contribute to public policy.

Dr. Balakrishnan and Zoë Fullerton, MD are being awarded one of the John Lillie and Lane Donnelly seed grants for the pilot program EMBRACES (Empowering Bidirectional Regional Academic-Community Engagement in Surgery). The seed grant promotes improvements in quality, safety, efficiency, cost, patient experience, and health equity at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health as part of the care provided to children, expectant mothers, and their families.

Fellow Jason Qian, MD, was recognized at this year's COSM for winning the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology (ASPO) Fellow Award for his research project "Incidence of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis in the post-HPV vaccination era: 2007-2022."

Chief Resident, George Liu, MD, won the Resident Research Travel Award from the American Otological Society for his study titled "Artificial Intelligence Tracking of Otologic Instruments in Mastoidectomy Videos." His research mentor is Dr. Nikolas Blevins.

Resident Kiwan (Roy) Park , MD, was awarded an AAO-HNSF Resident Research Award by the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) and the Centralized Otolaryngology Research Effort (CORE) Study Section for his proposal, “Shortwave Infrared Imaging in Detection of Post-Operative Infections.” His research mentor is Dr. Tulio Valdez.

Resident Patrick Kiessling was awarded an AAO-HNSF Resident Research Award by the American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) and the Centralized Otolaryngology Research Effort (CORE) Study Section for his proposal, “Effects of Fine Particulate Matter on the Larynx in a Mouse Model.”