Bettina Wolf

Bio Bettina Wolf, PhD is a neuroscientist and veterinarian at the Göttingen Campus in Germany. She is a staff scientist at the Institute for Auditory Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Göttingen. Her main area of research is the optical cochlear implant - an innovative neuroprosthesis combining gene therapy with miniaturized light emitters. Her main focus lays on the evaluation of safety and efficacy of optogenetic hearing restoration on the behavioural level in rodent models and the translation of the approach to non-human primates.

Summary Clinical translation of optogenetic hearing restoration requires both, an efficient and safe gene therapy as well as a stable and powerful medical device. Working towards first in man trail, multichannel optical cochlear implant systems enabling long term evaluation of optical auditory nerve stimulation on behavioural level have been developed. Probing safety, stability and superiority of optical stimulation over available state of the art treatments, various animal models including non-human primates have been established. The presentation will focus on recent achievements in studies contributing to the regulatory process.