By Christopher Geissler, Ph.D.

Nearly 1,800 hearing and balance researchers and related experts gathered Jan. 25–29, 2020, in San Jose, CA for the 43rd annual Midwinter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO), the largest academic association in the field. This included a number of Hearing Health Foundation (HHF)-affiliated researchers, members of the HHF Board of Directors and scientific advisory bodies, and HHF staff. The meeting, which is one of the most important opportunities for hearing and balance researchers and ENT clinicians to discuss their research and exchange ideas in person, takes place over the course of four days and includes participants from across the US and the world. 

The conference is a mix of poster sessions and talks, workshops, symposia, meetings, social occasions, and public outreach. Poster sessions are a powerful way for a large number of researchers to share their work effectively and succinctly with interested colleagues, providing a fitting environment to engage in conversations with numerous other researchers and potential future collaborators. The daily poster sessions were so well attended that I sometimes found it challenging to move around the room! 

Four current Emerging Research Grants (ERG) recipients had posters on display—Dunia Abdul-Aziz, Ph.D., Hao Luo, M.D., Ph.D., Vijaya Prakash Krishnan Muthaiah, Ph.D., and Victor Wong, Ph.D.—while a fifth, Ian Swinburne, Ph.D., presented his work in a talk as part of a podium session. ERG alumni were prominently represented at poster and podium sessions, too. Also in town were nearly all members of the Hearing Restoration Project consortium, with Tatjana Piotrowski, Ph.D., Yehoash Raphael, Ph.D., Jennifer Stone, Ph.D., Mark Warchol, Ph.D., and members of the labs of Seth Ament, Ph.D., and Stefan Heller, Ph.D. labs presenting their work. Consortium member Ronna Hertzano, M.D., Ph.D., hosted a workshop on the gEAR data visualization and gene comparison portal that she and her team developed with major support from HHF. The session was so popular that conference organizers decided to add an additional workshop later in the conference.

As in previous years, HHF took advantage of the ARO Midwinter Meeting to organize a series of events for affiliated researchers. The HRP consortium held a follow-up dinner meeting swift on the heels of its Seattle meeting (December 2019) to dive into draft proposals for the upcoming 2020–2021 project year. The consortium was joined by members of the HHF Board of Directors’ Research Committee and HHF staff for a stimulating discussion of consortium projects that aim to launch the HRP’s work into the next phase of its strategic plan.

HHF also hosted a reception for ERG awardees and recent alumni as well as members of the Scientific Review Committee and Council of Scientific Trustees (CST). The event is a much appreciated opportunity to continue HHF’s relationships with grant recipients and to promote knowledge exchange among grantees, alumni, and members of HHF’s scientific advisory bodies. The reception was followed by a dinner meeting at which the CST discussed ongoing efforts to ensure that the ERG program continues to fund the best work in hearing and balance research.

We look forward to seeing some of the work we heard in San Jose about from HHF-funded researchers appearing in print in the coming months and reviewing the project proposals from HRP consortium members for the upcoming year and from applicants to the ERG program, who had numerous opportunities to chat with HHF representatives at the four-day meeting, including at a session entitled “Funding your Scientific Genius!” at which I presented alongside representatives from other prominent research funders. Stay tuned for news on the next year’s HRP and ERG projects in summer 2020!

Christopher Geissler, Ph.D., is HHF’s director programs and research support.