By Shannon Turgeon
Photography by Joshua Franzos
Growing up in a small town in Alaska, Christopher Cunningham, assistant professor of otolaryngology, School of Medicine, initially thought he wanted to be a physician.
However, a summer spent working in a lab while pursuing his undergraduate degree pushed him toward a different path.
“I didn’t realize that I could do a job where I could figure out how things work and why. I fell in love with neuroscience and the idea of doing scientific research as a career,” he said.
While working as a postdoctoral fellow, he was exposed to research relating to the cochlea and inner ear, and learned how significant and widespread hearing loss is.
That experience sparked his passion for studying the auditory system, and led him to where he is today: researching how the cells and molecules in the inner ear turn sound into signals that the brain can interpret and hear, and developing treatments for hearing loss.
On Friday, July 17, Cunningham will present “Cell Type-Specific Gene Therapy to Treat Hearing Loss” as part of the 2026 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Seminar Series. (Join the lecture here.)
Hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit, but there are currently no biological remedies for it.
“Devices like hearing aids and cochlear implants are amazing, life-changing devices, but they don’t actually treat the hearing loss; they just bypass damaged structures and augment the remaining function of the system,” said Cunningham.
With the goal of targeting the cause of hearing loss, Cunningham and his lab have developed a gene therapy that has shown promising results.
They have focused on deafness associated with the transmembrane O-methyltransferase (TOMT) gene, which encodes a protein that is essential for hearing. Up to 8% of genetic hearing loss is associated with TOMT, which is expressed in cochlear hair cells.
Until recently, therapies for hearing loss have not been cell-specific, meaning that they target many different cell types inside the ear.
“Sometimes that’s OK, but other times that can have negative effects. In fact, it can actually cause some hearing loss,” said Cunningham.
So, Cunningham and his lab members identified a new promoter—DNA that controls when and where a gene is expressed—that is highly precise and directs expression only to cochlear hair cells.
Initial testing in animal models has shown that leveraging this promoter does not cause any additional hearing loss, led to hearing restoration for up to four months after treatment and was more effective than existing promoters.
Cunningham and his colleague Thanos Tzounopoulos submitted a patent application for their platform, and along with José Zevallos, chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, have cofounded a startup called Echogenesis Therapeutics to help take their findings from the lab to clinical trials.
“Pitt does a lot to facilitate the transition of academic work into the translational commercial space. It’s a different type of environment with different goals, but I’m excited about what we have been able to do so far with Echogenesis and where we can go.”
Cunningham isn’t planning on slowing down his research anytime soon.
“We’re working on all fronts: basic science, which I think is literally the most important thing that we do at the University to try to understand how things work; furthering TOMT-linked hearing loss toward clinical trials; and then broadening the therapeutic utility of the tools that we’ve developed toward other forms of hearing loss,” he said.