February 21, 2012

Mitochondrial DNA Defects Cause Deafness

A Yale study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, reveals the pathway by which mitochondrial DNA defects cause maternally-inherited deafness. The study may also open the way to learning more about age-related deafness. Gerald Shadel, Ph.D, professor of genetics and pathology at Yale School of Medicine, discusses the findings. The study appears in the journal Cell.