Triangle research helped bring hearing to 1 million people
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Photo collage: Mary Helen Moore and Maura Kearns/Axios. Photo courtesy of Duke University
Duke Hearing Center director Blake Wilson was honored last week with the Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology for his work decades ago developing the modern cochlear implant.
Why it matters: The devices help more than 1 million deaf or nearly deaf people hear, and federal research grants helped spur their invention along.
Flashback: Wilson grew interested in hearing while studying electrical engineering as a Duke University undergraduate. The National Institutes of Health funded 20 years of his cochlear implant research, much of it at the local Research Triangle Institute, now RTI International.
- Cochlear implants pick up sound and convey electrical signals directly to the brain, which is far more complex than what hearing aids do. Their invention was considered a "fool's dream" in the 1970s, Wilson recalls.
- "A chorus of experts in ear surgery and auditory science said categorically that this effort would fail," he tells Axios. "How could anyone possible have the hubris?"
The breakthrough that would elevate cochlear implants from an experimental treatment to widespread clinical use came in the early 1990s, when Wilson's team figured out something called continuous interleaved sampling.
- "At the end of the test, [a test subject] slapped the table in front of him and said, 'Hot damn, I want to take this one home with me,'" Wilson says. "Then we knew we had something."
Between the lines: A couple generations later, children born deaf can get cochlear implants as infants — lifetimes of hearing bought by taxpayer-funded research.
- Wilson worries that other worthy research projects may get choked out by Trump administration cuts to the U.S. research budget.
- "So many resources have been wasted. So much prior investment has been wasted. Also, there's the concern about young people — brilliant young people who could enter science, who now are discouraged by the fact that there are not many prospects for them," he says. "So they become financial experts or lawyers or doctors, and this, of course, is is an irreparable loss to science."
The latest: Wilson and four other pioneers in cochlear implant research were awarded the Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology at a ceremony last week.
- "I feel lucky as an engineer to have had the opportunity to work on such an important problem that affects so many people worldwide," Wilson says. "Instead of designing a better TV or refrigerator or something like that, I had this grand opportunity, and I'll forever be grateful for that."
State of play: Hearing loss is a growing problem because the world's population is aging, and hearing often fades as we get older.
- There are several intriguing frontiers for research, he says, including genetic treatments for hearing loss and the application of artificial intelligence to improve sound quality for both hearing aids and cochlear implants.
Context: The award, which comes with $400,000 in cash, recognizes people who develop novel technologies that greatly improve human health. The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard administers the prize, first given out in 2023.
- Its namesake is Richard Merkin, a doctor, philanthropist and founder of Heritage Provider Network.
What's next: Wilson hasn't yet decided how he'll use his share of the money.