A breakthrough, world-first treatment to restore hearing loss will be taken to human clinical trials.
The project uses nanotechnology to treat hearing loss by delivering growth factors into the inner ear.
Led by Associate Professor Andrew Wise from the Bionics Institute, the trials will begin within four years, following a $1.25 million award from the Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation.
The treatment will potentially be on the market not long after.
Research shows that delivering proteins (called neurotrophins) to the inner ear can treat hearing loss by regrowing vital nerve cells.
Using nanotechnology, A/Prof Wise and Professor Frank Caruso at the University of Melbourne have developed a novel way to deliver neurotrophins by "loading" them into tiny particles created through nanoengineering.
A/Prof Wise said: "The hair cells are similar to a microphone, and the lead wire is similar to neurons. If you disconnect that microphone from the lead wire, they obviously no longer work.
"This drug therapy will reconnect those two structures together, so information can be passed to the brain".
Foundation chief executive Jeanette Pritchard said the 2021 awards recipients - as the senior fellowship, A/Prof Wise received the largest - were advancing exciting, significant projects that could change lives.
"The project to reverse hearing loss is especially significant as more than half a billion people worldwide have serious hearing loss. It's the most common disability in developed countries," Dr Pritchard said.
Noise and age-related hearing loss are the main causes of hearing impairment in humans and there is no drug treatment currently available.
About $2.5 million is being invested in innovative research projects across the ear, nose and throat sector through the Passe and Williams foundation's 2021 Awards to leading scientists and clinicians.
The awards are the most generous medical research funding to a single field, otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, across Australia and New Zealand.
Over the past 30 years more than $70 million has been awarded to the best people and projects across the ear, nose and throat sector.
This has resulted in many world-leading medical advances including the national newborn hearing screening program and using video goggles to detect balance disorders.
