Frequency Therapeutics is a startup company that aims to reduce hearing loss using the power of stem cell biology. Here’s our Frequency Therapeutics review.
What Is Frequency Therapeutics?
Frequency Therapeutics is a Boston-based startup company that uses stem cell biology to solve human hearing problems. The company is also planning to use its innovative technology to target gastrointestinal diseases and diabetes. Right now, however, they’re primarily focusing on re-growing hair cells in the inner ear using stem cell technology.
In February 2017, the company announced a small-molecule approach to restore hearing as part of a recent study. That study was published in the latest issue of Cell Reports.
Frequency Therapeutics is spearheading the movement to restore hearing using the regenerative power of cells. In layman’s terms, the company is using stem cell technology to regrow cells in your ear that may have been lost due to age or health problems.
How Does Frequency Therapeutic’s Technology Work?
Frequency Therapeutics highlighted their technology in a paper titled, “Clonal Expansion of Lgr5-Positive Cells from Mammalian Cochlea and High-Purity Generation of Sensory Hair Cells”. You can view the full release of that study here.
The technology can be enormously beneficial to the estimated 360 million people around the world who have hearing loss – and an additional 1.1 billion people who are at risk for hearing loss from recreational noise alone, according to a World Health Organization report.
As mentioned above, the Frequency Therapeutics technology essentially involves regenerating cells within the ear. Specifically, the technology involves using stem cells to regenerate hair cells within the inner ear.
That may sound like some freaky futuristic technology, but the ability to regrow cells within the ear already exists in nature. Certain birds and amphibians, for example, have an ability to regenerate these cells. These animals provided the inspiration for the Frequency Therapeutics technology.
To develop the stem cell technology, Frequency Therapeutics collaborated with MIT and BWH to expand progenitor cells from the mouse cochlea.
Why is the ability to regrow hair cells so important? Well, humans are only born with 15,000 hair cells in each ear. These cells do not regenerate. If you frequently expose your ears to loud noises, then your hair cells will inevitably degrade over time This is why older people need hearing aids – eventually, your ears don’t have enough hair cells to hear at the same rate as a human with their full range of ear cells.
You can view the full technological details of the Frequency Therapeutics technology in the study linked above. Essentially, the team was able to create a platform that achieved “60-fold enhancement of hair cell production from the progenitor cells compared to current methods”.
Researchers were able to demonstrate this technology even in cochlear tissue that had been depleted of hair cells by exposure to an ototoxic antibiotic.
More importantly, the hair cells regrown by the team “exhibited the same physical features, gene expression, and functionality as typical cochlear hair cells”.
In other words, the regrown hair cells were virtually indistinguishable from ordinary cells found in your ear.
Frequency Therapeutics Review Summary
Frequency Therapeutics is a Boston-based company actively developing stem cell technology to treat inner ear problems.
The company describes the technology as a “platform technology” that was “founded on discoveries in progenitor cell biology”. Creators of the technology include Bob Langer, Sc.D. at MIT, Jeff Karp, Ph.D., at Harvard.
The company is targeting its solutions at the hearing loss industry, described as “a potential $20 billion market with no effective therapeutic solution”.
The Frequency Therapeutics technology plans to be that therapeutic solution, which could lead to enormous success in the market. Today, Frequency Therapeutics is headquartered at the following address in the Boston area:
19 Presidential Way
Woburn, MA 01801
You can contact the company by phone at 866-389-1970.
The company was founded in 2015. You can learn more about Frequency Therapeutics at their LinkedIn page here, or at their official website here: http://www.frequencytx.com/. If the company’s technology continues to be successful, they could revolutionize the way we treat hearing loss in the world.