Message from the Director

Thanks very much for your interest in the work we do at the Johns Hopkins Vestibular NeuroEngineering Lab.

We're a relatively small but intensely motivated group of scientists, engineers and clinicians focused on helping people disabled by vestibular (inner ear balance sensation) disorders.

Although you normally don't notice it, your inner ear constantly measures how your head is oriented and moving. That information drives reflexes that keep you from falling and keep your vision steady. Without it, you would feel wobbly and unable to walk without constantly devoting conscious effort. The world would seem to drift or bounce with every step you take, as it seen via a hand-held video camera. For an estimated 1.8 million people who suffer from severe loss of inner ear vestibular sensation - often due to toxic effects of gentamicin but even more commonly without an identified cause - chronic dizziness, imbalance and shaky vision are a lifelong burden.

At the Johns Hopkins Vestibular NeuroEngineering Lab, we are working to change that. VNEL's science and engineering team focuses on understanding how the vestibular system works and developing ways to restore vestibular sensation to individuals who have lost it.

We have tried many approaches (including inner ear gene therapy, new techniques of rehab exercises, and infrared laser stimulation), but the most promising approach by far has been development of a vestibular Implant, which senses head motion and conveys that information to the brain by electrically stimulating the vestibular nerve. This approach is very similar to cochlear implants, which my clinical colleagues and I routinely implant to help patients who have hearing loss. However, compared to the nearly 1 million cochlear implant surgeries that have been done worldwide over the past 40 years, the field of vestibular implantation is still in its infancy. In our first-in-human trial of a vestibular implant (made by Labyrinth Devices LLC and MED-EL GmbH, drawing on science and engineering research done at VNEL), nine patients have been implanted so far, and we plan a tenth surgery soon.

If you are interested in participating in the trial as a patient, please click here to read more about the vestibular implant trial, including how to participate.

If you are interested in joining our research team, please contact me at cds@jhmi.edu.

If you are interested in supporting our work, please do. Although we have been lucky to compete successfully for grant support (mainly from the National Institutes of Health, which along with Labyrinth Devices and MED-EL has been a major supporter of VNEL's vestibular implant research), your support can have an immediate and long-lasting impact., by giving us the flexibility to quickly direct support to innovative, promising projects. You can learn more about how to help here.