Investigating hearing-related issues
This guest essay reflects the views of Daniel DiMartino, a doctoral student at Harvard Medical School working at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It is part of a series of essays from current post-graduate students at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory who are deeply worried that that cuts to federal funding for medical research will slow progress on finding cures for diseases and discourage young scientists from pursuing their careers in science.
I am a hard-of-hearing first-year doctoral student at Harvard Medical School with aspirations to conduct hearing-related research. I grew up in Centerport and graduated from Harborfields High School before attending Rochester Institute of Technology. After graduating from RIT, and before beginning graduate school, I participated in the inaugural 2023 cohort of the National Institutes of Health-funded Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Programs like CSHL-PREP serve as pipelines for students to enter rigorous, research-intensive biomedical doctoral programs.
Due to recent NIH budget cuts and restructuring, PREP programs have been indefinitely canceled nationwide. In my case, PREP was instrumental in providing the research training, mentorship, and professional development I needed to successfully transition from undergraduate education to doctoral-level research. Without PREP, I would not have been nearly as prepared to begin my graduate studies.
Beyond supporting training programs, the NIH was one of the largest funders of hearing-related research. However, I am now finding it challenging to identify laboratories at which I can do my thesis research because of the budget cuts. In all the laboratories I have spoken with, significant concerns have been expressed over the availability of funding to take on students, let alone conduct the types of research I am interested in.
Despite the prevalence of hearing loss, research investigating the basic biological mechanisms underlying auditory impairment was already limited. In my case, I had hoped to investigate the cellular regulators that control auditory function. This area of research is deeply personal to me, as my own hearing impairment resulted from a medication now known to cause auditory damage. Studying hearing loss at the cellular level is essential not only for advancing our understanding of how we perceive the world, but also for improving the design and functionality of hearing devices that millions of children and adults depend on to sense the world around them.
Daniel DiMartino is a doctoral student at Harvard Medical School working at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
