That's interesting, though at the moment they are only causing higher than normal numbers of stereocilia in developing cochlea.
I've read other studies where the pretreatment of the organ of corti with certain chemicals (I forget which, though my memory is wanting to tell me it's some sort of alkali... which sounds dumb) can greatly reduce stereocilia loss from noise exposure.
When you consider that avians naturally regenerate stereocilia when they're damaged (the hairs, not the birds) (they're, as far as I know, the only warmblooded creatures that can), you'd think that would be a logical avenue of research.
Anyways, I'm hoping for a magic pill that will lead to hearing recovery since I'm basically committed to losing a bit of my hearing by the time I'm an old fart. I'm trying to imagine some sort of therapy technique that.. doesn't....
ugh. needle. thru. tympanum.
yikes.