Associate Professor Bryony Nayagam awarded $1.3m Passe Williams Senior Fellowship

A photo of Bryony, a woman with light hair, smiling at the camera, with a microscopic pink and purple image int he background — Associate Professor Bryony Nayagam has been awarded $1.3m to develop a cell atlas of the inner ear.

Associate Professor Bryony Nayagam from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences has been awarded a Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Foundation Senior Fellowship of $1.3 million to lead an international effort to build the first comprehensive cell atlas of the human inner ear.

The cochlea and the vestibular organs contain specialised cells that do not regenerate when damaged. Causes of damage can include noise exposure, genetics, some antibiotics, infections and ageing.

Current treatments can only manage symptoms; Associate Professor Nayagam's project aims to chart these organs in unprecedented detail, providing the insights needed for advancing regenerative treatments that could one day restore hearing and balance.

Headquartered in the Melbourne Brain Centre, the multidisciplinary team will consist of neuroscientists, bioinformaticians, clinicians and ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeons.

“This Fellowship provides the funding to coordinate the team, and drive the technology and computation that is required to create a usable atlas that will transform treatments for hearing and balance loss.” Associate Professor Nayagam said.

Founded in 1991, the Passe & Williams Foundation improves the health of people with ear, nose and throat (ENT) conditions by funding life-changing medical research, surgery and care in Australia and New Zealand.