Groundbreaking 'cure' for deafness could be on the way after two children born with impaired hearing listen to music for first time thanks to gene therapy

Two children who were born deaf can now listen and dance to music after undergoing ground-breaking gene therapy. Dr Yilai Shu from Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University examining a young patient The DFNB9 strain of deafness is caused by a failure to produce a protein known as otoferlin But two showed more advanced improvements and were even able to respond to music, which has more complex sound signals. After the gene therapy, the youngsters went from being profoundly deaf to having mild to moderate hearing loss in the treated ear. After the gene therapy, the youngsters went from being profoundly deaf to having mild to moderate hearing loss in the treated ear The study's main author, Professor Zheng-Yi Chen, said: 'The results from these studies are astounding. 'We continue to see the hearing ability of treated children dramatically progress and the new study shows added benefits of the gene therapy when administrated to both ears, including improvements in speech recognition in noisy environments.'