Together with the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, the institute constitutes the largest centre for audiological research in Europe.[3][failed verification][4][failed verification]
History
In 2000 an £11 million grant from the Wellcome Trust was awarded to UCL to fund the creation of a new Centre for Auditory Research bringing together auditory research scientists and clinicians from across the university. The new centre was linked to the long-standing Institute of Laryngology and Otology (ILO) and its incorporated School of Audiology.[4] In order to provide this cross-faculty, multidisciplinary group with a unifying identity the ILO was disestablished and the UCL Ear Institute created on 1 January 2005. Prof Tony Wright was its first director, followed by Prof David McAlpine from June 2006 and (as interim co-directors) Dr Jennifer Linden and Dr Jonathan Gale from September 2015.[4] In January 2019 Prof Jonathan Gale was appointed as the Director of the Institute.[5]
In December 2006 the results of tests carried out at the institute were published which showed that many children's toys available that Christmas could damage a child's hearing.[6][7] In February 2007 the Widex Noise Report, a major survey of noise levels in 41 English towns and cities authored by Deepak Prasher of the UCL Ear Institute, was published.[8][9] In July 2008 the UCL Ear Institute participated in an architectural jelly competition, with the sound of the competing structures being recorded in one of the institute's anechoic chambers.[10]
In March 2010 a team including Professor Martin Birchall, Paolo Macchiarini of the UCL Ear Institute performed the first windpipe transplant using a whole tissue engineered windpipe organ crafted from a patient's own stem cells.[11][12] In the 5-year follow up study, authors claimed that transplatation was a success and patient had "had a normal social and working life”. In reality, the patient had undergone multiple operation since the transplation, one of which removed the implanted trachea. [13] The fraudulent papers were finally retracted in 2023, after public call for retraction by Karolinska Institutet[14]. Richard Horton, the editor of medical journal The Lancet, in which the papers were published, resisted the retractions for over a decade. [15]
In the same month a team from the institute began a major study to investigate the role of the brain rather than the ear in contributing to hearing difficulties.[16][17] In August 2010 Aura Satz, the UCL Ear Institute's artist-in-residence, exhibited the results of her work at the institute in 'Location, location, location' at the Jerwood Space gallery in London.[18]
At postgraduate level the institute currently offers the following courses:[19]
Advanced Audiology (MSc, PGDip, PGCert)
Audiological Science (MSc, PGDip)
Audiological Science with Clinical Practice (MSc, PGDip)
Otology and Audiology (MSc, PGDip, PGCert)
Sensory Systems, Technologies & Therapies (MRes)
Three- and four-year PhD programmes are available in a wide range of basic and clinical disciplines, including genetics, cell and molecular biology, auditory neuroscience and human auditory function.[19]
