Report on the inauguration of the Center for Research and Innovation in Human Audiology

On October 10, the Institut Pasteur welcomed guests to the CIS auditorium for the inauguration of the Center for Research and Innovation in Human Audiology (CeRIAH). This event involved stakeholders from the Fondation Pour l'Audition, the Hearing Institute, Paris City Hall, Inserm and, of course, the Institut Pasteur, all of whom have been firmly committed to the establishment of the new center.

 

Before the speakers took to the stage, the organizers had prepared a launch video with various different phonic scales, creating a soundscape and setting the tone!

 

The event was opened and jointly hosted by Paul Avan, Director of CeRIAH, and Hung Thai-Van, Co-Director of CeRIAH. Successive presentations were then given by:

-    Jean-Pierre Meyers, President of the Fondation Pour l'Audition, who spoke about his foundation's sponsorship and about this large-scale hearing project which began as a family initiative, with the "shared aim of advancing multiple discoveries for the benefit of those who suffer from hearing loss."

-    Christine Petit, Founding Director of the Hearing Institute, who explained how scientists' firm belief that they were on the cusp of a new era for hearing science has today led "to a remarkably prolific scientific climate [...] with a new interdisciplinarity that also encompasses medicine."

-    Marie-Christine Lemardeley, Deputy Mayor of Paris with responsibility for Higher Education and Research, representing the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who emphasized the city's commitment to this translational project in central Paris, the determination to support researchers and to pursue "a more enlightened, effective research policy."

-    Stewart Cole, President of the Institut Pasteur, who emphasized the need for continued research in this field, given "the major public health challenge that hearing represents," at a time when 6 million French people are affected by various types and degrees of hearing loss. Read the presentation by Stewart Cole
Reed Stewart Cole's speach

-    Didier Samuel, Chairman and CEO of Inserm, who spoke about the need to connect basic research, clinical research and translational research.

-    Anne-Lise Giraud, Director of the Hearing Institute, who reflected on the impetus and impact that a center like CeRIAH can give the institute in its leadership of the re-Connect IHU (university hospital institute), with the support of new stakeholders.

After these presentations, Paul Avan presented the CeRIAH, a research facility in human audiology hosted at the Institut Pasteur, which aims to improve understanding of human hearing loss. In recent years there has been huge progress in knowledge on hearing impairments and the mechanisms underlying hearing loss. We now need to turn advances in research into diagnostic and therapeutic applications for people with hearing disorders. This is the challenge that the innovative new center will be tackling.

The CeRIAH will house multidisciplinary experts who will use state-of-the-art equipment to investigate the entire pathway of sound and the auditory system, in conditions that are representative of real-life situations, with the aim of detecting the mechanisms behind hearing disorders. The research carried out by the CeRIAH involves the participation of human volunteers, two of whom were invited to speak on stage for the inauguration. "It has become essential to connect basic research and patient treatment."

After a musical interlude by the artist Feedback, Anne-Lise Giraud, Philippe Meyers and Stewart Cole unveiled the inaugural plaque that will be displayed in CeRIAH and asked those involved in the establishment of the center and those who will be leading it on a daily basis to add their signatures.

 

 

To find out more, read the press kit

 

Photos : François Gardy/Institut Pasteur