Fall 2025 Grantee Highlight:
Brad Walters

Brad Walters, PhD

Associate Professor

Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Mississippi Medical Center

This sense of hearing shapes how we communicate, learn, and experience the world, yet it is also remarkably fragile. Nearly half of all adults develop age-related hearing loss because the specialized structures of the inner ear do not naturally replace themselves once damaged. Using gene‑editing strategies, the Walters Lab and others have shown that early-stage replacement cells can be generated, but restoring full auditory function requires a deeper understanding of how mature sensory structures form and operate.

A research initiative led by the Walters Lab is underway to develop new tools for studying RNA editing and to use those innovations to reveal new insights into hearing.

In their recent work, the team has found that RNA editing is highly enriched in mature auditory neurons and sensory receptors, suggesting it plays an important role in normal auditory processing. In contrast, this molecular activity is largely absent from the immature cells produced through current regenerative methods, which may help explain why these cells do not yet behave like their natural counterparts.

This project aims to build advanced tools capable of mapping and manipulating RNA editing with far greater precision. Applying these technologies to the inner ear will help reveal how this process supports healthy hearing and how it might be harnessed to improve future regenerative therapies.