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April 26 speaker series talk: “From natural history to clinical trial: The role of audiology in understanding and treating Niemann-Pick disease type C”

All NIH staff and the public are invited to attend


April 27, 2016 update: Watch an archived webcast of this talk on the NIH videocast website.


On Tuesday, April 26, NIDCD researchers Carmen Brewer, Ph.D., chief of the NIDCD Audiology Unit, and Kelly King, Au.D., Ph.D., NIDCD research audiologist, will present the next talk in NIDCD’s Beyond the Lab, Understanding Communication Disorders speaker series. They will discuss the role of the NIDCD Audiology Unit’s contribution to research and the NIH mission, and its involvement in the development of a new therapy for Niemann-Pick disease type C. Their talk will feature a video that provides the perspectives from some Niemann-Pick type C clinical trial participants and their families.

Dr. Brewer, right, conducts a word recognition test on a clinical trial participant in the audiology clinic.

Dr. Brewer, right, conducts a word
recognition test on a clinical
trial participant in the audiology
clinic.

Designed for administrative and support staff as well as scientists, the Beyond the Lab series gives NIH staff and the public the opportunity to learn about the NIDCD’s research and about scientific advances in communication disorders—conditions that directly affect about one in six Americans during their lifetime. The goal of the series is to present the science of NIDCD mission areas in ways that everyone can understand. The series is open to the larger NIH community and to the public.

  • What: “From natural history to clinical trial: The role of audiology in understanding and treating Niemann-Pick disease type C,” presented as part of the NIDCD Beyond the Lab, Understanding Communication Disorders speaker series
  • Who: Carmen Brewer, Ph.D., and Kelly King, Au.D., Ph.D., NIDCD Audiology Unit
  • When: Tuesday, April 26, 2016, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.
  • Where: Porter Neuroscience Research Center, Building 35A, Room 610

The presentation will also be available via webcast.

About the Speakers

Carmen Brewer received a B.A. from Rutgers University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Audiology and Hearing Science from the University of Maryland. Dr. Brewer began her career as a clinical fellow in Audiology at the Washington Hospital Center, and eventually became Director of the Hearing and Speech Center. During her tenure at Washington Hospital Center, she gained considerable experience in the audiologic assessment and rehabilitation of adult patients of all ages, developed and implemented a newborn hearing screening program, developed community outreach programs, and administered a comprehensive audiology and speech pathology program. In 2002, Dr. Brewer moved to the NIDCD, where she is chief of the Audiology Unit. In this role, she has expanded the Audiology Unit’s research productivity and developed a comprehensive mentoring program. Her research interests include ototoxicity and otoprotection, genotype/phenotype relationships in hereditary hearing loss, heritability of auditory processing skills, and variations in normal auditory and vestibular function.

Dr. King, left, performs an otoscopic exam on a clinical trial participant in the audiology clinic.

Dr. King, left, performs an otoscopic
exam on a clinical trial participant
in the audiology clinic.

Kelly King received her Au.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Maryland College Park, where she was a trainee in the Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing. She has worked with the intramural Audiology Unit at NIDCD since 2004, and her primary research interests include lysosomal storage pathways in the auditory system, ototoxicity, and genotype/phenotype correlations in auditory and vestibular function.

Read more about the NIDCD Audiology Unit.

For questions or reasonable accommodation requests, contact Melissa McGowan at 301-496-7243.

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