Congenital deafness occurs at an incidence of roughly 2 per 1,000 births, among which 50% to 60% stem from genetic factors. Over 140 pathogenic genes for hereditary deafness have been identified to date. Chen Ying and her supervisor Professor Wu Hao’s team focus on mutations in the OTOF gene, a leading cause of auditory neuropathy in children. Affected children are not completely deafThey can detect sound,yet perceive it as if through frosted glass.