The short version
- Lineage Cell Therapeutics is developing ReSonance, lab-grown cells meant to replace damaged auditory nerve cells in the inner ear.
- The target is cochlear implant users who get little benefit, possibly because the nerve the implant stimulates has degenerated.
- The therapy has not been tested in people, and the company has announced manufacturing progress and an animal model, not results.
Lineage Cell Therapeutics, a California biotech, said on October 29 that it has finished the first year of a three-year collaboration with William Demant Invest, worth up to $12 million in research funding, with Eriksholm Research Centre, part of the Oticon and Demant group, also involved. The therapy, called ReSonance (ANP1), is made of off-the-shelf auditory neuronal progenitor cells, meant to replace or support the spiral ganglion neurons that carry sound signals from the cochlea to the brain. Year one produced one clinical-grade batch, three engineering batches and an animal model of deafness to test the cells in. CEO Brian Culley said the company had “completed all contemplated development activities planned in the first year.”
The intended patients are people with severe-to-profound hearing loss whose cochlear implants help less than expected, possibly because the nerve the implant stimulates has degenerated. A recent Hearing Research review, noted alongside the release, cautions that poor implant performance alone does not prove nerve loss. Lineage plans to meet the Danish Medicines Agency in the fourth quarter of 2026 and to present more animal data in 2027.
This is a company announcement with no efficacy data and no human trial date. It sits beside other early attempts to restore hearing, such as the light-driven cochlear implant tested in gerbils.
