dr ghada al-malky

Research Summary

My general research interests include: * Translational research aiming at bridging the gap between laboratory auditory biophysics and genetics research and clinical applications in human patients. * The verification of the clinical usefulness of the continuous advances in auditory rehabilitation and establishing how they could be best utilised to improve patients quality of life. My current specific reseach is related to investigating the auditory effect of aminoglycoside ototoxicity; assessing incidence, identifying the most apprpriate test battery to effectively record their effect on the auditory system, modifying and developing testing instrumentation to allow for early detection of minimal changes in the ear and identifying genetic markers that make certain individuals more susceptible to the ototoxic effect of aminoglycoside antibiotics more than others. This research is aiming to help us better understand this topic and allow for the translation of lab-based research into the clinic setting. The group of study patients chosen for this research are cystic fibrosis patients under the care of the department of Respiratory Medicine at Great Ormond Street Hospital. These patients were chosen as they are exposed to large cummulative doses of intravenous aminoglycoside antibiotics due to the repeated chest infections precipitated by their cystic fibrosis genetic disorder.