Category: News

Featuring Shyam Gollakota, a Prentice Bloedel Research Day 2025 keynote speaker.

By Taylor Soper:

A new stealthy Seattle startup is taking sound technology to a whole new dimension.

Hearvana was just founded by University of Washington computer science researchers.

Shyam Gollakota, co-founder of Hearvana, told GeekWire that the company is “creating AI breakthroughs that are shaping the future of sound.”

“Our AI algorithms enable on-device superhuman hearing capabilities and will be part of billions of earbuds, hearing aids and smartphones,” he said. “It is an exciting time.”

Read the full article at GeekWire.

UW research makes America healthier, safer, more prosperous — but those gains are now at risk. At the University of Washington, we’re proud to conduct more federally sponsored research on behalf of the American people than any other public university — changing lives and boosting the nation’s global competitiveness. The United States is stronger when we invest in the future. But now, decades of investments are at risk.

Visit the new Research Makes America UW website.

Sign up for Federal Action Alerts to Stay Informed to Protect Research and Innovation at the UW and Beyond.

Featuring Bloedel Affiliate Mary-Claire King, PhD.

Acclaimed genetics researcher Mary-Claire King and immunology PhD candidate Kristin Weinstein represented UW Medicine May 2 at a Seattle roundtable discussion hosted by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D).

The discussion, held at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, concerned the immediate and growing threat to biomedical research posed by current federal administration actions, and what’s at stake for patients and families.

“Medical research is an economic powerhouse. It supports millions of jobs across the country, especially here in Washington state, and generates billions in economic activity,” Murray said. “But the real impact isn’t economic, it isn’t jobs, it isn’t awards, it is miracles that give people hope and more time with loved ones. That could mean a new vaccine to protect us from a disease. It could mean new treatment that saves lives. Or a breakthrough discovery that revolutionizes care and research, like Dr. King’s work showing a gene tied to breast cancer.”

Read the full article in the UW Medicine | Newsroom.

The UW story was an excerpt; read the full press release on the website of U.S. Senator Patty Murray.

Each year, the Husky 100 recognizes 100 undergraduate, graduate and professional students from the UW Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma campuses in all areas of study who are making the most of their time at the University of Washington.

One of the 2025 honorees is Ryan Carlson, MD, PhD. His 2022 PhD in Genome Sciences was earned as a member of the lab of Bloedel Affiliate Mary-Claire King, PhD and included work in collaboration with Bloedel Director and Affiliate Jay T. Rubinstein, MD, PhD.

My time at the UW has been defined by a dedication to scientific discovery, advocacy and mentorship. In the lab, I helped to discover novel genes and variants causing hearing loss, I led translational studies that improved our understanding of cochlear implant outcomes, and I traveled to the Middle East to meet with families with hereditary forms of deafness.

Read more at Ryan Carlson’s Husky 100 Profile.

This initiative highlights the vital contributions of the UW Medicine research community to discovery, patient care, job creation and economic growth, while illustrating the consequences if research declines or ceases.

With one of the largest medical research programs globally, we are dedicated to empowering our scientists to make significant strides in knowledge and health innovations through groundbreaking discoveries.

Visit the new Research Improves Lives UW Medicine website.

Featuring Bloedel Affiliate Yi Shen, PhD.

By Nancy Joseph:

By age 70, about two-thirds of us will experience age-related hearing loss. That’s the bad news. The good news: Hearing aid technology is improving all the time, in large part thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) incorporated into devices.

Yi Shen, Associate Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences, focuses on the potential of AI to provide increasingly individualized solutions for hearing aid users. He heads the Applied Hearing Science Lab in the UW Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences.

“As hearing aids and cochlear implants are getting more complex, the devices have so many parameters you can tweak,” says Shen. “Ideally, you want to set those parameters to meet the patient’s unique needs. Individualization is the key thing I’m interested in.”

Read more at UW College of Arts & Sciences News.

Featuring Bloedel Affiliate Mary-Claire King, PhD.

The National Academy of Sciences is presenting its 2025 Public Welfare Medal to Mary-Claire King for her pioneering genetic research and its transformative application to human rights. Her groundbreaking use of mitochondrial DNA reunited families who were victims of Argentina’s “Dirty War” during the 1970s and 1980s, advanced forensic genetics worldwide, and illustrated the power of science in promoting justice and public welfare. The medal is the Academy’s most prestigious award, established in 1914 and presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good.

Read the full press release at the National Academy of Sciences website.

See also “Mary-Claire King to receive Public Welfare Medal” at UW Medicine | Newsroom.

Featuring the first Director of VMBHRC, George A. Gates, MD.

On February 8, 2025, George Arthur Gates, M.D., a devoted husband, father, and renowned otolaryngologist, passed away peacefully after a full life spent in service to his Christian faith, his family and his fellow man.

George was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 25, 1935. He and his siblings grew up in Welch, West Virginia. As a teenager he learned to fly the airplane his father, a country doctor, used to reach patients in the mountains of West Virginia. As a teen, he flew that plane by himself to Florida from West Virginia. His father’s parting advice was to “keep the ocean on your left!” as he flew down the eastern seaboard. He helped his father to bring television to Welch residents by carrying cable up the mountain to connect people. He matriculated to the University of Michigan where he earned his undergraduate degree, his Doctor of Medicine, and ultimately completed his residency program there in otorhinolaryngology.

Read the full obituary at The San Antonio Express News website.

A personal tribute from University of Washington Professor Emeritus Edwin W Rubel:

In 1993, George A. Gates, MD moved to Seattle to take on the dual roles of Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head Neck Surgery and Director of the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center. He led the Center in every way possible, including recruiting new Bloedel Affiliates from a wide variety of UW departments, schools, and colleges; working with the School of Medicine administration to secure renovation funding for renovation of administrative and research space assigned to the Research Center; raising funds for specialized research equipment that could be shared between labs; instituting social activities to bring Affiliates together; and making time to personally know each Affiliate and their research programs. He also instituted programs for the public on hearing awareness and hearing habilitation and raised funding for new clinical and basic research collaborations.

George had a strong commitment to research. While he had his own program on age-related hearing and balance disorders, he was interested in all levels of knowledge and investigation about the ear and the auditory system, including translating this knowledge to current and future clinical practice. With over 200 journal publications and several edited books, and through collaboration with a plethora of trainees and colleagues throughout the world, George made enormous contributions to the fields of hearing science and otolaryngology. In 2004, George retired as Professor Emeritus and moved back to San Antonio to spend more time with family and friends. Even after retirement, George remained actively involved in commercializing a middle ear measurement device.

George was a wonderful friend and colleague – he will be deeply missed.

Featuring Bloedel Affiliate Christina Zhao, PhD.

By Lauren Kirschmant:

Speech and music are the dominant elements of an infant’s auditory environment. While past research has shown that speech plays a critical role in children’s language development, less is known about the music that infants hear.

A new University of Washington study, published May 21 in Developmental Science, is the first to compare the amount of music and speech that children hear in infancy. Results showed that infants hear more spoken language than music, with the gap widening as the babies get older.

“We wanted to get a snapshot of what’s happening in infants’ home environments,” said corresponding author Christina Zhao, a UW research assistant professor of speech and hearing sciences. “Quite a few studies have looked at how many words babies hear at home, and they’ve shown that it’s the amount of infant-directed speech that’s important in language development. We realized we don’t know anything about what type of music babies are hearing and how it compares to speech.”

Read more in UW News.