Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology are designing an implantable "micropump" the size of a fingernail. It would function like an insulin pump for diabetics and the morphine pump for hospital patients. Only this pump would hearing problems. Scientists are first hoping to make it work inside the ear of a mouse with hearing loss. The pump would then deliver a mixture of drug therapies to the cochlea. The National Institutes of Health is giving a $900,000 grant to help with the project.
