Dr Elaine Wong is internationally recognised for her expertise in human stem cell, gene therapy and inner ear hair cell regeneration.
She is a Principal Research Fellow and Head of Department | Hearing Therapeutics at Ear Science Institute Australia and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Medical School at Curtin University and Ear Sciences Centre at the University of Western Australia.
She has been an Honorary Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong since 2013.
Her research focuses on understanding the genetic, cellular and molecular factors underlying human deafness to develop novel therapies to restore hearing.
Her lead research programme currently investigates the therapeutic potential of hair cell regeneration.
Dr Wong’s research has attracted over $3.5 million in research funding from the Australian and Hong Kong governments. She has an international patent based on her developed ear organoid methodology.
Another aspect of her work is the differentiation of patient-derived iPSCs into inner ear organoids to generate a human in vitro disease model of Usher syndrome, which causes profound vision and hearing loss.
Areas of research
- Stem cell technology
- Gene delivery
- Gene editing
Top publications
Zaw, K^., Wong, E.Y^., Zhang, X., Zhang, D., Chen, S.C., Thompson, J.A., Lamey, T., McLaren, T., De Roach, J.N. Wilton, S.D., Fletcher, S., Mitrpant, C., Atlas, M.D., Chen, F.K., McLenachan, S. (2021) Generation of three induced pluripotent stem cell lines from a patient with Usher syndrome caused by biallelic c.949C>A and c.1256G>T mutations in the USH2A gene. Stem Cell Research, 50, 102129 (^Co-1st author) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scr.2020.102129
Whatley, M., Francis, A., Ng, Z.Y., Khoh, X.E., Atlas, M.D., Dilley, R.J., Wong, E.Y.* Usher syndrome: genetics and molecular links of hearing loss and directions for therapy. Frontiers in Genetics, 11, 565216. (*Corresponding author)
https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.565216
McLenachan, S.*, Wong, E.Y.*, Leith, F., Moon, S.Y., Zhang, D., Chen, S.C., Zhang, X., Thompson, J.A., McLaren, T., Lamey, T., De Roach, J.N., Atlas, M.D., Dilley, R.J. and Chen, F.K. (2019) Generation of two induced pluripotent stem cell lines from a patient with compound heterozygous mutations in the USH2A gene. Stem Cell Research, 36, 101420 (*Co-1st author)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scr.2019.101420
Wong, E.Y., Xu, C.Y., Brahmachary, M. and Xu, P.X. (2016) A novel ENU-induced mutation in Myo6 causes vestibular dysfunction and deafness. PLoS ONE, 11, e0154984.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154984
Ahmed M, Wong EY, Xu J, Wang F and Xu PX (2012) Eya1-Six1 interaction is sufficient to induce hair cell fate in the cochlea by activating Atoh1 expression in cooperation with Sox2. Developmental C