Professor Frances Williams to Start New Project to Predict Who Will Develop Tinnitus

The British Tinnitus Association (BTA) have announced today the first recipient of £125,000 through their 2020/21 large research grant funding programme – and it’s none other than our very own Professor Frances Williams. 

The study aims to identify tinnitus biomarkers, using the health and genetics data of TwinsUK members. 

The two-year research project will be led by Prof Frances Williams, Professor of Genomic Epidemiology at King’s College London, and Dr Christopher Cedderoth, Associate Professor in Hearing Sciences at the University of Nottingham. 

Using data from TwinsUK and the Karolinska Institutet’s Swedish Tinnitus Outreach Project, they will be looking for biomarkers – or special molecules – in the blood that can help to objectively diagnose and/or predict who will develop tinnitus. 

Professor Willams said: 

“We’re really pleased to have been awarded a grant from the BTA, to allow us to take this significant project forward. We hope that using the large sample from TwinsUK will help us identify a blood molecule which will provide an objective, reliable indicator of tinnitus. This would allow the development of a blood test for tinnitus, leading to it being defined as a “disorder” rather than symptom, and providing an objective measure of a subjective condition.”  

This project is an important study and could provide essential information that will propel new research towards a cure for tinnitus. 

The British Tinnitus Association are committed to funding, supporting and lobbying for what’s needed to silence tinnitus once and for all.