Keynote Speakers
Professor Manohar Bance
Gene therapies for hearing loss (Thursday 5 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Professor Bance is the inaugural Professor of Otology and Skull Base Surgery at the University of Cambridge, appointed in 2017. Prior to that, he was Professor and Chair of the Division of Otolaryngology at Dalhousie University in Canada. He trained in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in Toronto and at UCLA, finishing his training in 1995. He was on the Faculty at the University of Toronto in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery from 1996 to 2001, when he moved to Dalhousie University.
Furthermore, Professor Bance is a surgeon-scientist and leads the SENSE lab in Cambridge, where he remains clinically active in all areas of Otology and Neurotology. He is the Chair of the British Cochlear Implant Group, a past president of the Royal Society of Medicine Section of Otology, and a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the Canadian Society of Otolaryngology. His professional memberships include CORLAS, the American Otology Association, the American Neurotology Association, and he has previously served as Scientific Officer for the Politzer Society.
Professor Bance has published 247 peer-reviewed papers, several textbook chapters, and has trained dozens of PhD, Masters, and Postdoctoral students, as well as 37 Clinical Fellows over the years.
In 2022, he performed the first-in-human gene therapy for hearing loss, the first outside of China as part of the CHORD trial. He is also the Chief Investigator for this hearing loss gene therapy trial and runs the Genetic Hearing Loss Clinic in Cambridge.
Professor Markus Hess, MD, PhD
Glottoplasty in male-to-female transgender surgery (Friday 6 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
Prof. Markus Hess, MD, PhD is an otolaryngologist and phoniatrician specializing in laryngology, phonosurgery, and professional voice disorders. He is the Head of the first Voice Clinic in Germany (The Medical Voice Center).
In addition to his clinical role, Prof. Hess is deeply involved in leadership and academic organizations. He serves as the chairman of the Pan-European Voice Conference (PEVOC), the founder of the European Academy of Voice (EAV), and is a past President of CoMeT. His other notable positions include founder of the German Society of Phonosurgery, President of the International Association of Transvoice Surgeons (IATVS), and Secretary General of the International Association of Phonosurgery (IAP).
Renowned for his pioneering work, Prof. Hess introduced blue laser technology to laryngology. He is highly experienced in minimally invasive phonomicrosurgery and office-based surgery.
Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions to the field through presentations at international conferences, hands-on workshops, and instructional courses. Prof. Hess is also an active member of various editorial boards and scientific committees and has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in prestigious professional journals and textbooks.
Professor Andrej Kral, MD, PhD
Congenital hearing loss requires treatment within the first year of life (Thursday 5 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Andrej Kral, MD, PhD is a Professor of Systems Neuroscience at Macquarie University and Professor of Auditory Neuroscience at Hannover Medical School where he holds the Chair in Experimental Otology.
A. Kral is specialized to auditory neurophysiology in animals and humans. His research interests include hearing loss, central effects of deafness for brain development and cognition, neuroplasticity, cochlear implants and neuroprosthetics. A. Kral serves as a chair of the PhD Program “Auditory Sciences” at the Hannover Medical School and is member of the editorial board of Hearing Research. In 2017 he has been elected a member of the German National Academy of Science and in 2018 of the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum. He received the 2024 Pioneer Award in Basic Science from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology for his fundamental work on understanding brain plasticity after hearing loss.
With H. Maier and F. Aplin he published a textbook on neuroprosthetics (“Prostheses for the Brain: Introduction to Neuroprosthetics”, 2021, Academic Press) and with A. N. Popper and R. R. Fay edited the volume on “Deafness” (vol. 47, 2013) of the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research. His lab received funding, among others, from German Research Society, National Science Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service, European Union, Oticon Foundation and cochlear implant industry.
