He recently joined the University of Colorado after a seven year period as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Dr. Gubbels has a specialty clinical practice dedicated to managing hearing loss, balance disorders and diseases of the skull base. In addition, he runs a research program focused on the evaluating stem cells as a means to better understand and treat hearing loss in humans. Hearing loss is an exceedingly common problem worldwide with severe to profound deafness affecting over 300 million individuals worldwide. In general, hearing loss in humans is caused by loss or dysfunction of the hair cells of the cochlea and, when lost, these cells cannot spontaneously regenerate. The ideal treatment for hearing loss would be to replace the elements of the inner ear which have been lost due to loud noise, ageing, ototoxic medications, or hereditary causes.