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✦ The Dispatch

USC Researchers Secure $3.7M Award to Advance Cochleoscope Development, OCT-Based Inner Ear Imaging Device

A dispatch from Hearing Health Matters — filed

Two men smiling in a research laboratory, one holding a small white handheld device, shelves and equipment visible in background.
✦ PlateTwo men smiling in a research laboratory, one holding a small white handheld device, shelves and equipment visible in background.

AO Technologies, a startup founded by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC), has received an award of up to $3.7 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to further develop a device designed to image the living inner ear....

✦ Clinical Takeaway ✦

No actionable change — the Cochleoscope is in early-stage development and not yet available for clinical use.

✦ Why It Matters ✦

If successful, real-time in-vivo imaging of the inner ear could transform diagnostic precision and surgical guidance in audiology and otology.

✦ Key Points ✦
  1. 01USC spinout AO Technologies received up to $3.7M from ARPA-H for the Cochleoscope.
  2. 02The device uses optical coherence tomography (OCT) to image the living inner ear in real time.
  3. 03This is a development-stage award, not a commercially available product.
  4. 04ARPA-H funding signals high-risk, high-reward government interest in inner-ear diagnostics.
  5. 05In-vivo inner ear imaging could eventually support cochlear implant surgery, drug delivery monitoring, and ototoxicity screening.
✦ Claims & Evidence ✦

AO Technologies received up to $3.7M from ARPA-H to develop the Cochleoscope.

press releasesupported

The Cochleoscope can image the living inner ear in vivo using OCT technology.

press releasepartially supported
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