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Two Wisconsin sisters are among the first to get gene therapy for genetic deafness

At Children's Wisconsin, 3-year-old Cleo and her sister Lennon had FDA-approved gene therapy surgery in July. They are responding to sounds such as a bark and their mother's humming. Results vary, and durability is unknown.

Verified · Source: WPROct 22, 2026 · 1 min read
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A person wearing large headphones, with the face cropped out of the frame
Illustrative photo of someone listening with headphones. This is not Cleo or Lennon, and the face is out of the frame. Logan Campbell / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0

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At Children's Wisconsin, 3-year-old Cleo and her sister Lennon had gene therapy surgery in July for genetic deafness. The therapy is FDA-approved, and the sisters are among the first children in the United States to receive it for this purpose. They are now responding to sounds, including a dog's bark and their mother humming.

That is what their family is seeing. It is not a result that every child will have. How long the change lasts is not yet known, and the report does not say the sisters now hear the way a typical ear does.

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