The dream of "biological hearing" is moving from the lab to the clinic. While hearing aids and cochlear implants have been the gold standard for decades, they only amplify or bypass sound. The new frontier is regenerative medicine, which aims to fix the root cause of hearing loss: the permanent destruction of sensory hair cells and auditory neurons in the inner ear. The standout player in early 2026 is Rinri Therapeutics, which has launched its first-in-human clinical trial (NCT07032038) for its