FRIEDREICH'S ATAXIA HEARING RESEARCH Submitted by: Raychel Bartek Scud@erols.com Bronya Keats, Ph.D.biombjk@lsumc.edu Dr. Bronya Keats is a pioneer geneticist at Louisiana State University Medical School who has been studying Friedreich's Ataxia for many years in the French/Acadian population of southern Louisiana. Additionally Dr. Keats studies genetic hearing loss and collaborates with the NIH Institute studying deafness. Dr. Keats would like to research FA patients suffering from hearing loss. Her preliminary findings suggest that a large number of FAers have difficulty hearing in noisy environments. In order to study this problem, she needs family and medical histories from affected individuals describing the type of hearing problem that they have. She'd be particularly interested in siblings who have FA and one or both has a hearing problem. Contact Dr. Keats if you would like to help in this important research. Bronya J. B. Keats, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biometry and Genetics Acting Director, Center for Molecular and Human Genetics Louisiana State University Medical Center 1901 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Tel.: 504-568-8088 Fax: 504-568-8500 e-mail: biombjk@lsumc.edu