Gabrielle Merchant, AuD, PhD, came to Boys Town National Research Hospital (BTNRH) in 2018 after completing her PhD at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Audiology Doctorate (AuD) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Dr. Merchant is currently the director of the Translational Auditory Physiology and Perception Laboratory at BTNRH. Dr. Merchant combines her strong background in biomedical engineering with her clinical training in audiology to improve the tools that are available to improve the detection of ear infections and associated hearing loss in children.
Dr. Merchant received an initial startup investment from tobacco settlement funds of just over $600,000 that allowed her to establish her laboratory. Since
that time, Dr. Merchant has completed a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award that provided strong feasibility for her diagnostic approach for improving the diagnosis of hearing loss. Her
current federal funding portfolio is worth $8.7 million, including two NIH-funded grants and one grant from the Department of Defense. Dr. Merchant has filed four patents related to this research since joining BTNRH.
In one of her NIH-funded projects, Dr. Merchant
uses wideband acoustic immittance to noninvasively estimate the presence of fluid in the middle ear in children and to use those measures to predict the degree of hearing loss that may be related to the fluid.
This work will help improve outcomes for the millions
of children who experience ear infections in the U.S. each year by helping audiologists and physicians to determine the appropriate care pathway to minimize hearing loss and associated developmental delays. Her other NIH-funded research project is a collaboration with the University of Colorado and Creighton University to improve the diagnosis of hearing loss in people
with Down syndrome. People with Down syndrome experience frequent ear infections and associated hearing loss, and Dr. Merchant’s research will help to improve the timeliness of hearing care that they receive.
Dr. Merchant’s Department of Defense award aims
to develop a hearing test probe that could be used outside of clinical settings, including on the battlefield, to improve the timeliness of the detection of hearing problems for soldiers who may experience hearing loss related to combat or military service. Dr. Merchant’s work is translational in that all her work involves working with patient populations to improve outcomes and develop tools that can be used right now to help children and families across Nebraska.
Dr. Merchant received a 2024 Visionary Recognition from the American Speech Language Hearing Association and will receive the Early Career Researcher Award from the American Auditory Society in February 2025.