Emma Hoskison combines her clinical career in Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) surgery with research into Otitis Media with Effusion (OME). Following undergraduate study at the University of Cambridge which included an MA in Neuroscience, University paediatric prize winner and surgical distinction, Emma is currently on the East Midlands ENT training programme. She is a Member of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and is currently undertaking an MPhil in ENT at the University of Nottingham. In addition to peer-reviewed publications and presentations, Emma’s work in the field of ENT has won prizes, including those awarded by the Royal Society of Medicine, the Midlands Institute of Otology and the ENT Masterclass.

Emma’s research has focused on developing in vivo models to test a new treatment for Otitis Media with Effusion (OME). Antibiotic pellets have been developed and tested in vitro on bacterial biofilms as a model for OME. Biofilms are organised groups of bacteria which are adherent to a surface, living in colonies and encased in an extracellular matrix scaffold. Biofilms have been shown in the middle ear of children with OME cause the bacteria to be recalcitrant to antibiotics. Therefore, systemic antibiotics lack efficacy when treating OME.