2005 Press Releases

Johns Hopkins Medicine Press Releases: 2005

12/23/05

MOLECULE FROM THE SEA KILLS CANCER CELLS BY BLOCKING FIRST STEP OF PROTEIN BUILDING
A natural chemical made by a New Zealand sea sponge exerts its deadly effects on cancer cells by preventing the cells' protein-building machinery from turning on, Johns Hopkins scientists report in the Dec. 9 issue of Molecular Cell.

12/23/05

A LITTLE TELOMERASE ISN'T ENOUGH
--Study links length of chromosome ends to a rare disease of stem cells
With seed money from Johns Hopkins Institute of Cell Engineering, a Johns Hopkins geneticist and her team have discovered a critical link between the health of stem cells and the length of the chromosome ends within them.

12/22/05

NEW NEURONS TAKE BABY STEPS IN THE ADULT BRAIN
In experiments with mice, scientists from Johns Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering have discovered the steps required to integrate new neurons into the brain's existing operations.

12/22/05

BLOCKING PREVIOUSLY UNRECOGNIZED LINKS BETWEEN INFLAMMATORY SYSTEMS COULD MAKE COX-2 INHIBITORS SAFER

---Link could have implications for developing other novel painkillers
A recently identified path of inflammation once thought to be wholly independent of other inflammatory systems has now been linked to another major pathway. The findings by neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins are likely to point scientists to novel drugs that significantly reduce the risks of taking COX-2 inhibitor pain relievers, the investigators report.

12/22/05

JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE NAMES D.J. HALDEMAN AS MARKETING AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS VICE PRESIDENT
-Health care marketing specialist set to begin in February
Dalal J. Haldeman, M.B.A., Ph.D., an experienced health care industry executive, and specialist in marketing, public relations and business development, is the new Vice President for Marketing and Corporate Communications for Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM)

12/21/05

Christmas Eve Caroling Under the Hopkins Dome, Billings Administration Building
In one of Baltimore’s oldest holiday traditions, the Memorial Baptist Church choir will gather under the Johns Hopkins dome on Christmas Eve to bring musical comfort and cheer to patients and visitors. The choir, with some members in wheelchairs, along with children and grandchildren of original choristers, will sing under the direction of Pastor Rhonda Coleman. The festivities will begin at 7 p.m. and then continue as the choir tours the hospital. Visitors are invited to join in the procession, which often includes off-duty physicians, nurses and staff.

12/21/05

REPORT: NEW VIEW OF CANCER: "EPIGENETIC" CHANGES COME BEFORE MUTATIONS
A Johns Hopkins researcher, with colleagues in Sweden and at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, suggests that the traditional view of cancer as a group of diseases with markedly different biological properties arising from a series of alterations within a cell's nuclear DNA may have to give way to a more complicated view. In the January issue of Nature Reviews Genetics, available online Dec. 21, he and his colleagues suggest that cancers instead begin with "epigenetic" alterations  to stem cells.

12/19/05

BLOCKING THE NERVE RECEPTOR EP1 IN MOUSE MODELS REDUCES BRAIN DAMAGE CAUSED BY STROKE
--- New approach offers alternative to COX-2 inhibiting drugs
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered how to block a molecular switch that triggers brain damage caused by the lack of oxygen during a stroke. The Hopkins study, conducted on mice, is believed to be the first to demonstrate that a protein on the surface of nerve cells called the EP1 receptor is the switch, and that a specific compound, known as ONO-8713, turns it off.

12/19/05

POPULAR ANTIDEPRESSANTS BOOST BRAIN GROWTH, HOPKINS SCIENTISTS REPORT
- Discovery in rodents may explain why some antidepressants require weeks of use before they work
The beneficial effects of a widely used class of antidepressants might be the result of increased nerve-fiber growth in key parts of the brain, according to a Johns Hopkins study being published in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry.

12/16/05

TRADITIONAL RISK-FACTOR SCORING MISSES ONE-THIRD OF WOMEN VULNERABLE TO CORONARY HEART DISEASE
-- Cardiac CT scans recommended for some groups of women
Traditional risk-factor scoring fails to identify approximately one-third of women likely to develop coronary heart disease (CHD), the leading cause of death of women in the United States, according to a pair of reports from cardiologists at Johns Hopkins.

12/14/05

GENE MUTATION FOUND THAT INCREASES SEVERITY OF MULTISYSTEM SYNDROME
--Discovery mirrors expectations for genetic complexity of common diseases
Johns Hopkins scientists studying a rare inherited syndrome marked by eye and kidney problems, learning disabilities and obesity have discovered a genetic mutation that makes the syndrome more severe but that alone doesn't cause it. Their report appears in the advance online edition of Nature (Dec. 4).

12/14/05

HOPKINS HEAD AND NECK SURGEON HONORED WITH ENDOWED CHAIR IN OTOLARYNGOLOGY-HEAD AND NECK SURGERY
Johns Hopkins throat cancer and vocal-cord specialist Paul Flint, M.D., an authority on robotic-surgery techniques for removing tumors in the airway and on the use of botulinum toxin to restore voice strength, will be formally named the first Charles W. Cummings, M.D., Professor at a ceremony today at 4 p.m. on the institution’s East Baltimore medical campus.

12/12/05

THE JOHNS HOPKINS URBAN HEALTH INSTITUTE STARTS NEW JOURNAL, PROGRESS IN COMMUNITY HEALTH PARTNERSHIPS: RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND ACTION
The Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute announced the launch of a national peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the work of community health partnerships. Called Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action, the new journal will address topics focusing on the growing field of community-based participatory research (CBPR) while promoting further collaboration and elevating the visibility and stature of CBPR in order to eliminate health disparities and improve health outcomes.

12/12/05

HOPKINS STUDY DESCRIBES POTENTIALLY FATAL HEART CONDITION AMONG YOUNG ATHLETES
-- Early diagnosis key to treatment that prevents sudden cardiac death

A Johns Hopkins study has provided the most comprehensive description to date of people most likely to develop a relatively rare heart condition, called arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD), known to be among the top causes of sudden cardiac death among young athletes.

12/8/05

INTERNATIONAL STUDY LAUNCHED AT JOHNS HOPKINS TO SEEK GENETIC ROOTS OF SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH
-- Gene-based screening tool could help identify those at risk
Heart specialists at the Johns Hopkins Heart Institute have been awarded more than $1.5 million from the France-based Leducq Foundation Trans-Atlantic Network of Excellence to study the genetic origins of sudden cardiac death. An estimated 1 million Americans or more die each year from sudden heart attacks, a third of them due to disturbingly fast and abnormal heartbeats that wreck the heart’s normal electrical rhythms.

12/8/05

MOUSE STUDY: NEW MUSCLE-BUILDING AGENT BEATS ALL PREVIOUS ONES
The Johns Hopkins scientists who first created "mighty mice" have developed, with pharmaceutical company Wyeth and the biotechnology firm MetaMorphix, an agent that's more effective at increasing muscle mass in mice than a related potential treatment for muscular dystrophy now in clinical trials.

12/7/05

JOHNS HOPKINS WELCH MEDICAL LIBRARY WINS GRANT TO ENCOURAGE MINORITY TEENS TO ENTER HEALTH INFORMATION CAREERS
The William H. Welch Medical Library of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was awarded a $639,746 grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services to develop, test and evaluate effective ways of introducing minority high school students to biomedical information careers.

12/6/05

HOPKINS TO HOST STUDENT NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (SNMA) REGION VI ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins University Chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) will host the 2005 SNMA Region VI annual conference on Dec. 10 on Hopkins’s East Baltimore medical campus. This year’s conference will focus on the causes and consequences of the shortage of minority men in the medical profession, as well as their historic contributions to medical knowledge and public health.

12/5/05

Johns Hopkins University to Lead New Homeland Security Center 
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced today the selection of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to lead a consortium studying how the nation can best prepare for and respond to potential large-scale incidents and disasters. The Department of Homeland Security anticipates providing JHU and its partners with a total of $15 million over the next three years.

12/5/05

MODIFIED ATKINS DIET EFFECTIVELY TREATS CHILDHOOD SEIZURES
-- Two-thirds of children benefited.

A modified version of a popular low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet is nearly as effective at controlling seizures as the highly restrictive ketogenic diet, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center researchers report.

12/2/05

IRON PARTICLES AND MRI COULD REPLACE BIOPSIES TO TRACK STEM CELL THERAPY AND DEPLOY STENTS, ANIMAL STUDIES SHOW
In a series of experiments in animals, researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully used a technique that tracks mesenchymal stem cells via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor the progress of the cells in repairing tissue scarred by heart attack. 

12/2/05

JOHNS HOPKINS STUDY SUGGESTS LINK BETWEEN CAFFEINE DEPENDENCE AND FAMILY HISTORY OF ALCOHOLISM
Genetic vulnerability likely in excessive caffeine use
A study led by Johns Hopkins investigators has shown that women with a serious caffeine habit and a family history of alcohol abuse are more likely to ignore advice to stop using caffeine during pregnancy.

12/1/05

HOPKINS STUDY PROVES COCHLEAR IMPLANTS PREVENT OR REVERSE DAMAGE TO BRAIN’S AUDITORY NERVE SYSTEM
-- Animal study advances call for early implants in children born deaf

New research at Johns Hopkins has clearly demonstrated the ability of cochlear implants in very young animals to forge normal nerve fibers that transmit sound and to restore hearing by reversing or preventing damage to the brain’s auditory system.

12/1/05

HOPKINS STUDY SHOWS 30-DAY SOFT CONTACT LENSES POSE VERY SMALL RISK OF VISION LOSS
A team of researchers led by the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute have determined that the corneal infection rate associated with the use of 30-day – extended-wear contact lenses made from silicone hydrogel is comparable to that previously reported for older lens types worn for fewer consecutive 24-hour periods

11/29/05

DENDRITIC CELLS OFFER NEW THERAPEUTIC TARGET FOR DRUGS TO TREAT MS AND OTHER AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have found that a gene pathway linked to a deadly form of leukemia may provide a new way to treat autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis.  Their tests in cell cultures and mice suggest that blocking the pathway by interfering with a blood cell growth gene, known as FLT3, targets an immune system cell often ignored in favor of T-cell targets in standard therapies.

11/21/05

STUDY BY HOPKINS RESEARCHERS REVEALS HOW CERTAIN CHEMICALS PRODUCED BY THE ENZYME COX-2 PROTECT THE BRAIN AGAINST CELL DAMAGE
-- Study could lead to better treatments for Alzheimer’s disease
A study by Johns Hopkins scientists has revealed that stimulating brain cell receptors for certain hormone-like chemicals in brain cells called prostaglandins can protect the cells from amyloid
?-peptide 42 (A?1-42), a compound that has been linked to brain cell death and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

11/18/05

MAGNETIC PROBE SUCCESSFULLY TRACKS IMPLANTED CELLS IN CANCER PATIENTS  
By using MRI to detect magnetic probes of tiny iron oxide particles, an international research team for the first time has successfully tracked immune-stimulating cells implanted into cancer patients for treatment purposes. The technique revealed that ultrasound guidance of the cells' injection failed in half the patients.

11/18/05

NEW DRUG TARGET IDENTIFIED FOR FIGHTING PARKINSON'S DISEASE
Researchers at Johns Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering (ICE) have discovered a protein that could be the best new target in the fight against Parkinson's disease since the brain-damaging condition was first tied to loss of the brain chemical dopamine.

11/16/05CONNECTIVE TISSUE CELLS FROM LUNGS FUSED WITH HEART MUSCLE TO FORM BIOLOGICAL PACEMAKER
In guinea pig experiments, Johns Hopkins scientists fused common connective tissue cells taken from lungs with heart muscle cells to create a safe and effective biological pacemaker whose cells can fire on their own and naturally regulate the muscle’s rhythmic beat.

11/16/05

American Federation for Aging Research Awards Highest Honor to Director of Geriatrics Division at Johns Hopkins
Linda Fried, M.D., M.P.H., professor of medicine and epidemiology and director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins, will receive the American Federation for Aging’s (AFAR) highest honor, the 2005 Irving Wright Award of Distinction. The award is for her "exceptional contributions to basic and clinical research or to the encouragement of such research in the field of aging." Fried becomes the organization’s 26th member honored with the award, which carries a cash prize of $1,500.
11/15/05

HEALTHY DIETS RICH IN PROTEIN AND GOOD FAT, AND LOWER IN CARBS LINKED TO BETTER HEART HEALTH
A healthy diet that replaces some carbohydrates with either protein or monounsaturated fat can substantially reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels, resulting in a substantial reduction in overall risk of heart disease, according to government-funded studies by researchers at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere.

11/15/05

EARLY RESULTS USING THERAPEUTIC PANCREATIC CANCER VACCINE SHOW PROMISE
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers are encouraged by early results of a treatment vaccine for pancreatic cancer, a disease with few options and low odds for long-term survival. At about two years into a study of 60 patients, the researchers report that 88 percent survived one year and 76 percent are alive after two years.

11/15/05

HOPKINS STUDY MAY CHANGE RULES FOR TREATING HEART FAILURE
-- Discovery suggests that some patients on beta blockers should not be
A Johns Hopkins study has raised doubts about a long-accepted notion of what’s going on in many cases of heart failure, suggesting that nearly half of patients with the disorder may be getting the wrong treatment for their disease.

11/15/05

DRUG COMPOUND RESTORES YOUTH TO AGING ARTERIAL CELLS IN ELDERLY HYPERTENSIVES, HOPKINS STUDY SHOWS
-- Stiff arteries relax like younger blood vessels after taking alagebrium
A compound called alagebrium, which is very similar to another used in anti-wrinkle creams, may be useful in reducing the deleterious effects of arterial aging in the majority of elderly Americans with systolic hypertension, a new study from researchers at Johns Hopkins shows.

11/14/05

CELLS DERIVED FROM HEART STEM CELLS CAN REPAIR HEART ATTACK DAMAGE
Stem cells derived from human heart tissue develop into multicellular, spherical structures called cardiospheres that express the normal properties of primitive heart tissue, smooth muscle and blood vessel cells, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

11/13/05

HEART MAPPING TECHNIQUE SAFELY GUIDES CATHETER REPAIR OF ARRHYTHMIA
In experiments with dogs, Johns Hopkins researchers successfully used a 3D map of the heart and sensor-guided catheter to perform cardiac ablation, a mainstay treatment that stops abnormally fast and potentially fatal heartbeats, or arrhythmias.

11/10/05

JOHNS HOPKINS COMMUNITY PHYSICIANS GET AWARD FOR SAFE MEDICATION PRACTICES
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has named Johns Hopkins Community Physicians (JHCP) a winner of its eighth annual Cheers Awards. According to ISMP, the award is given each year to organizations that “have set a superlative standard of excellence for others to follow in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events.”

11/10/05

MENTAL ILLNESS EXACTS "ENORMOUS TOLL" FOR U.S. BUSINESSES AND INSTITUTIONS, HOPKINS PSYCHIATRIST FINDS
--Study links worker depression and anxiety to office-wide morale and productivity problems
A study led by a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine psychiatrist highlights the toll anxiety and depressive disorders exact on workplace performance and profits and points to employer-guaranteed specialized psychiatric care as both cost effective and humane.

11/9/05

JOHNS HOPKINS FLU EXPERT CALLS FOR MANDATORY VACCINATION OF HEALTH CARE WORKERS
Johns Hopkins’ senior hospital epidemiologist and flu expert is calling for mandatory vaccination of all health care workers as the best means of protecting patients and hospital staff from widespread outbreaks of the viral illness. Studies by other United States researchers show that voluntary vaccination programs don’t do the job and that each year, nearly 40,000 Americans die from influenza, many of them elderly or ill, with weakened immune systems that cannot readily fend off the disease.

11/9/05

HOPKINS STUDY FINDS NO “COGNITIVE DECLINE” AFTER USE OF HEART-LUNG MACHINE DURING BYPASS SURGERY 
-- Controlled study should reassure patients

The use of a cardiopulmonary heart pump during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery does not significantly damage such high-level mental tasks as thinking, reasoning and remembering, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers recently published in Neurology.

11/8/05

HOPKINS RADIOLOGISTS DOMINATE IN ANNUAL "MINNIE" AWARDS
The Johns Hopkins Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and its physicians swept the 2005 AuntMinnie.com "Minnie" awards for excellence in radiology, winning five of the relevant seven categories.

11/7/05

SOME OUTGROW ALLERGY TO TREE NUTS, JOHNS HOPKINS CHILDREN’S CENTER EXPERTS REPORT
Nine percent of children allergic to almonds, pecans, cashews and other tree nuts outgrow their allergy over time, including those who’ve had a severe reaction such as anaphylaxis shock, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center

11/7/05

NOV. 11 EVENT CELEBRATES A CENTURY OF BRAIN SCIENCE AT JOHNS HOPKINS
Media are invited to attend the Nov. 11 symposium "Discovery and Hope: A Celebration of Brain Science," featuring two Nobel laureates and a host of other top neuroscientists from around the country, at Turner Auditorium at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore. The daylong symposium will begin at 8 a.m.

11/4/05

CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AT THE CLINICAL INTERFACE TO BE HELD AT JOHNS HOPKINS NOV. 13-15, 2005
The application of point-of-care information technology in the clinical setting and its impacts on health care delivery will be the focus of a conference to be held at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Nov. 13-14, 2005.

11/3/05

JOHNS HOPKINS CELEBRATES ITS FIRST CENTURY OF NEUROSCIENCE
--Solomon Snyder, the neuroscience department's first and only director, leads a symposium and celebration that looks back at historic discoveries at Hopkins and looks ahead to what's coming next in the brain sciences.
What's in a name? At Johns Hopkins, a formal Department of Neuroscience was founded 25 years ago, but the institution's contributions to understanding and studying the brain started three quarters of a century before that, in 1906.

11/3/05

Stem Cell Research 101: The Science, Ethics and Politics of Stem Cell Research
A one-day primer sponsored by The Johns Hopkins University for policymakers, journalists and citizens interested in stem cell research. Topics include the latest developments in both laboratories and legislatures and the debate over ethical issues.

11/1/05

CHARACTERISTIC CARDIAC SCAR PATTERN PREDICTS RISK OF FATAL ARRHYTHMIAS
-- Pattern could also help rule out need for defibrillators in other patients
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the heart wall, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that people whose muscle wall thickness contained more than 25 percent scar tissue were approximately nine times more likely to test positive for a fast and dangerous heart rhythm known as ventricular arrhythmia.

10/31/05

JOHNS HOPKINS DEPARTMENT OF NEUROLOGY PLANS SYMPOSIUM MARKING 35 YEARS OF DISCOVERY AND CLINICAL CARE
Symposium part of weekend of celebration of Neurosciences
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology will mark its 35th anniversary and a long tradition of rigorous science-based approaches to treating neurological disorders with a scientific symposium Nov. 10.

10/27/05

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE CELEBRATES RECORD PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN FULL PROFESSORS
----"More to come," says vice dean for faculty
On Nov. 1, 2005, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will celebrate the milestone of having promoted more than 100 women to full professorships at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The celebration, scheduled to begin in the Turner Auditorium on campus at 7:45 a.m., will include a symposium featuring 2004 Nobel Laureate Linda Buck Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Washington, Seattle, as keynote speaker. Also featured are Hopkins faculty member Catherine DeAngelis, M.D, editor in chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association; Cokie Roberts of ABC News and more than a dozen of Johns Hopkins’ leading women physicians and scientists.

10/27/05

MEDICAL NEWS TIPS
News tips based on Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center presentations made at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology 47th Annual Meeting October 16-20, 2005, in Denver, Colorado.

10/26/05

JOHNS HOPKINS ESTABLISHES CENTER FOR CLINICAL GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION
Center Will Train Health Care Professionals in Resource-Limited Settings
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has established a new center designed to provide clinical training to health care providers in parts of the world where resources and infrastructure are limited or lacking. Called the Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE), the new operation aims to use advanced telemedicine technology and Hopkins experts to provide clinical training to health care workers around the world in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

10/26/05JOHNS HOPKINS MOOD DISORDER CENTER TO HOST EXPERTS ON DEPRESSION AND BIPOLAR DISORDERS
The Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center, a newly organized entity in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is presenting a panel of prominent faculty to discuss the latest research and clinical findings on depression and bipolar disorders. The discussion will take place in the David Mahoney Forum of the Dana Center located at 900 15th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., on Nov. 1 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
10/25/05

VIAGRA BLUNTS EFFECTS OF STRESS ON THE HUMAN HEART
Sildenafil citrate (Viagra), a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) in millions of men, reduces the stimulatory effects of hormonal stress on the heart by half, according to results of a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins. 

10/24/05

HOPKINS EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN APPOINTED TO NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
Johns Hopkins emergency medicine specialist Gabor Kelen, M.D., has today been elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. Kelen, a professor and chair of emergency medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was named to the IOM along with 63 other accomplished physicians and scientists from across the country.

10/21/05

STEM CELLS’ ELECTRIC ABILITIES MIGHT HELP THEIR SAFE CLINICAL USE
Researchers from Johns Hopkins have discovered the presence of functional ion channels in human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). These ion channels act like electrical wires and permit ESCs, versatile cells that possess the unique ability to become all cell types of the body, to conduct and pass along electric currents.

10/20/05

COMMUNITY CENTER TO PROVIDE HOPKINS H.E.A.L.T.H SERVICES TO EAST BALTIMORE RESIDENTS
The Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute and its partner organizations will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony, tour and health fair to celebrate the grand opening of the Johns Hopkins Center for Community Health Education, Advocacy, Leadership and Training at Hopkins (HEALTH) Center. The center helps underserved area residents without health insurance in getting access to health care and health education.

10/20/05

Johns Hopkins’ 11th annual "A Woman’s Journey" symposium slated for Nov. 12.
Catherine DeAngelis, M.D., former Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine vice dean for academic affairs and the first woman editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association will give the keynote address to kick off Johns Hopkins Medicine’s 11th annual symposium on women’s health and medical issues. This year’s A Woman’s Journey will be held Saturday, Nov. 12, from 8:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, 700 Aliceanna St. Nearly 1,000 attendees from more than a dozen states are expected to attend.

10/19/05

HOPKINS EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN WARNS OF POST-HURRICANE DISEASE AND ILLNESS
-- Improved public health system best means of stemming effects from future disasters
A Johns Hopkins emergency physician who spent the past five weeks working on public health issues in the Gulf Coast region following hurricane Katrina warns that the disaster’s potential for wreaking havoc and damage to people’s health may continue for months after the hurricane has passed.

10/19/05

Wilmer Eye Institute Named Top Program by Ophthalmology Times 10th Consecutive Time
For the 10th year running, the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins has been named the best overall ophthalmology program in the country by Ophthalmology Times. The publication’s rankings, which appear in the Oct. 15 issue, were compiled from a poll of ophthalmology department chairmen and directors of residency programs across the United States.

10/19/05

CEPAR Sends Emergency Medical Team to Pakistan
At the request of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) and Hopkins’s Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Refugee and Disaster Response have sent a team of two physicians and a nurse to Pakistan to assess long-term health needs and provide clinical care in the wake of the devastating earthquake there.

10/18/05

JOHNS HOPKINS URBAN HEALTH INSTITUTE TO CELEBRATE GRAND OPENING OF COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
The Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute and its partner organizations will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony, tour and health fair to celebrate the grand opening of the Johns Hopkins Center for Community Health Education, Advocacy, Leadership and Training at Hopkins (HEALTH) Center.  The center helps underserved area residents without health insurance in getting access to health care and health education.

10/18/05

ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUGS LINKED TO INCREASED RISK OF DEATH FOR SOME ELDERLY ALZHEIMER’S PATIENTS
--Hopkins psychiatrists suggest alternative treatments.
Some newer antipsychotic medications may be associated with a small increased risk of death when used to treat elderly dementia patients, psychiatrists at Johns Hopkins warn.

10/17/05

HOPKINS SCIENTIST TO DIRECT INTERNATIONAL STUDIES OF ANTIBIOTIC AS NEW TREATMENT FOR TUBERCULOSIS
-- If successful, moxifloxacin could be first new treatment for TB in more than 40 years
A Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert will lead two international studies of the effectiveness of the antibiotic moxifloxacin as a new treatment for tuberculosis, the highly contagious bacterial disease that kills more than 2 million people worldwide each year and is the leading cause of death of people living with HIV and AIDS. Moxifloxacin is currently approved in more than 100 countries, including the United States, as a treatment for bacterial respiratory infections, such as bronchitis, sinusitis and pneumonia.

10/13/05

HOPKINS MEDICAL CAMPUS TAKES FIRST STEP IN MASSIVE CAMPUS REDEVELOPMENT
On October 14, 2005, thousands of employees and many patients and visitors coming to the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore medical campus will need to park their vehicles in new locations to make way for the major phase of the massive reconstruction of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

10/12/05

Institute Taps Computer Power to Advance Medical Research

The Institute for Computational Medicine, launched today at The Johns Hopkins University, will address important health problems by using powerful information management and computing technologies to produce a better understanding of the origins of human disease. Institute researchers plan to use this approach to identify disease in its earliest stage and to look for new ways to treat illnesses.

10/11/05

JOHNS HOPKINS’ RESIDENT SWIMS CATALINA CHANNEL TO RAISE MONEY FOR CANCER RESEARCH
Johns Hopkins surgical resident Peter Attia this afternoon completed his swim of the Catalina Channel, a 26-mile stretch from Catalina Island to Point Vicente in Los Angeles, in less than 11 hours.  According to his wife, Jill Attia, “Peter looks great and is in good spirits.  I am so proud of him.”

10/04/05

HOPKINS STUDY SHOWS LIVING KIDNEY "PAIRED DONATION" AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY IN OVERCOMING DONOR-RECIPIENT INCOMPATIBLITIES
A Johns Hopkins study has affirmed the success of living kidney "paired donation" (KPD) as a means of efficiently finding more kidney donors who are a match for patients in need.

9/29/05

NATIONAL FUNDING GOES TO JOHNS HOPKINS TO ADVANCE RESEARCH ON STEM CELL THERAPIES FOR HEART ATTACK
One of only three sites funded
Heart specialists at Johns Hopkins Heart Institute have been awarded more than $12 million from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to study how stem cell therapies can be used to treat hearts damaged by heart attack or heart failure.

9/29/05

JOHNS HOPKINS HOSTS 2005 ANNUAL FALL MEETING OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING SOCIETY 
An international organization of biomedical, electrical, chemical and mechanical engineers and medical specialists will discuss the future of biomedical engineering during the 2005 fall meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), to be held in Baltimore Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 and hosted by Johns Hopkins. The conference, “The Changing Face of Biomedical Engineering – Celebration of the Whitaker Foundation,” will be held in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Baltimore.

9/26/05

The Johns Hopkins Hospital Named Consumer Choice Winner for 10th Straight Year
For the tenth straight year, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has received the Consumer Choice Award for the Baltimore region from the National Research Corporation (NRC).

9/26/05

CANCER DRUG MIGHT HELP KIDS WITH FATAL "AGING" SYNDROME
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a drug currently being tested against cancers might help children with a rare, fatal condition called Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, which causes rapid, premature aging.

9/26/05

PHYSICIANS ILL-PREPARED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT BIOTERRORISM DISEASES
Online Training Can Greatly Improve Physician Readiness
More than one-half of 631 physicians tested were unable to correctly diagnose diseases caused by agents most likely to be used by bioterrorists, such as smallpox, anthrax, botulism and plague, according to a Johns Hopkins study published in the Sept. 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

9/22/05

HOPKINS GENETICIST DISCOVERS MUTATIONS IN CANCER CELLS THAT SUGGEST NEW FORMS OF TREATMENT
Researchers at Johns Hopkins and J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., helped identify three new genetic mutations in brain tumors, a discovery that could pave the way for more effective cancer treatments.

9/22/05

JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS DISCOVER KEY PROTEIN LINKED TO TRANSVERSE MYELITIS AND MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
Hopkins researchers have discovered a single molecule that is a cause of an autoimmune disease in the central nervous system, called transverse myelitis (TM), that is related to multiple sclerosis.

9/22/05

HOPKINS SCIENTISTS UNCOVER "TAGS" THAT FORCE PROTEINS TO CELL SURFACE
--Discovery likely to streamline drug and vaccine development--
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered internal "shipping labels" that allow -- and perhaps force -- hundreds if not thousands of proteins to get to the surface of cells and stay there. Two natural proteins that use one of these "tags" are the ion channel that lets heart cells contract on cue, and the docking point that allows HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, into cells, the researchers discovered.

9/21/05

HOPKINS EXPERTS HIGHLIGHT STRATEGIES FOR PEOPLE TO RAISE THEIR LEVELS OF SO-CALLED GOOD HDL CHOLESTEROL
-- HDL cholesterol helps prevent blocked arteries and heart attack
Cardiology experts at Johns Hopkins have issued interim guidelines for physicians on how best to treat low levels of HDL cholesterol, the so-called good cholesterol, which helps keep arteries clear from the buildup of LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol.  More than 54 million Americans are estimated to need higher levels of HDL, according to the American Heart Association.

9/20/05

BEST DRESSED SALE SET FOR SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 2
Some Baltimore traditions just keep getting bigger and better. That's certainly the case with this year's Johns Hopkins Best Dressed Sale and Boutique 2005.  Exclusive designer dresses and shoes, chic contemporary fashions, classic accessories and enduring vintage clothing will be on the racks, waiting for a favored place in the closets of bargain-conscious – but demanding - shoppers.

9/20/05

JOHNS HOPKINS HEALTH SYSTEM TO GRADUATE 77 EMPLOYEES AS PART OF PROJECT REACH PROGRAM
The Johns Hopkins Health System and Hospital will hold a graduation ceremony this Thursday, Sept. 22, at 1 p.m. in Hurd Hall for 77 graduates of Project REACH (Resources and Education for the Advancement of Careers at Hopkins.)

9/20/05

SUGAR HELPS CONTROL CELL DIVISION
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a deceptively simple sugar is in fact a critical regulator of cells' natural life cycle.

9/19/05

GRASMICKS CONTRIBUTE SECOND $1 MILLION GIFT TO HOPKINS HEART INSTITUTE
When you find something you really believe in, you want to do everything in your power to help it succeed, said Lou Grasmick, founder and CEO of Louis J. Grasmick Lumber Company Inc., after he and his wife, Nancy, made their second $1 million gift within two years to the Johns Hopkins Heart Institute. The more involved we become with Johns Hopkins the more impressed we become. This heart center continues to make strides in research and patient care that will give hope to people with heart disease, people who may not have had hope in the past. If our gifts can assist with this effort, then we are happy to provide them
9/19/05

AT JOHNS HOPKINS: EMPHASIS ON IMPROVED CARE AND FASTER 
ACCESS TO SERVICES SHORTENS HOSPITAL STAYS

-- Key is careful planning; financial resources conserved as well,
hospital program shows

Physicians at The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) have disproved
the notion that longer hospital stays mean better care.  They
have successfully cut back on wait times across one dozen hospital
departments and, as a result, reduced to well below six the average
number of days patients with congestive heart failure, a need for
dialysis or surgery, and many other conditions must spend in the
hospital.
 

9/16/05

HOPKINS MEDICAL TEAM LEAVES SEP. 16 TO RELIEVE GROUP DEPLOYED NEAR NEW ORLEANS
The Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) is sending a new 16-member medical team to Jefferson Parish, La., Saturday, Sept. 17, to relieve the 12-member Hopkins group that has been providing emergency care there for nearly two weeks.

9/16/05

DIGITAL MAMMOGRAPHY BETTER AT FINDING CANCER IN YOUNG WOMEN
A study of 42,760 women at 33 sites across the United States and Canada, including Johns Hopkins, found that digital mammography is better than standard X-ray mammography at locating cancer in young women and those with dense breast. The study, one of the largest breast cancer screening studies ever performed, was conducted by the American College of Radiology, funded by the National Cancer Institute, and reported September 16, 2005 in a special online publication of the New England Journal of Medicine.

9/15/05

PREVENT PROSTATE CANCER WITH ANTIOXIDANTS? GENE PATHWAY MAY REVEAL MORE CLUES
Scientists from Maryland and New Jersey have identified a molecular pathway in mice that makes prostate cells vulnerable to cancer-causing oxygen damage. The pathway, which is also involved in human prostate cancer, may help determine how and whether antioxidants, such as certain vitamins or their products that reverse the damage, can prevent prostate cancer.

9/13/05

EXERCISE STRESS TESTING HELPS IDENTIFY PEOPLE AT RISK OF DEVELOPING CORONARY HEART DISEASE
Performing cardiac stress tests that measure exercise capacity and heart rate recovery can improve dramatically on existing techniques that predict who is most likely to suffer a heart attack or die from coronary heart disease (CHD), the leading cause of death in the United States, a team of cardiologists at Johns Hopkins reports.

9/12/05

PSA REMAINS BEST INDICATOR OF PROSTATE CANCER PROGRESSION 
Despite recent claims by some urologists that measuring the blood protein prostate-specific antigen (PSA) may not be effective in predicting risk of prostate cancer, a Johns Hopkins study of more than 2,000 men confirms that PSA remains the best measure of the likelihood of cancer recurrence after surgery.

9/12/05

A FRIENDLY REMINDER FOR HIV PATIENTS
In a study from Johns Hopkins, a pocket-size device giving electronic-voice reminders to “take your medicine” proves to be a success for people living with HIV whose memory is slightly impaired by the virus.

9/09/05

BLOOD TEST FOR COLON CANCER RISK TO BE GOAL OF HOPKINS PROJECT
An interdisciplinary team of scientists from Johns Hopkins and elsewhere has been selected to receive a $2.25 million, five-year grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to develop a practical test to predict a person's risk of colon cancer by looking for a particular biological marker in the blood.

9/08/05

JOHNS HOPKINS LAUNCHES STUDY TO DETERMINE IF HEART ANGIOPLASTY IS SAFE IN COMMUNITY HOSPITALS
Cardiologists at Johns Hopkins have launched a nationwide study of more than 16,000 patients to see if a potentially life-saving procedure called angioplasty can be safely performed in smaller, community hospitals, easing access to the therapy for patients.  Researchers expect to enroll the first study patients in early fall 2005. 

9/06/05

RESEARCH SHOWS WHERE BRAIN INTERPRETS “PITCH”
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a discrete region of the monkey brain that processes pitch, the relative high and low points of sound, by recognizing a single musical note played by different instruments.

9/05/05

HOPKINS RESEARCHERS DEVELOP NEW WAY TO TRACK MIGRATION OF STEM CELLS USED TO TREAT DAMAGED HEARTS
A team of scientists from the Johns Hopkins Department of Radiology and Institute of Cell Engineering has used a non-invasive imaging technique, called SPECT/CT, to successfully trace stem cells' destinations after being injected into the body to treat animal hearts damaged by myocardial infarction, or heart attack.

9/04/05

EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS ACCRUE GENETIC CHANGES
An international team of researchers has discovered that human embryonic stem cell lines accumulate changes in their genetic material over time.

9/03/05

First Group of Hopkins Medical Experts Heads to Gulf Coast 

9/02/05

BALTIMORE GIRL WITH JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS TOHELP KIDS LIKE HER -Focus is on blindness as a complication-

Efforts to fight or find cures for adults’ life-threatening or life-altering diseases are many and noble:  marathon runs, marches, bracelets and expensive gatherings for adults.

8/31/05

TRANSPLANT REJECTION DRUG HOLDS PROMISE FOR INFLAMMATORY EYE DISEASE       
The immunosuppressive drug mycophenolate mofetil, used to prevent rejection of transplanted hearts, kidneys and livers, may also be effective in controlling inflammatory eye diseases, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins’ Wilmer Eye Institute.

8/31/05

PATIENTS TREATED WITH RESPECT MORE LIKELY TO FOLLOW MEDICAL ADVICE 
Attention doctors: Want patients to follow your advice? Treat them with dignity, a Johns Hopkins study has found.

8/31/05

COCHLEAR IMPLANTS’ PERFORMANCE NOT AFFECTED BY AMOUNT OF HEARING LOSS IN THE IMPLANTED EAR 
Hearing-impaired individuals with severe to profound hearing loss and poor speech understanding who possess some residual hearing in one ear may experience significant communication benefit from a cochlear implant even if it is placed in the worse-hearing ear, a Johns Hopkins study suggests.

8/30/05

RAGWEED ALLERGIES NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT
-- Johns Hopkins Allergist Available to Discuss Surviving Ragweed Season
 
Now that spring allergy victims are finally feeling relief from the diminishing tree and grass pollen, along comes the start of the ragweed pollen season, promising new challenges and miserable rounds of sneezing, and itchy, watery eyes for the more than 36 million Americans who have hay fever.

8/23/05

SCIENTISTS FOCUS ON “DWARF EYE”
--Genetic finding may have implications for farsightedness and nearsightedness, too 

Working with an Amish-Mennonite family tree, Johns Hopkins researchers at he Wilmer Eye Institute have discovered what appears to be the first human gene mutation that causes extreme farsightedness.

8/22/05

MRI USED TO MAP “SILENT” HEART CHANGES THAT “REMODEL” THE HEART
- Changes in heart mass and volume linked to early signs of left ventricle problems

Using magnetic resonance imaging technology, or MRI, to tag the work of millions of individual strands of heart muscle fibers, researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully mapped the smallest deformations inside the beating hearts of 441 middle-aged and elderly men and women who have either silently developed heart disease or remained healthy.  The novel use of the MRI allowed the researchers to create a gridlike, three-dimensional, computer image of each heart and track gradual deformations during each heartbeat. 

8/15/05

DUAL-DRUG THERAPY TARGETS ONE COLON CANCER GENE
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have found that interferon, used for 30 years to treat blood cancers, multiple sclerosis and hepatitis, selectively kills colon cancer cells when combined with another standard chemotherapy agent. New studies in cell lines suggest that the combination tactic, which targets a common gene pathway in colon cancer cells, could be more potent than either drug alone, and has fewer side effects.

8/11/05

PROTEIN LINKED TO GROWTH OF ORGANS AND CANCER
Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a protein in fruit flies whose counterpart product in humans may help cause cancer

8/10/05

INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT WARNS OF SPREAD OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPOTTED FEVER
-- Hopkins scientist believes that physician awareness is needed to combat emerging infectious diseases

An infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins who has spent nearly three decades studying the life-threatening, tick-borne infection known as Rocky Mountain spotted fever warns that the first widespread outbreak of the bacterial disease in Arizona is a growing and dangerous sign of how humans can inadvertently help spread infectious organisms beyond traditional state boundaries.  

8/10/05

The Eye Site Exhibit Tour
THE EYE SITE-the National Eye Institute’s traveling exhibit on low vision-will open at White Marsh Mall in Baltimore, Maryland on Saturday, August 13. THE EYE SITE, which provides information on low vision in English and Spanish, features five kiosks with an interactive multimedia touchscreen program, a display of assistive devices, and a list of local low vision resources. The exhibit, which will be located at White Marsh Mall in Center Court, is free and open to the public during all mall business hours

8/9/05

CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES MAY NOT APPLY TO OLDER PATIENTS WITH SEVERAL CHRONIC ILLNESSES
-- Many focus on one disease and exclude coexisting conditions -
Results of a Johns Hopkins study suggests that doctors who follow current clinical practice guidelines when caring for an older person with multiple conditions may yield an overly complicated health regimen for the patient, or potentially harmful drug interactions.

8/9/05

CAUSE OF DIABETES-RELATED ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION IS CLARIFIED BY JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS
A new study from the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins suggests an over-supply of a simple blood sugar could be a major cause of erectile dysfunction in diabetic men.

8/8/05

HOPKINS RESEARCHERS USE DIFFUSION MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING TECHNIQUE TO MONITOR ULTRASOUND UTERINE FIBROID TREATMENT
Johns Hopkins researchers have, for what is believed to be the first time, used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique called diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI), a technique that images the movement, or diffusion, of water molecules in tissues, to successfully determine the effectiveness of high-intensity focused ultrasound for treating uterine fibroids. Uterine fibroids are noncancerous tumors that line the uterine wall and can cause intense pain and bleeding.  The study appears in the July edition of Radiology.

8/5/05

NEW TECHNOLOGY SHOWS OUR ANCESTORS ATE…EVERYTHING!
Using a powerful microscope and computer software, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins, the University of Arkansas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and elsewhere has developed a faster and more objective way to examine the surfaces of fossilized teeth, a practice used to figure out the diets of our early ancestors.

8/4/05

HOPKINS’ CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE OFFERS NEW ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMS FOR PATIENTS
Johns Hopkins will now offer selected, evidence-based alternative medicine services, including acupuncture, a mind-body program and a consultation service, through the Johns Hopkins Center for Integrative Medicine (CIM). The program is designed to fill a void for those who wish to explore proven alternative therapies not offered by conventional health care providers.

8/3/05

BAKER TO HEAD JHM BOARD OF VISITORS

Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., who recently completed a three-year term as chairman of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Board of Trustees, has been named chairman of the JHM Board of Visitors. This external committee, composed of 40 friends of Hopkins Medicine, serves as an advisory council to the Dean/CEO and focuses its efforts on defining ways to enhance future development.

8/2/05

FORD TO OVERSEE CLINICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT HOPKINS 
Daniel E. Ford, M.D., M.P.H., has been named vice dean for clinical investigation at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A professor at both the School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, Ford will replace Michael Klag, M.D., M.P.H., who will become dean of the Bloomberg School in September

8/1/05

DIALYSIS TREATMENT CHOICE AFFECTS RISK OF DEATH IN PATIENTS WITH END-STAGE KIDNEY DISEASE
-- CHOICE study finds risk of death increases with peritoneal dialysis over hemodialysis
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that in people with end-stage kidney disease (ESRD), choosing peritoneal dialysis over hemodialysis increases their risk of dying by 50 percent.

7/29/05

JOHNS HOPKINS CELEBRATES BALTIMORE’S MINORITY HEROES
African-American artists, transplant recipients, donors and healthcare workers will celebrate National Minority Donor Awareness Day though music, dance and film during an open house hosted by The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Comprehensive Transplant Center on Monday, Aug. 1 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Turner Concourse, 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, Md.

7/27/05

Hellmann Appointed New Vice Dean for Hopkins Bayview
David B. Hellmann, M.D., M.A.C.P., a nationally renowned rheumatologist and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, has been named the Hopkins School of Medicine’s vice dean for the Hopkins Bayview Campus.

7/26/05

STUDY: WELL-KNOWN PROTEIN HELPS STEM CELLS BECOME SECRETORY CELLS
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that a single protein regulates secretion levels in the fruit fly’s salivary gland and its skin-like outer layer.

7/26/05

HOPKINS RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY RISK FACTORS FOR PREDICTION OF LETHAL PROSTATE CANCER AFTER RECURRENCE FOLLOWING SURGERY
--Information helps determine candidates for more aggressive treatment
Researchers at Johns Hopkins and The Brady Urological Institute have identified three risk factors and developed a simple reference tool that doctors can use to determine who is at high risk of death after prostate cancer recurrence following surgery.  The new tool - a set of tables that assess a combination of blood tests, the surgical pathology results and time following surgery - can be used to tell which men with recurring cancer after surgery are most likely to die from their renewed disease and would benefit from further treatment.

7/25/05STEM CELL THERAPY SUCCESSFULLY TREATS HEART ATTACK IN ANIMALS
-- Two patients enrolled in Phase I clinical trials at Hopkins
Final results of a study conducted at Johns Hopkins show that stem cell therapy can be used effectively to treat heart attacks, or myocardial infarction, in pigs.  In just two months, stem cells harvested from another pig’s bone marrow and injected into the animal’s damaged heart restored heart function and repaired damaged heart muscle by 50 percent to 75 percent. 

7/22/05

RUM TO HEAD HOPKINS MEDICINE DEVELOPMENT, ALUMNI RELATIONS
Steven A. Rum will lead Development and Alumni Relations for Johns Hopkins Medicine, effective  September 1.  Currently Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Affairs at the Duke University Medical Center, his title at Johns Hopkins, where development is coordinated enterprise-wide, will be Senior Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations for Medicine.

7/21/05

Pediatric Cardiologist Langford Kidd Dies
Professor emeritus of pediatrics Langford Kidd, M.D., died suddenly on July 19, 2005. He was 74.

7/18/05

HOPKINS’ WORKFORCE HEALTH INITIATIVE WINS GRANT
The Andrew Family Charitable Foundation Inc. has awarded $150,000 to the Johns Hopkins Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine to fund an initiative aimed at reducing the incidence of illnesses and injuries in health care workers and patients.

7/14/05

EXPERTS DISCUSS USE OF HUMAN STEM CELLS IN APE AND MONKEY BRAINS
--Panel publishes recommendations to minimize risk of altering animals' "moral status"
An expert panel of stem cell scientists, primatologists, philosophers and lawyers has concluded that experiments implanting, or grafting, human stem cells into non-human primate brains could unintentionally shift the moral ground between humans and other primates. Writing in the July 15 issue of Science, the panel reports its recommendations for minimizing the chances that experiments with human stem cells could change the cognitive and emotional capabilities -- and hence the "moral status" -- of the animals.

7/12/05

STUDY: NOSE DOESN'T SMELL LIKE THE EYES SEE
Johns Hopkins scientists have uncovered new details of how smelly things create signals in the nose that eventually go to the brain. The findings raise issues about how the process involved has been described for many years in biology textbooks.

7/8/05

THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL TOPS U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT’S "HONOR ROLL" 15TH YEAR IN A ROW
For the 15th consecutive year, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has topped U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of American hospitals.

7/7/05

 CANCER GENE CONTROLS NERVE CELL DEATH IN HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a gene well known for its role in promoting cancer also helps cause nerve cell death in Huntington's disease, a fatal disease in which specific brain cells gradually die.

7/7/05

Peterson Re-elected MHA Officer
Ronald Peterson, president of The Johns Hopkins Health System and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, was re-elected vice chair of the Maryland Hospital Association’s (MHA) Board at the association’s annual meeting on June 14.  Peterson’s term of office began July 1. 

7/1/05

JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS UNCOVER CLUES TO “DISAPPEARING” PRECANCERS
May provide better targets for cervical cancer vaccine development
New research sheds light on why cervical precancers disappear in some women and not in others. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research that the reason many of these lesions persist is an unlikely mix of human papilloma virus (HPV) strain and a woman’s individual immune system.

6/30/05

New Members Elected to Johns Hopkins Medicine Board of Trustees
A collateral descendant of Johns Hopkins himself is among seven new members of the board of Johns Hopkins Medicine, elected along with leaders in the banking, real estate, public affairs and technology fields.

6/30/05

Hopkins to Publish Print Edition of Johns Hopkins Antibiotics (ABX) Guide
The Johns Hopkins Point of Care-Information Technology (POC-IT) Center is teaming with Thomson PDR to publish, market and distribute the first print edition of the Johns Hopkins Antibiotics (ABX) Guide, currently available to 280,000 physicians and other users via the World Wide Web and handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) devices. PDR, a part of the Thomson Corporation (NYSE:TOC; TSX:TOC), is a customer-focused company known for combining authoritative medical content with integrated information solutions for physicians, researchers and other health care professionals worldwide.

6/28/05

NERVES' GROWTH DEPENDS ON "DUAL-ACTION" PROTEIN
--Finding is important step toward efforts to regrow damaged nerves
By studying nerves in "pre-tadpole" frogs, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering have uncovered the first link between two key biological factors that guide growing nerves.

6/28/05

JOHNS HOPKINS AIDS EXPERTS ISSUE WARNING ABOUT GLOBAL EFFORTS TO PROVIDE DRUG THERAPIES IN DEVELOPING WORLD
-- Historical precedents show aid programs could backfire unless local rationing plans are made
Johns Hopkins infectious disease specialists who have spent more than two decades leading efforts to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide are warning that limited international relief supplies of antiretroviral therapies currently being distributed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean will not get to those who can least afford to pay for them. 

6/28/05

TIPS FROM A JOHNS HOPKINS OPHTHALMOLOGIST TO PREVENT EYE INJURIES THIS FOURTH OF JULY HOLIDAY
Fireworks are a Fourth of July tradition to celebrate Independence Day and so are the injuries they cause.  More than 50 percent of all fireworks-related ocular injuries occur around the Fourth of July holiday, and approximately 12,000 Americans are admitted to emergency rooms every year for fireworks-related injuries, according to the United States Eye Injury Registry (USEIR).  Almost half of those injured are bystanders, and nearly 400 patients lose vision in one or both eyes because of their injuries, the USEIR reports.

6/23/05

JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS USE GENE THERAPY TO PREVENT HEART ARRHYTHMIAS FROM STEM CELL TRANSPLANTS
Heart specialists at Johns Hopkins believe they have figured a way around a persistent barrier to successful adult stem cell therapy for millions of Americans who have survived a heart attack but remain at risk of dying from chronic heart failure. 

6/22/05

Special National Accreditation Awarded to Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs Inc. (AAHRPP) recently awarded full accreditation to Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions for all research involving the protection of human subjects.  Johns Hopkins is the only medical institution in Maryland and one of only a few organizations in the nation to gain this recognition.

6/21/05

NEW COSMETIC PROCEDURE “ELEVATES” FACIAL SKIN
A procedure using FDA-approved barbed sutures to lift sagging or wrinkling skin from the brow, midface and neck is currently being performed by surgeons in the Johns Hopkins Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

6/20/05

STEM CELLS GROWN IN LAB MIRROR NORMAL DEVELOPMENTAL STEPS
Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a way to study the earliest steps of human blood development using human embryonic stem cells grown in a lab dish instead of the embryos themselves.

6/15/05

JOHNS HOPKINS AGAIN TOPS LIST OF NIH AWARDS TO MEDICAL SCHOOLS
For the 13th consecutive year, Johns Hopkins earned more grants, awards and contracts from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) than any of the other 122 U.S. medical schools that receive them.   Awards include  research grants, training grants, fellowship awards, and research and development contracts.

6/9/05

IMMUNE CELLS' GENETIC "JAM SESSION" IS CONTROLLED BY CELL DIVISION MACHINERY
 --Discovery sheds light on development of immune system cancers
If a dividing cell's activity is a pop song, then the same process in an immune cell is an extended-play dance remix. The basics of cell division are the same in both, but there's a heck of a lot more going on in immune cells, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered.

6/9/05

JOHNS HOPKINS TEAM FINDS "ANCESTRAL" HEPATITIS-C VIRUS AT THE ROOT OF EVOLUTION IN ACUTE AND CHRONIC INFECTIONS
-- Scientists discover how virus evades immune system in acute and chronic infections; new vaccines may result
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have uncovered how a majority of the genetic changes in the hepatic-C virus, the most common cause of liver disease, allow it to evade the body’s immune system during infection.

6/9/05

JOHNS HOPKINS AIDS EXPERT SAYS GLOBAL STRATEGY NEEDED TO COMBAT "FEMINIZATION" OF HIV/AIDS
A Johns Hopkins physician and scientist who has spent a quarter-century leading major efforts to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide has issued an urgent call for global strategies and resources to confront the rapid "feminization" of the AIDS pandemic.

6/8/05

ONCE GIVEN "NO RESPECT," CELLS' TINY RNAS TAKE DRIVER'S SEAT IN CANCER DEVELOPMENT
Ribonucleic acid, or RNA, has long been viewed as a mere translation service for getting DNA’s blueprint to make the proteins that are cells' workhorses. But new evidence shows that tiny bits of RNA not used make proteins actually play central roles in normal biology and the development of cancer.

6/8/05

 JOHNS HOPKINS STUDY SHOWS HOME TEST KITS HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES
-- Related survey finds reinfection rates high in Baltimore schools
Researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have evidence that more than one-third of young women are willing and able to use a free, easily available home test kit to privately and accurately learn if they are infected with Chlamydia trachomatis, the most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) in this group.

6/3/05

 FAMED IRISH TENOR, PHYSICIAN AND DISABLED ATHLETE TO RECEIVE THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT’S MEDAL
Ronan Tynan, M.D., a champion disabled athlete, physician and celebrated tenor, will receive the Johns Hopkins University President’s Medal in recognition of his distinguished career in music and medicine, and for his triumph in the face of personal adversity.

6/1/05

 JOHNS HOPKINS OFFERS NEW WOMEN’S CONCIERGE SERVICE
Single Phone Call Simplifies Access to Hopkins 
Johns Hopkins Medicine is offering a new, personalized service to help women manage their doctors’ appointments at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, outpatient center, satellite facilities at White Marsh and Green Spring Station, and Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

5/31/05

AFTER A CENTURY APART, CHAIR AND DESK OF LEGENDARY HOPKINS PHYSICIAN, SIR WILLIAM OSLER, TO BE REUNITED
On Wednesday, June 1, at 1 p.m., Hopkins archivists will carefully transport the chair from its current location to the Osler Textbook Room. Media are invited to attend this light historical moment in Hopkins’ history.

5/26/05

DEPRESSION IS COMMON IN PATIENTS AFTER HEART ATTACK, NEW JOHNS HOPKINS STUDY SHOWS
Symptoms may help doctors predict risk of future problems
Researchers at Johns Hopkins’ Evidenced-Based Practice Center have found that one in five patients hospitalized for heart attack experiences a major depression. According to the Hopkins cardiologists who conducted the study, these depressed patients are 50 percent more likely than other heart attack patients to need hospital care for a heart problem again within a year and three times as likely to die from a future attack or other heart-related conditions.

5/25/05

 STUDY SHOWS EVEN LIMITED TRAINING IMPROVES COMMUNICATION WITH PATIENTS FROM OTHER CULTURES
-- Proof still lacking that it leads to better health in minorities
Simple classroom lectures about different religious holidays, such as the Muslim tradition of fasting during Ramadan, or Spanish language lessons focused on common medical terms really work to help physicians and nurses connect with patients from different cultures and improve patient satisfaction, according to a pair of reports from Johns Hopkins researchers.

5/25/05

BONES DON’T PAY A PRICE WHEN FAT IS LOST THROUGH EXERCISE
Debunking the myth that exercising to lose excess body fat, unlike dieting alone, comes at a cost to bone health, researchers at Johns Hopkins have determined that for those age 55 to 75, a moderate program of physical exercise generally maintains bone mass and, in some cases, offers modest improvements.

5/25/05

Stem cell legislation thank you message 
We join with patients and scientists throughout the nation in thanking members of the House of Representatives who put aside political differences yesterday to pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005.

5/24/05

JOHNS HOPKINS BAYVIEW AND THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL EARN “GOLD SEAL” STROKE CENTER CERTIFICATION
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and The Johns Hopkins Hospital have earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ for stroke care from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Hopkins Bayview achieved its designation in January and JHH did so in May. Both are among the first hospitals in Maryland to be awarded the distinct Primary Stroke Center Certification.

5/24/05

 JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE COMMENCEMENT AND SPEAKER
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, is the guest speaker at the The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s 108th diploma award ceremony. The ceremony will be held Thursday, May 26, at 2:30 p.m., at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., Baltimore, Md.  Each year, the graduating medical and graduate students choose the commencement speaker.

5/23/05

 DIFFERENT MICROARRAY SYSTEMS MORE ALIKE THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
A multicenter comparison of equipment that can analyze the expression of thousands of genes at once to create a genetic "fingerprint," suggests these different microarray technologies are more alike than once thought.

5/20/05

 TWO JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS ON SELECTION COMMITTEE FOR APPLICANTS TO CALIFORNIA'S $3 BILLION STEM CELL FUND
Two Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers are among 15 nationally known scientists chosen to evaluate and select stem cell research projects to be funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), created when the state's voters passed Proposition 71 authorizing CIRM last fall.

5/20/05

JOHNS HOPKINS RECEIVES GRANT TO TRAIN CLERGY CORPS
During a disaster or public health catastrophe, citizens expect firefighters, police and hospitals to be prepared. But what about their clergy?

5/19/05

 ALTRUISTIC DONOR MAKES POSSIBLE THE FIRST “DOMINO” THREE-WAY KIDNEY TRANSPLANT OPERATION
Surgeons at The Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center on May 15, 2005, performed what is believed to be the world’s first “domino” three-way kidney transplant involving an altruistic, non-directed living donor.  Prior to the surgeries, transplant specialists searched their wait list of recipients for the best possible “matches” for kidney donors and discovered that a domino-effect could be achieved by including an altruistic donor who was willing to give his kidney to anyone who needed it.

5/18/05

 JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHER TO RECEIVE 2005 PAULING PRIZE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH
Johns Hopkins researcher Paul Talalay, Ph.D., a pioneer in the study of dietary phytochemicals that help protect against cancer, is scheduled to receive the Linus Pauling Institute Prize for Health Research. Talalay is scheduled to receive the prize and deliver a plenary lecture on May 18, the first day of an international conference on Diet and Optimum Health in Portland, Ore., which is organized by the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.

5/17/05

 CELLS' BIOLOGY OVERCOMES THEIR PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS
Working with single-celled amoeba, a team of scientists has found clear evidence that a cell's normal biology sometimes helps it overcome physical laws that would otherwise dictate its behavior during cell division. The findings are published in the May 17 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

5/16/05

 NEW TEST FOR EARLY DETECTION OF PROSTATE CANCER SHOWS PROMISE
In the first clinical study of a new blood protein associated with prostate cancer, researchers have found that the marker, called EPCA or early prostate cancer antigen, can successfully detect prostate cancer in its earliest stages. At the same time, the marker successfully avoids the problem of false positive results that plagues prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing.

5/4/05

HOPKINS INTERNIST JOHN A. FLYNN, M.D., M.B.A., NEW JOURNAL EDITOR
A Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine associate professor, John A. Flynn, M.D., M.B.A., has  been appointed editor in chief of the primary care journal Advanced Studies in Medicine.  The peer-reviewed journal, established in 2002, focuses on evidence-based clinical reviews that can be directly applied to physicians’ practices.  Flynn has served on the journal’s editorial board since its founding.

5/3/05

SCALPEL-FREE SURGERY COULD REDUCE RISK OF HIV AND HEPATITIS EXPOSURE FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN CITY HOSPITALS
While the incidence of disease from HIV and hepatitis is increasing in the United States, little is known about their prevalence in patients undergoing surgery.  Now, researchers have shown that nearly 40 percent of surgeries at The Johns Hopkins Hospital occur in patients who tested positive for a bloodborne germ.

5/3/05

TWO JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS ELECTED TO NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Two Johns Hopkins scientists were among 72 U.S. scientists elected today to membership in the National Academy of Sciences at the organization's 142nd annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C.

5/2/05

 VIRGINIA WEISS DONATES $2 MILLION TO THE JOHNS HOPKINS HEART INSTITUTE
Noted philanthropist and Johns Hopkins supporter Virginia Weiss has donated $2 million to the Johns Hopkins Heart Institute. In recognition of the gift, the family waiting area of the Heart Institute, to be located within the planned new Cardiovascular & Critical Tower, will be named in her honor.

5/2/05

C. MICHAEL ARMSTRONG NEW CHAIRMAN OF JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE
C. Michael Armstrong has been elected chairman of Johns Hopkins Medicine, effective July 1. The retired chairman of Comcast, AT&T and Hughes Electronics, Armstrong earlier spent more than three decades with IBM, rising through the ranks to become chairman of the IBM World Trade Corporation.

4/28/05

ANTIBIOTIC MIGHT FIGHT HIV-INDUCED NEUROLOGICAL PROBLEMS
By studying animals, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that the antibiotic minocycline might help alleviate HIV's negative effects on the brain and central nervous system, problems that can develop even though antiretroviral therapy controls the virus elsewhere in the body.

4/27/05

 RONALD R. PETERSON, PRESIDENT, THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL AND HEALTH SYSTEM, INDUCTED IN MARYLAND BUSINESS HALL OF FAME
Ronald R. Peterson, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Health System, and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, has been inducted into the Maryland Chamber of Commerces Maryland Business Hall of Fame.

4/27/05

COSTS OF MEDICAL INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARDS’ GREATER THAN PREVIOUSLY ESTIMATED
Institutional review boards (IRBs), the committees that oversee protections for human research participants, often come with a higher than expected price tag, according to results of a study published in the April 28 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

4/27/05

SCHEDULE FOR MAY 31 SYMPOSIUM "COMPLETING THE BOOK OF LIFE: EPIGENETICS IN SCIENCE AND MEDICINE"
At this all-day symposium at Johns Hopkins, speakers from Hopkins, the NIH, SLU, Arizona, Penn, Uppsala, and The Hutch will discuss the latest findings and applications of epigenetics in development, health and disease. 

4/26/05

 "FICKLE" ENZYME HELPS PROTECT, BUT ALSO CAN PROMOTE HEART FAILURE, ANIMAL STUDY SHOWS
Enzymes that make the gas nitric oxide (NO) not only protect the heart from damage due to high blood pressure or a heart attack, but also promote heart failure through overgrowth and enlargement of the muscle tissue, say animal researchers at Johns Hopkins.

4/26/05

 BILL SIGNING HAS SPECIAL MEANING TO JOHNS HOPKINS CHILDREN’S CENTER PHYSICIAN
When Governor Robert Ehrlich signs Senate Bill 129, the "Energy Assistance Program Act," Tuesday morning, the bill will have special meaning to David Nichols, M.D., professor of Anesthesiology/Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and attending physician in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

4/25/05

 ROBERT A. WOOD, M.D., NAMED DIRECTOR OF PEDIATRIC ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY AT JOHNS HOPKINS
Robert A. Wood, M.D., pediatric allergist and professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, has been named director of the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

4/25/05

JOHNS HOPKINS SURGEON TAPPED FOR "DOCTOR OF THE YEAR" AWARD
Gregory B. Bulkley, M.D., the Mark M. Ravitch Professor of Surgery and director of surgical research at Johns Hopkins, received the annual "Doctor’s Award" from the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America in recognition of his "dedicated support to myasthenics through decades of extensive patient education, and the active pursuit of the most effective thymectomy procedure available."

4/21/05

 RENOWNED CARDIOLOGIST RECEIVES JOHNS HOPKINS’ PRESIDENT’S MEDAL
Richard S. Ross, M.D., former dean of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, vice president for medicine of The Johns Hopkins University and a renowned cardiologist who served as president of the American Heart Association, will be given the The Johns Hopkins University President’s Medal in recognition of his distinguished career in medicine and “extraordinary contributions to higher education, patient care and public health.”

4/19/05

Researchers Identify Marker of Heart Disease in Low-Birthweight Babies
-- Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Investigator Available for Interviews
Some low birth weight infants have large particles rich in apolipoprotein C-1, a blood protein that could put them at risk for heart disease later in life, according to a national study led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center researchers.

4/19/05

 NUMBER AND QUALITY OF KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS MUCH GREATER IF NATIONAL MATCHING PROGRAM ADOPTED
A collaboration between Johns Hopkins and Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists has mathematically demonstrated that a national matching program for kidney paired donation, also called paired kidney exchange, would ensure the best possible kidney for the greatest number of recipients who have incompatible donors.  Kidney paired donation (KPD) provides organs to patients who have a willing, designated donor who is not compatible.  A kidney from such a donor is matched to -- and transplanted into -- the recipient of a second incompatible donor-patient pair, and vice versa. The transplants are performed simultaneously.

4/18/05

19th ANNUAL DEPRESSION SYMPOSIUM FEATURES ACTOR, JOURNALIST AND PSYCHOLOGIST
Actor Ben Gazzara, journalist Paul Raeburn, and psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison are featured speakers at the annual symposium Wednesday, April 20, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Clinic, the Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association (DRADA), and the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing.   Thomas R. Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health, will also speak at the symposium.

4/18/05

OBESITY ADDS RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE IN SIBLINGS IN FAMILIES WITH A HISTORY OF HEART PROBLEMS
-- The added risk is mostly fixable with a small genetic component.
A Johns Hopkins study finds that people who have a family history of heart disease have more reason than most to keep their weight down. In these families, the Hopkins team found that siblings who were obese or overweight had a 60 percent increased risk of suffering a serious heart ailment, such as a heart attack, before the age of 60.

4/15/05

 STUDY OFFERS NEW HOPE TO OLDER PATIENTS WITH VISION PROBLEMS AND AN ALTERNATIVE TO OCULAR IMPLANT SURGERY
Johns Hopkins researchers have found that patients experiencing vision problems following cataract removal and intraocular lens implantation (CE-IOL) may have better results from laser refractive surgery, which spares them potential complications of lens implant replacement and the inconvenience of glasses.

4/15/05

 NOVEL ADHESIVE FOUND EFFECTIVE FOR SEALING CORNEAL INCISIONS
A liquid adhesive made from a protein found in human tissue is effective in sealing corneal wounds and may even be better than stitches, according to results of a Johns Hopkins study.

4/14/05

EXERCISE VARIETY - NOT INTENSITY - APPEARS TO REDUCE SOME ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE RISK
The variety of leisure and physical activity one engages in -- and not its intensity in terms of calories expended - may reduce dementia risk in older people, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins.  An association between variety of activity and dementia risk, however, did not hold up in those with the so-called APOE-4 genetic predisposition to the disease found in about one-quarter to one-third of Alzheimer’s patients, according to a report appearing in the April 1, 2005, issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

4/13/05

JOHNS HOPKINS SPORTS MEDICINE PHYSICIAN CHOSEN AS MEDICAL DIRECTOR FOR RACE THROUGH THE DESERT IN CHINA
Doctors from Johns Hopkins and other institutions across the United States will be in China’s Gobi Desert from April 23 to 30, assisting some of the world's running elite in this year’s Gobi March 2005, one of the most spectacular races on the planet. Dr. Brian Krabak, a sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Johns Hopkins, veteran of Olympic medical teams and an avid adventure racer himself, was chosen as Medical Director of the endurance race, which will total 250 km (150 miles).

4/13/05

 GENE REGIONS BEYOND PROTEIN INSTRUCTIONS IMPORTANT IN DISEASE
Gene hunters at Johns Hopkins have discovered a common genetic mutation that increases the risk of inheriting a particular birth defect not by the usual route of disrupting the gene's protein-making instructions, but by altering a regulatory region of the gene. Although the condition, called Hirschsprung disease, is rare, its complex genetics mimics that of more common diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

4/11/05

HOPKINS STUDY SHOWS OLDER CHILDREN ALSO BENEFIT FROM "LAZY EYE" TREATMENT
-Findings challenge age-based treatment guidelines
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and 48 eye centers across North America report that many children between the ages of 7 and 17 with amblyopia, or "lazy eye," may benefit from treatments usually prescribed for younger children.

4/11/05

 EXERCISE MAY NOT BE GOOD ENOUGH TO REDUCE MILD HYPERTENSION IN OLDER PEOPLE, HOPKINS EXPERTS SAY
Reductions in fat and increases in muscle key indicators of who will benefit most
Moderate levels of exercise may not be enough to control mild hypertension in men and women over age 55, the age group most at risk of later developing potentially fatal heart failure, a new four-year study reports.

4/11/05

FIFTEEN-YEAR HUNT UNCOVERS GENE BEHIND "PSEUDOTHALIDOMIDE" SYNDROME
A team of scientists from Colombia, the United States and elsewhere has successfully completed a 15-year-plus search for the genetic problems behind the very rare Roberts syndrome, whose physical manifestations often include cleft lip and palate and shortened limbs that resemble those of babies whose mothers took thalidomide during pregnancy.

4/7/05

TRAINING FOR MEDICAL MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA: HOPKINS RESIDENT HEADS OFF TO TREAT AIDS PATIENTS IN UGANDA
Young medical doctors gain experience in treating global infectious diseases

Anne Mullally, Scott Kim and Anandi Sheth are all young medical residents at Johns Hopkins interested in treating disease in the developing world, particularly Africa.  This week, Mullally interrupts her Baltimore life to follow her colleagues’ paths to Uganda as part of a special Hopkins program at the Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) in Kampala, Uganda.  For one month, she will provide direct care to hundreds of HIV/AIDS patients and experience what interests her firsthand. 

4/7/05

 Noted Author Tom Clancy to Dedicate Professorship at Johns Hopkins
With gifts to Johns Hopkins totaling $2 million, one of the world’s best-selling authors, Tom Clancy, will fund a new professorship in ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins Medicine.  Terrence P. O’Brien, M.D., will be named the inaugural Tom Clancy Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute  during a dedication ceremony Friday afternoon.

4/5/05

PAIR OF CANCER GENES FOUND TO DRIVE BOTH CELL MIGRATION AND DIVISION
Link suggests news ways of thinking about tumor growth and inflammation
Johns Hopkins researchers have found that two genes already known to control cell movement are also needed for proper cell division. They report their findings in the April issue of Developmental Cell. 

4/4/05

DANIEL B. SMITH NAMED PRESIDENT OF JOHNS HOPKINS HOME CARE GROUP
Daniel B. Smith has been appointed president of the Johns Hopkins Home Care Group (JHHCG) after serving as the acting head of the organization for the past year.

4/1/05

U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT RANKS JOHNS HOPKINS IN TOP 2 MEDICAL SCHOOLS
The attached letter from the Dean of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine thanks faculty and staff for once again making the School of Medicine one of the top rated in U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of the nation's 125 accredited institutions. The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the nation. The letter offers other details, including Johns Hopkins' medical specialty programs ranked in the top 10.

4/1/05

 U.S.-INDIA RESEARCH TEAM COMPLETES ANALYSIS OF X CHROMOSOME
Dozens of New Genes Identified
By intensely and systematically comparing the human X chromosome to genetic information from chimpanzees, rats and mice, a team of scientists from the United States and India has uncovered dozens of new genes, many of which are located in regions of the chromosome already tied to disease.

3/30/05

HOPKINS RESEARCHER JOHN BARTLETT HONORED BY NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Physician-scientist John G. Bartlett, M.D., an internationally renowned authority on AIDS and other infectious diseases, and professor and chief of the division of infectious diseases at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will receive the prestigious 2005 Maxwell Finland Award for scientific achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases at a ceremony to be held at 8 p.m., Thursday, March 31, at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City, Va.

3/29/05

URINE HELPS INFECTIOUS YEAST STICK
Researchers from Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland have discovered that urine actually helps a particular yeast stick to cells along the urinary tract. The finding might offer a new way to prevent or treat certain yeast and fungal infections, and the researchers' work also provides an unexpected new role for some proteins already known to help hungry yeast live longer.
3/29/05SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR 28TH ANNUAL YOUNG INVESTIGATORS' DAY ON APRIL 14
The 28th Annual Young Investigators' Day celebration will start at 4 p.m., Thursday, April 14, in the Mountcastle Auditorium, Preclinical Teaching Building. Young Investigators' Day was established in 1978 to recognize trainees at the School of Medicine and provide them with a forum for presentation of their work.

3/25/05

JOHNS HOPKINS BEGINS HUMAN TRIALS WITH DONOR ADULT STEM CELLS TO REPAIR MUSCLE DAMAGED FROM HEART ATTACK
-- Randomized Phase I study limited to 48 patients to determine safety

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have begun what is believed to be the first clinical trial in the United States of adult mesenchymal stem cells to repair muscle damaged by heart attack, or myocardial infarct. 

3/24/05

YEAST FINDING LINKS PROCESSES IN HEART DISEASE AND CANCER
By studying a little-known yeast too primitive to get diseases, Johns Hopkins researchers have uncovered a surprising link between two processes at play in heart disease and cancer in people.

3/24/05

 INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM BEGINS STUDIES TO FIGHT TB-HIV IN AFRICA AND BRAZIL
The Johns Hopkins-based Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic (CREATE) today announced the start of three studies to evaluate novel techniques for controlling HIV-related TB in countries hard hit by the dual epidemics.

3/23/05

SOME BRAIN CELLS "CHANGE CHANNELS" TO FINE-TUNE THE MESSAGE
Johns Hopkins researchers have identified the proteins that allow specific brain cells to "change channels," a rare ability that tweaks what can come into the cell. The findings, described in the March 24 issue of Neuron, might let researchers harness the process, perhaps one day using it to protect cells that die in Lou Gehrig's disease.

3/17/05

ANTI-AGING ENZYME'S SECRETS REVEALED
Johns Hopkins researchers have determined how a tiny molecule normally squelches the activity of an enzyme that otherwise could help yeast, worms and flies live longer.

3/17/05

The Envelope Please... School of Medicine Students Meet Their Match
Hugs, high-fives, cheers and kisses should fill the room Thursday when Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine seniors find out which hospital residency programs they will enter after graduation this spring.

3/16/05

2005 GLASER PEDIATRIC AIDS FOUNDATION AWARD GOES TO HOPKINS SCIENTIST DEBORAH PERSAUD
Award will fund research on drug-resistant HIV
Deborah Persaud, M.D., a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, is the 2005 recipient of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s 2005 Scientist Award. The award includes a $700,000 research grant.

3/15/05

COMMUNITY CARE TOPS MEDICAL CARE AT PREVENTING HEART DISEASE IN BLACK AMERICANS, BUT HEALTH INEQUALITIES PERSIST
Upgraded community health services, including checkups by phone or in person with a local nurse practitioner at a neighborhood clinic, and free charge cards for medications are almost nine times more likely to benefit black Americans at greater risk of heart disease than full-service physician care alone.  The analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins, to be published in the journal Circulation online March 16, is the first to test which model works best when patients have equal and unrestricted access to health care services. 

3/15/05

EARLIER USE OF PROSTATE CANCER VACCINES URGED BY HOPKINS SCIENTISTS
Timing is everything when it comes to killing prostate cancer cells with specially tailored vaccines, say scientists testing the drugs in mice at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

3/9/05

HOPKINS AWARDED GRANT FOR IMPROVING PATIENT CARE FROM ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION
The Johns Hopkins Hospital is one of 12 teaching hospitals selected to receive a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJ) grant designed to test if a multi disciplinary group of medical residents, graduate nursing students and administrative residents could partner more closely with senior hospital management to improve care. The Achieving Competence Today (ACT) grants are part of a new initiative developed by RWJ in partnership with the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.  

3/8/05

DISRUPTED FAT CELL SIGNALING IN OBESE MICE LINKED TO INCREASED CELL DEATH IN ENLARGED HEARTS
Disrupted fat cell signaling in obese mice has been linked to increased cell death, or apoptosis, in enlarged hearts.  According to the Johns Hopkins researchers who led the study, the research is needed to understand how obesity contributes to enlarged hearts (hypertrophy), subsequent heart failure and increased risk of death.

3/8/05

MODERN IMPLANTABLE HEART DEVICES SAFE FOR USE IN MRI SCANS
Johns Hopkins scientists have found that modern implanted heart devices -- such as pacemakers and defibrillators -- are safe for use in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, a diagnostic and imaging tool long ruled potentially unsafe and off-limits for more than 2 million Americans who currently have them in their bodies.  The Johns Hopkins team has also developed new guidelines for their use, making MRI scans more available to people who might benefit from early detection of cancer and other diseases, when treatments are most likely to succeed, and for guiding devices during minimally invasive surgery.
3/2/05

MOST ADVANCED CT SCANNER IMPROVES IMAGING OF HEART, AVOIDS NEED FOR SURGICAL INSPECTION
Newly installed "64-slice" scanner makes diagnosis faster and easier to perform

Johns Hopkins Medicine has installed the latest computed tomography (CT) imaging software and machinery, also known as a 64-slice computed axial tomography scanner. The newly upgraded device produces precise diagnostic pictures within five to 10 seconds for patients experiencing symptoms associated with heart attack. 

3/1/05

JOHNS HOPKINS CONVENES "CONSENSUS" CONFERENCE TO DEVELOP BLUEPRINT FOR NATIONWIDE MATCHING PROGRAM FOR PAIRED KIDNEY EXCHANGE

CHICAGO, Ill. -- Kidney transplant experts from across the United States will convene here March 2 to March 5, 2005, to design a national paired kidney exchange program. Paired kidney exchanges provide organs to patients who have a willing, designated donor who is incompatible. A kidney from such a donor is matched to and transplanted into the recipient of a second donor-patient pair, and vice versa. The transplants are performed simultaneously.

3/1/05

"SMART" IMMUNE CELLS KILL MORE CANCER
In efforts to educate the body to fight off cancer, researchers have found that some immune cells are "smarter" than others. Working with collections of human cells, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists tested kill-rates of two kinds of T-cells "primed" to home in on myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Those that live in the bone marrow outperformed their counterparts circulating in the blood by more than 90 percent.

3/1/05

 U.S. CANCER RESEARCHERS LAUNCH FIRST AMERICAN-ISRAELI CANCER CONFERENCE
--Seek to Reduce Israel’s "scientific isolation" over past four years
Leading cancer researchers from Baltimore, Miami and New Jersey have organized the first Joint American-Israeli Conference on Cancer. The meeting, scheduled for March 16 through 18 in Jerusalem, seeks to foster collaboration among physicians and scientists in the two countries. Close to 200 cancer experts from institutions throughout Israel and the United States are expected to attend, making it Israel’s largest scientific conference in at least four years, according to the conference planners.

2/28/05

HOPKINS JOINS AARP PROJECT TO PUT AND KEEP OLDER AMERICANS IN WORKFORCE
The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, including the Bayview Medical Center, announced today that it will participate in a major new program developed by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Foundation to help Americans aged 50 and over to find jobs and stay in the workforce. 

2/25/05

HOPKINS ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON INITIATED INTO NATIONAL ACADEMY
Dawn Mitzner LaPorte, M.D., assistant professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons at its recent annual meeting in Washington, D.C. LaPorte was one of 549 new fellows inducted into the organization, which has 27,959 members worldwide.

2/25/05

ARCHIVAL VIRUS STILL NECESSITATES LIFE-LONG ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY
Johns Hopkins researcher and infectious disease specialist Robert Siliciano, M.D., Ph.D., will provide an update on the scientific rationale behind the use of antiretroviral therapy, focusing on the mechanisms that allow life-long persistence of HIV even in patients on potent medication.  Siliciano, a professor of medicine at Hopkins and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has recently found a second reservoir for HIV in the body, where it “rests” and is not affected by current therapies that prevent the virus from replicating. 

2/25/05

DUAL TESTING BETTER FOR MONITORING NEW CASES OF HIV
Johns Hopkins researchers will present results showing that tighter, dual testing standards work better for accurately distinguishing between new and old cases of HIV.  Current testing standards are based on a single test called the serological testing algorithm for recent HIV seroconversion, or STARHS for short.  STARHS relies on differentiating newly infected from chronically infected individuals based on the quantity, or levels, of antibodies to HIV present in patients’ blood.

2/24/05

STUDY DOCUMENTS INITIAL DIFFERENCES IN SEXUAL TRANSMISSION OF HIV BETWEEN MALES AND FEMALES
A genetic analysis of viral RNA from 10 heterosexual couples, in which one partner has sexually transmitted HIV to the other, provides the first documentation of some differences in how the virus infects males and females.  According to the Hopkins researchers who led the study, this initial research is essential to understanding why these differences occur and for future development of a vaccine or other preventive methods that could stop sexual transmission of HIV-1.

2/24/05

IT'S NOT ALL GENETIC: COMMON EPIGENETIC PROBLEM DOUBLES CANCER RISK IN MICE
In experiments with mice, a team of scientists from the United States, Sweden and Japan has discovered that having a double dose of one protein is sufficient to change the normal balance of cells within the lining of the colon, thereby doubling the risk that a cancer-causing genetic mutation will trigger a tumor there. Roughly 10 percent of people have this double protein dose as well.

2/24/05

CELLULAR PORTHOLE CONNECTS ODORS TO BRAIN
Porthole used in both odor-detecting cells and digestion-aiding cells
A cellular "porthole" known best for its role in the digestive system apparently has a major role in helping the brain sense odors, Johns Hopkins scientists report in the Feb. 17 issue of Neuron. The porthole, which lets chloride into cells, is also critical in digestion, hearing, balance, and fertility.

2/16/05

 IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO ANTIBIOTICS STEMS SPREAD OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES
-- Hopkins scientists believe that repeat infections among couples can be effectively stopped, but legal issues are pitfall
In an editorial to be published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at Johns Hopkins offer their support for a study which shows that providing faster, more direct access to antibiotics for partners of newly infected patients reduces re-infection rates and spread of sexually transmitted diseases, such as gonorrhea and Chlamydia, compared to standard practice.

2/16/05

Statement from JHM leadership celebrates CON approval
Our dream of a new medical campus moved closer to reality today with the Maryland Health Care Commission’s approval of our request for a Certificate of Need for our new Cardiovascular/Critical Care Tower and a Children’s and Maternal Hospital. These two buildings will form the centerpiece of our medical campus redevelopment program.

2/15/05

SMALL INCREASES OR “BLIPS” IN HIV LEVELS DO NOT SIGNAL MUTATIONS LEADING TO DRUG-RESISTANT HIV
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have concluded that sudden, temporary spikes in the amount of HIV in the body, commonly called “blips,” generally do not mean the virus is developing resistance to AIDS drugs and gaining strength in numbers. 

2/14/05

JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS RECEIVE PRESIDENTIAL MEDALS
Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., and astrophysicist Riccardo Giacconi, Ph.D., have been named recipients of the 2003 National Medal of Science, the United States' top scientific recognition, the White House announced yesterday.

2/14/05

COX-2 PRODUCT OFFERS GOOD AND BAD NEWS IN "TEST TUBE" STROKES
Paradox suggests reasons why COX-2 inhibitors hurt and help.
Laboratory studies at Johns Hopkins have revealed that certain products of the enzymes COX-1 and COX-2 can both protect and damage the brain. The findings, published in the February 2005 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry, offer tantalizing clues to why drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex, which block COX-2, can ease arthritis but potentially harm the heart and brain.

2/14/05

AMERICAN ALLIANCE OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS NAMES HOPKINS HOSPITAL OF CHOICE
The Johns Hopkins Hospital has again received the American Alliance of Healthcare Providers (AAHP) American Hospital of Choice Award. The award reflects excellence in four areas of a patients experience with the hospital: security, comfort, convenience, and caring afforded to patients. Hopkins has been selected each year as a Hospital of Choice since the inception of the award in 2002.

2/11/05

AWARDEES OF THE 28th ANNUAL YOUNG INVESTIGATORS' DAY ANNOUNCED
The Young Investigators' Day Committee has announced the recipients of Research Prizes for Students and Postdoctoral Fellows for the 28th Annual Young Investigators' Day at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. All awardees will present their research at the Young Investigators' Day celebration to be held in Mountcastle Auditorium, Thursday, April 14, starting at 4 p.m.

2/10/05

 HIGH LEVELS OF AIRBORNE MOUSE ALLERGEN IN INNER-CITY HOMES COULD TRIGGER ASTHMA ATTACKS
Researchers call for routine mouse allergy testing for inner-city children with asthma
The amount of mouse allergen found in the air in many inner-city homes could be high enough to trigger asthma symptoms in the children who live there, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Their study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found more than a quarter of inner-city homes sampled had airborne allergen levels already known to aggravate asthma symptoms in animal research lab workers with mouse allergy.

2/9/05

“BROKEN HEART” SYNDROME: REAL, POTENTIALLY DEADLY BUT RECOVERY QUICK
-- Hopkins scientists discover that emotional shock can trigger sudden, reversible heart failure that is not a classic heart attack
 Shocking news, such as learning of the unexpected death of a loved one, has been known to cause catastrophic events, such as a heart attack.

2/2/05

SPECIAL IMAGING  STUDY SHOWS FAILING HEARTS ARE “ENERGY STARVED”
Findings Could Point Way to New Treatments

Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for the first time to examine energy production biochemistry in a beating human heart, Johns Hopkins researchers have found substantial energy deficits in failing hearts.

1/31/05

SCREENING FOR OSTEOPOROSIS PREVENTS HIP FRACTURES IN OLDER ADULTS
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have determined that screening for osteoporosis in men and women age 65 and older can prevent a large number of hip fractures, a debilitating, traumatic experience for 340,000 older adults annually. 

1/31/05

BACKGROUND “DWI” CHECKS EFFECTIVE: STUDY SHOWS THAT PILOTS WHO DRINK AND DRIVE ARE AT HIGHER RISK TO CRASH PLANES
General aviation pilots with a previous conviction for driving while intoxicated (DWI) are 43 percent more likely to crash their plane than pilots with no history of DWI, according to a new study of more than 300,000 pilot records by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

1/30/05

RECOGNIZING NEW ANEURYSM SYNDROME CAN SAVE LIVES
Physical traits, genetic test help with early diagnosis
A research team led by Johns Hopkins doctors has defined the physical traits and genetic basis of a new aortic aneurysm syndrome that is extremely aggressive and can cause death in early childhood. Early diagnosis of the syndrome and rapid surgical repair of the swollen aorta can save lives, the researchers report in the Jan. 30 advance online section of Nature Genetics.

1/26/05

CLINICAL TRIAL OF ETANERCEPT  FOR WEGENER’S DISEASE SHOWS NO BENEFIT AGAINST  THE AUTOIMMUNE CONDITION
A Johns Hopkins-led study designed to evaluate the ability of etanercept to maintain disease remissions in a serious autoimmune disorder has failed to show any benefit.  Etanercept, also called Enbrel, is a common treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and other types of joint inflammation.

1/26/05

ART AND PAT MODELL GIFT TO PROVIDE $10 MILLION TO NEW JOHNS HOPKINS HEART INSTITUTE
Institute Created Last Year to Occupy New Building On Hopkins Campus
Arthur B. Modell, long-time National Football League team owner and medical philanthropist named last year to head the new Johns Hopkins Heart Institute’s Board of Governors, announced today he and his wife Pat are making a gift that will provide $10 million to the Institute. 

1/25/05

ART AND PAT MODELL GIFT TO PROVIDE $10 MILLION TO NEW JOHNS HOPKINS HEART INSTITUTE
Institute Created Last Year to Occupy New Building On Hopkins Campus

Arthur B. Modell, long-time National Football League team owner and medical philanthropist named last year to head the new Johns Hopkins Heart Institute’s Board of Governors, announced today he and his wife Pat are making a gift that will provide $10 million to the Institute. 

1/23/05

SILDENAFIL EFFECTIVELY TREATS ENLARGED HEARTS, MOUSE STUDY SHOWS
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that sildenafil citrate (Viagra), a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) in  millions of men, effectively treats enlarged hearts in mice, stopping further muscle growth from occurring and reversing existing growth, including the cellular and functional damage it created. 

1/21/05

TIMING IS EVERYTHING: FIRST STEP IN PROTEIN BUILDING REVEALED
Timing is everything, it seems, even in science. A team led by Johns Hopkins scientists has unraveled the first step in translating genetic information in order to build a protein, only to find that it's not one step but two.

1/21/05

SCIENTIFIC HEAVYWEIGHTS TO SPEAK AT JAN. 28 HOPKINS SYMPOSIUM
General news and science reporters, editors, broadcasters and photographers are invited to The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Friday, Jan. 28, to hear six of the nation’s best-known biological scientists -- including Nobel laureates David Baltimore and Sydney Brenner --  at a symposium, "Toward the Third New Biology."

1/19/05

 HOPKINS STEM CELL EXPERTS TO SPEAK JAN. 25 IN PALM BEACH
Four top stem cell researchers and a leading bioethicist from Johns Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering are speaking at "Stem Cells and the Future of Medicine" at The Breakers in Palm Beach starting at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005.

1/18/05

SIMPLER “ALPHABET” GUIDELINES FOR TREATING ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME REDUCE RISK
A simplified approach to the management of patients with an acute coronary syndrome (chest pain at rest or with mild exertion) can help ensure that precise risk-reducing strategies are followed to the letter by doctors and other caregivers of patients with this medical condition, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

1/17/05

JULIE FREISCHLAG APPOINTED EDITOR OF AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION'S ARCHIVES OF SURGERY
Julie Freischlag, M.D., the William Stewart Halsted Professor and Director of the Department of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and surgeon in chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, has been appointed editor of the Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals published by the American Medical Association.

1/13/05

GEPPI FAMILY DONATES $1.5 MILLION TO BENEFIT NEW JOHNS HOPKINS HEART INSTITUTE AND CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL AND SERVICES
Steve Geppi, president and CEO of Diamond Comics and publisher of Baltimore Magazine, and his wife Mindy today announced a $1.5 million gift to benefit the new Johns Hopkins Cardiovascular & Critical Care Tower and Heart Institute, the planned Children’s and Maternal Hospital, and programs in preventive cardiology and pediatric hematology.

1/6/05

MOST ALCOHOL-RELATED PLANE CRASHES OCCUR AT NIGHT AND IN WORSENING WEATHER CONDITIONS, NEW STUDY SHOWS
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that nighttime flying and worsening weather conditions are two key characteristics of fatal plane crashes in general aviation where alcohol consumption by the pilot was also a factor.

1/5/05

JHM Response to Tsunami Crisis
Numerous members of the Johns Hopkins community are involved in coming to the aid of the tsunami survivors, both as individuals and as members of relief teams.

1/5/05

ANTIBIOTICS PROTECT NERVES IN MICE BY TURNING ON GENES
Large, Multi-Center Clinical Trial Planned in Lou Gehrig's Disease
A family of antibiotics that includes penicillin may help prevent nerve damage and death in a wide variety of neurological diseases, including Lou Gehrig's disease, dementia, stroke, and epilepsy, Johns Hopkins researchers have found.

1/4/05

HOPKINS-DESIGNED BIRTH SIMULATOR HELPS PHYSICIANS I.D. LEAST FORCEFUL WAY TO MANAGE PROBLEM DELIVERIES
Johns Hopkins researchers, using a novel birthing simulator designed by biomedical engineering faculty, staff and students at the University, have identified what may be the least forceful way to deliver a baby whose shoulders are stuck in the birth canal.

1/3/05

GOOD PARENT-DOCTOR RELATIONSHIPS MAY IMPROVE THE ADVICE PARENTS RECEIVE ABOUT KEEPING THEIR CHILDREN SAFE FROM INJURY
Parents more likely to follow advice if they trust their children’s doctors
Parents whose children are at risk for child abuse and neglect may be reluctant to follow injury and illness prevention advice from pediatricians with whom they don’t have a good working relationship, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the Johns Burns University of Hawaii School of Medicine, and the Hawaii State Health Department.