2009 Press Releases

12/30/09

HOPKINS CHILDREN'S CARDIOLOGIST HUNTS BIOMARKERS OF PULMONARY HYPERTENSION
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center cardiologist Allen Everett recently won more than $460,000 in stimulus grant funding to identify the biomarkers of idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (IPH), a progressive and highly lethal condition in children and adults marked by persistently elevated pressure in the artery that carries blood from the heart to the lungs.

12/29/09

DID U TK UR MEDS?
- - Texting can improve meds use, chronic disease treatment
From a lethal distraction for drivers to dehumanizing personal interactions, text messaging has gotten a bum rap lately. But for doctors treating patients with chronic diseases, text messaging can be an invaluable tool, according to Johns Hopkins Children’s Center pediatrician Delphine Robotham.

12/23/09

ONE STEP CLOSER TO CLOSURE
--Johns Hopkins Neuroscientists Discovery Key to Spinal Cord Defects
Spinal cord disorders like spina bifida arise during early development when future spinal cord cells growing in a flat layer fail to roll up into a tube. In the Dec. 6 issue of Nature Cell Biology, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine team with colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley to report a never-before known link between protein transport and mouse spinal cord development, a discovery that opens new doors for research on all spinal defects.

12/22/09

STEROID INJECTIONS MAY SLOW DIABETES-RELATED EYE DISEASE
 --Treatment not yet ready for “general use” due to side effects
Researchers led by specialists at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute have found that injecting a corticosteroid, triamcinolone, directly into the eye may slow the progression of proliferative diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that frequently leads to blindness.

12/21/09

UP A LITTLE ON THE LEFT ... NOW, OVER TO THE RIGHT ...
-Johns Hopkins Scientists Find a Source of Nonallergic Itch
Scratching below the surface of a troublesome sensation that’s equal parts tingle-tickle-prickle, sensory scientists from Johns Hopkins have discovered in mice a molecular basis for nonallergic itch.

12/17/09

Seven Johns Hopkins Researchers Named AAAS Fellows
Seven Johns Hopkins researchers from four of the university’s schools have been elected by their peers as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

12/14/09WHO GETS EXPENSIVE CANCER DRUGS? A TALE OF TWO NATIONS
The well-worn notion that patients in the United States have unfettered access to the most expensive cancer drugs while the United Kingdom’s nationalized health care system regularly denies access to some high-cost treatments needs rethinking, a team of bioethicists and health policy experts says in a report out today.
12/14/09DARWIN UPDATED: JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS SUGGEST CERTAIN GENES BOOST CHANCES FOR DISTRIBUTING A WIDE VARIETY OF RANDOM TRAITS AND DRIVE EVOLUTION
Genes that don’t themselves directly affect the inherited characteristics of an organism but leave them increasingly open to variation may be a significant driving force of evolution, say two Johns Hopkins scientists. 
12/8/09GENE THERAPY AND STEM CELLS SAVE LIMB
Blood vessel blockage, a common condition in old age or diabetes, leads to low blood flow and results in low oxygen, which can kill cells and tissues. Such blockages can require amputation resulting in loss of limbs. Now, using mice as their model, researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed therapies that increase blood flow, improve movement and decrease tissue death and the need for amputation. The findings, published online last week in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, hold promise for developing clinical therapies.
12/7/09H1N1 MORE RISKY THAN SEASONAL FLU IN CHILDREN WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE
Infection with the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, causes more life-threatening complications than seasonal flu in children with sickle cell disease, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. The findings, to be presented on Dec. 7 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, warn parents and caregivers that such children are more likely to need emergency treatment and stays in an intensive-care unit.
12/4/09

POTENTIAL NEW “TWIST” IN BREAST CANCER DETECTION 
- Mouse studies reveal new – and better – picture of stem cells that may fuel some breast cancers
Working with mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins publishing in the December issue of Neoplasia have shown that a protein made by a gene called “Twist” may be the proverbial red flag that can accurately distinguish stem cells that drive aggressive, metastatic breast cancer from other breast cancer cells.

12/4/09

STEM CELLS BATTLE FOR SPACE
The body is a battle zone. Cells constantly compete with one another for space and dominance. Though the manner in which some cells win this competition is well known to be the survival of the fittest, how stem cells duke it out for space and survival is not as clear. A study on fruit flies published in the October 2 issue of Science by Johns Hopkins researchers describes how stem cells win this battle by literally sticking around.

12/3/09ECSTASY USE MAY LEAD TO SLEEP APNEA
--Illegal “club drug” poisons neurons involved in control of breathing during sleep
Repeated use of the drug popularly known as “ecstasy” significantly raises the risk of developing sleep apnea in otherwise healthy young adults with no other known risk factors for the sleep disturbance, a new study by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests. The finding is the latest highlighting the potential dangers of the amphetamine-style chemical, currently used illegally by millions of people in the United States.
12/2/09

FIRST REPORTED CASES OF TAMIFLU-RESISTANT H1N1 FLU IN MARYLAND TREATED AT AND DISCHARGED FROM THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL?
Flu experts at The Johns Hopkins Hospital have received confirmation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) that two recently treated patients with 2009 H1N1 flu, both since discharged, had drug-resistant forms of the virus.?

11/25/09MEDICAL STUDENTS REGULARLY STUCK BY NEEDLES, OFTEN FAIL TO REPORT INJURIES
--Johns Hopkins research suggests least-skilled providers at risk for life-threatening infections
Medical students are commonly stuck by needles — putting them at risk of contracting potentially dangerous blood-borne diseases — and many of them fail to report the injuries to hospital authorities, according to a Johns Hopkins study published in the December issue of the journal Academic Medicine.
11/23/09JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS TRACK DOWN PROTEIN RESPONSIBLE FOR CHRONIC RHINOSINUSITIS WITH POLYPS
--New target may eventually help doctors treat often intractable disease
A protein known to stimulate blood vessel growth has now been found to be responsible for the cell overgrowth in the development of polyps that characterize one of the most severe forms of sinusitis, a study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The finding gives scientists a new target for developing novel therapies to treat this form of the disease, which typically resists all current treatments.
11/20/09BURNED OUT, DEPRESSED SURGEONS MORE LIKELY TO COMMIT MORE MAJOR MEDICAL ERRORS
--Factors putting patients at risk go well beyond fatigue, largest study of its kind suggests
Surgeons who are burned out or depressed are more likely to say they had recently committed a major error on the job, according to the largest study to date on physician burnout. The new findings suggest that the mental well-being of the surgeon is associated with a higher rate of self-reported medical errors, something that may undermine patient safety more than the fatigue that is often blamed for many of the medical mistakes.
11/20/09HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE EASY TO MISS IN CHILDREN WITH KIDNEY DISEASE
Spot blood pressure readings in children with chronic kidney disease often fail to detect hypertension – even during doctor’s office visits — increasing a child’s risk for serious heart problems, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and other institutions. A report of the findings appears online in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology.
11/20/09KENNETH L. BAUGHMAN, M.D., 63, FORMER JOHNS HOPKINS FACULTY BaughmanPHYSICIAN, REMEMBERED BY FELLOW CARDIOLOGISTS
The Johns Hopkins Medicine community mourns the sudden death of cardiologist Kenneth L. Baughman, M.D., who was killed in an accident Monday while running in Orlando, Fla. He was attending the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, and had attempted to cross a street when a car struck him.
11/19/09SWEET! SUGARED POLYMER A NEW WEAPON AGAINST ALLERGIES AND ASTHMA
Scientists at Johns Hopkins and their colleagues have developed sugar-coated polymer strands that selectively kill off cells involved in triggering aggressive allergy and asthma attacks. Their advance is a significant step toward crafting pharmaceuticals to fight these often life-endangering conditions in a new way.
11/19/09MOTHER’S DEPRESSION A RISK FACTOR IN CHILDHOOD ASTHMA SYMPTOMS, STUDY SUGGESTS
-Results may be tied to fatigue and forgetfulness in managing children’s disease
Asthma symptoms can worsen in children with depressed mothers, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center published online in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
11/18/09VITAMIN B NIACIN OFFERS NO ADDITIONAL BENEFIT TO STATIN THERAPY IN SENIORS ALREADY DIAGNOSED WITH CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE
--Blood cholesterol levels improved, but arteries do not show it
The routine prescription of extended-release niacin, a B vitamin (1,500 milligrams daily), in combination with traditional cholesterol-lowering therapy offers no extra benefit in correcting arterial narrowing and diminishing plaque buildup in seniors who already have coronary artery disease, a new vascular imaging study from Johns Hopkins experts shows.
11/17/09NEED FOR EMERGENCY AIRWAY SURGERY FOR HARD-TO-INTUBATE PATIENTS REDUCED
--Johns Hopkins program offers model as more patients appear with hard to navigate airways
Be prepared, that old Boy Scout motto, is being applied with great success to operating room patients whose anatomy may make it difficult for physicians to help them breathe during surgery, Johns Hopkins researchers report in a new study.
11/16/09RAPID, ERRATIC HEARTBEATS: EXERCISE-LINKED VENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA IS NOT A RISK TO HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS
Healthy, older adults free of heart disease need not fear that bouts of rapid, irregular heartbeats brought on by vigorous exercise might increase short- or long-term risk of dying or having a heart attack, according to a report by heart experts at Johns Hopkins and the U.S. National Institute on Aging (NIA).
11/16/09MIGRAINE RAISES RISK OF MOST COMMON FORM OF STROKE
--Women more at risk than men; risk particularly high in those with visual symptoms Pooling results from 21 studies, involving 622,381 men and women, researchers at Johns Hopkins have affirmed that migraine headaches are associated with more than twofold higher chances of the most common kind of stroke: those occurring when blood supply to the brain is suddenly cut off by the buildup of plaque or a blood clot.
11/15/09

HEART EXPERTS SAY EARLY END TO KEY STUDY ON BENEFITS OF NIACIN, A B VITAMIN, IN KEEPING ARTERIES OPEN WAS PREMATURE
-- Statin therapy should still be used first to reach blood cholesterol levels before considering addition of niacin
Heart experts at Johns Hopkins are calling premature the early halt of a study by researchers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Washington Hospital Center on the benefits of combining extended-release niacin, a B vitamin, with cholesterol-lowering statin medications to prevent blood vessel narrowing. Cardiovascular atherosclerosis, as it is also known, is believed responsible for one in three deaths in the United States each year.

11/15/09‘SCAFFOLDING’ PROTEIN CHANGES IN HEART STRENGTHEN LINK BETWEEN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND CHRONIC HEART FAILURE
A team of U.S., Canadian and Italian scientists led by researchers at Johns Hopkins report evidence from studies in animals and humans supporting a link between Alzheimer’s disease and chronic heart failure, two of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States.
11/15/09HEART AND BONE DAMAGE FROM LOW VITAMIN D TIED TO DECLINES IN SEX HORMONES
-- Effects of vitamin D deficiency amplified by shortage of estrogen
Researchers at Johns Hopkins are reporting what is believed to be the first conclusive evidence in men that the long-term ill effects of vitamin D deficiency are amplified by lower levels of the key sex hormone estrogen, but not testosterone
11/15/09

YOUNG ATHLETES NEED DUAL SCREENING TESTS FOR HEART DEFECTS, STUDY SUGGESTS
-- Using just one popular test or the other could miss serious cardiac abnormalities
To best detect early signs of life-threatening heart defects in young athletes, screening programs should include both popular diagnostic tests, not just one of them, according to new research from heart experts at Johns Hopkins.

11/9/09BACK PAIN PERMANENTLY SIDELINES SOLDIERS AT WAR
--Few rejoin units in Iraq or Afghanistan, regardless of treatment
Military personnel evacuated out of Iraq and Afghanistan because of back pain are unlikely to return to the line of duty regardless of the treatment they receive, according to research led by a Johns Hopkins pain management specialist.
11/6/091930s DRUG SLOWS TUMOR GROWTH
Drugs sometimes have beneficial side effects. A glaucoma treatment causes luscious eyelashes. A blood pressure drug also aids those with a rare genetic disease. The newest surprise discovered by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is a gonorrhea medication that might help battle cancer.
11/4/09SCIENTISTS REVEAL HOW INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS DIFFER FROM EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS AND TISSUE OF DERIVATION
Scientists Reveal How Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Differ From Embryonic Stem Cells and Tissue of Derivation
The same genes that are chemically altered during normal cell differentiation, as well as when normal cells become cancer cells, are also changed in stem cells that scientists derive from adult cells, according to new research from Johns Hopkins and Harvard.
11/4/09TEEN GIRLS DIAGNOSED WITH STI MORE LIKELY TO TELL?Maria TrentAND SEEK TREATMENT FOR PARTNERS AFTER WATCHING
Teen Girls With PID More Likely To Tell and Seek Treatment For Partners After Watching Video
A study at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center found that girls diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) who watched a short educational video were three times more likely to discuss their condition with their partners and to ensure partner treatment than girls diagnosed and treated without seeing the film.
11/3/09

LOW CHOLESTEROL MAY SHRINK RISK FOR HIGH-GRADE PROSTATE CANCER
Low Cholesterol May Shrink Risk for High-Grade Prostate Cancer
Men with lower cholesterol are less likely than those with higher levels to develop high-grade prostate cancer, an aggressive form of the disease with a poorer prognosis, according to results of a Johns Hopkins collaborative study.

10/30/09

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON FATTY ACIDS
-- Scientists discover lipid may be vital to learning
Saturated fats have a deservedly bad reputation, but Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that a sticky lipid occurring naturally at high levels in the brain may help us memorize grandma’s recipe for cinnamon buns, as well as recall how, decades ago, she served them up steaming from the oven.

10/30/09

SIGHT GONE, BUT NOT NECESSARILY LOST?
--Johns Hopkins Researchers Find Life in Blood-Starved Retinas
Like all tissues in the body, the eye needs a healthy blood supply to function properly. Poorly developed blood vessels can lead to visual impairment or even blindness. While many of the molecules involved in guiding the development of the intricate blood vessel architecture are known, only now are we learning how these molecules work and how they might affect sight.

10/29/09

OF MICE AND MEN: STEM CELLS AND ETHICAL UNCERTAINTIES
-- Johns Hopkins bioethicists pose questions, offer perspective
The recent creation of live mice from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) not only represents a remarkable scientific achievement, but also raises important issues, according to bioethicists at the Berman Institute of Bioethics.

10/29/09

'MOONLIGHTING' MOLECULES DISCOVERED
--Johns Hopkins Researchers Uncover New Kink in Gene Control
Since the completion of the human genome sequence, a question has baffled researchers studying gene control: How is it that humans, being far more complex than the lowly yeast, do not proportionally contain in our genome significantly more gene-control proteins?

10/29/09

LESSONS FROM FLU SEASONS PAST: RISK OF SERIOUS FLU-RELATED SICKNESS FAR OUTPACES RISK OF INJECTABLE VACCINE IN PREGNANT WOMEN
Pregnant women who catch the flu are at serious risk for flu-related complications, including death, and that risk far outweighs the risk of possible side effects from injectable vaccines containing killed virus, according to an extensive review of published research and data from previous flu seasons.

10/29/09

LACK OF INSURANCE MAY HAVE FIGURED IN NEARLY 17,000 CHILDHOOD DEATHS, STUDY SHOWS
Lack of health insurance might have led or contributed to nearly 17,000 deaths among hospitalized children in the United States in the span of less than two decades, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children's

10/27/09MUSCLE WEAKNESS A COMMON SIDE EFFECT OF LONG STAYS IN INTENSIVE CARE UNITS
--Doctors need better definitions to prevent and treat physical debility among critically ill
After decades of focusing on the management of respiratory failure, circulatory shock and severe infections that lead to extended stays in hospital intensive care units, critical care researchers are increasingly turning attention to what they believe is a treatable complication developed by many who spend days or weeks confined to an ICU bed: debilitating muscle weakness that can linger long after hospital discharge.
10/26/09NEW "SCHIZOPHRENIA GENE" PROMPTS RESEARCHERS TO TEST POTENTIAL DRUG TARGET
Johns Hopkins scientists report having used a commercially available drug to successfully “rescue” animal brain cells that they had intentionally damaged by manipulating a newly discovered gene that links susceptibility genes for schizophrenia and autism.
10/23/09NOW HEAR THIS
-- Johns Hopkins Scientists Show How Tiny Cells Deliver Big Sound?
Deep in the ear, 95 percent of the cells that shuttle sound to the brain are big, Fuchsboisterous neurons that, to date, have explained most of what scientists know about how hearing works. Whether a rare, whisper-small second set of cells also carry signals from the inner ear to the brain and have a real role in processing sound has been a matter of debate.
10/22/09PHYSICIANS HAVE LESS RESPECT FOR OBESE PATIENTS, STUDY SUGGESTS
--Findings raise questions about whether docs’ negative attitudes affect patients’ health
Doctors have less respect for their obese patients than they do for patients of normal weight, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The findings raise questions about whether negative physician attitudes about obesity could be affecting the long-term health of their heavier patients.
10/21/09$3.7 MILLION NIH GRANT WILL FUND STUDY ON STEM CELLS DERIVED FROM ALS PATIENTS
Johns Hopkins scientists have been awarded a $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to learn more about the nerve and muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using stem cells developed from ALS patients’ skin. The award, given over a two-year span, will be shared with three other laboratories, including one at Harvard University and two at Columbia University.
10/20/09NEW ANNE AND MIKE ARMSTRONG MEDICAL EDUCATION BUILDING DEDICATED
State-of-the-art building will be home of revolutionary new medical education Armstrong Medical Education Buildingcurriculum
More than a century ago, Johns Hopkins revolutionized the teaching of medicine with a new curriculum that merged evidence-based science with patient-centered clinical care. This so-called Hopkins model became the national gold standard for modern medical education.
10/19/09JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS AT SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE ANNUAL MEETING
--Chicago, Il, October 17-21
  • GETTING TO THE ROOT OF MENTAL ILLNESS
  • RECEPTORS, SYNAPSES AND MEMORIES: RICHARD HUGANIR, PH.D
  • SPEEDING DISCOVERY: THE NOSE KNOWS
  • NERVE TRANSPLANTS AS POSSIBLE TREATMENT FOR ALS-RELATED FOR ALS-RELATED RESPIRATORY
  • GINGKO DELIVERS STRIKE FOR STROKE
10/14/09

HISPANIC CHILDREN RARELY GET TOP-NOTCH CARE FOR BRAIN TUMORS
Hispanic children diagnosed with brain tumors get high-quality treatment at hospitals that specialize in neurosurgery far less often than other children with the same condition, potentially compromising their immediate prognosis and long-term survival, according to research from Johns Hopkins published in October’s Pediatrics.

10/14/09STEPHANIE DESMON JOINS JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE’S MEDIA TEAM
Stephanie Desmon, an award-winning medical journalist, has joined Johns Hopkins Medicine as a senior media relations representative and public information officer.
10/14/09

PEDIATRIC OTOLARYNGOLOGIST RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS AWARD
David E. Tunkel, M.D., director of the Division of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and associate professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has received the Distinguished Service Award of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS).

10/14/09NEW MEDICAL INFORMATICS JOURNAL TO LAUNCH IN DECEMBER
Two Johns Hopkins Children’s Center researchers have assembled a 25-member editorial board of international experts to launch a quarterly online medical journal devoted to original research and commentary on the use of computer automation in the day-to-day practice of medicine.
10/12/09JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS RECEIVE $1M ARRA AWARD TO “MAP MOBILE DNA IN HUMANS”
Sequencing the human genome was just one step in understanding our biology: Researchers still know very little about the function of most of our DNA. Now, a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has been awarded $1 million in stimulus funding to examine how certain mobile segments of DNA known as transposons contribute to human genetic diversity by mapping transposon locations in more than 100 people over the next two years.
10/12/09“CONSUMER CHOICE” AWARD GOES TO THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL FOR THE 14TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR
For the 14th straight year, the National Research Corporation (NRC) has given The Johns Hopkins Hospital its Consumer Choice Award for the Baltimore region. For 2009-2010, Hopkins also was rated as the top choice by consumers in the Bethesda, Md., area. The award is based on ratings from health care consumers, who assessed hospital standings based on four metrics: best overall quality, best image/reputation; best doctors, and best nurses.
10/8/09

UNEQUAL ACCESS: HISPANIC CHILDREN RARELY GET TOP-NOTCH CARE FOR BRAIN TUMORS
Hispanic children diagnosed with brain tumors get high-quality treatment at hospitals that specialize in neurosurgery far less often than other children with the same condition, potentially compromising their immediate prognosis and long-term survival, according to research from Johns Hopkins published in October’s Pediatrics.

10/7/09

AUTISM: GENOME-WIDE HUNT REVEALS NEW GENETIC LINKS
About 90 percent of autism spectrum disorders have suspected genetic causes but few genes have been identified so far. Now, leading an international team, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified several genetic links to autism, chief among them a variant of semaphorin 5A, whose protein product controls nerve connections in the brain.

10/7/09

H1N1 BRIEFING BY LOCAL EXPERTS ON WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW: TAKE PRECAUTIONS, DON’T PANIC AND DON’T OVERREACT
Experts in emergency medicine, infectious diseases and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and the University of Maryland Hospital for Children will host an update on H1N1 flu advice for parents in the wake of a sharp increase in cases since the last week of August.

10/7/09

DISCUSSING THE BAD NEWS: WHAT PARENTS OF FETUSES WITH CONGENITAL DEFECTS WANT FROM THEIR DOCTORS
Before and after delivery, the mothers of unborn babies prenatally diagnosed with severe birth defects want doctors to walk a fine line between giving them realistic information-no matter how grim the prognosis-and giving them hope for the best possible outcome.

10/5/09“TELOMERE” EXPERT CAROL GREIDER SHARES 2009 NOBEL?PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINECarol Greider
Carol Greider, Ph.D., 48, one of the world’s pioneering researchers on the structure of chromosome ends known as telomeres, today was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Academy recognized her for her 1984 discovery of telomerase (ta-LAW-mer-ace), an enzyme that maintains the length and integrity of chromosome ends and is critical for the health and survival of all living cells and organisms.
MEDIA ADVISORY
10/1/09“MASK DEBATE” DIVERTING NEEDED ATTENTION FROM FLU-PREVENTIVE MEASURES THAT WORK
Infection control experts at Johns Hopkins and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control report that a contentious debate in the medical community over what type of protective masks health workers should wear to prevent the spread of H1N1 and other flu viruses is dangerously distracting the health care community from focusing on simple prevention measures that are clearly known to work.
9/30/09JOHNS HOPKINS AND USC WIN $10.4 MILLION TO STUDY CANCER EPIGENOME
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded $10.4 million to Johns Hopkins and The University of Southern Califonia (USC) to decipher epigenetic marks in the cancer genome. The joint five-year grant is expected to help scientists develop drugs and tests that target epigenetic changes in cancer cells.
9/30/09PREVENTING MEDICAL ERRORS: AVOID BLAME GAME, BUT PUNISH HABITUAL OFFENDERS
Patient safety experts at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere are taking their prescription for avoiding medical errors in hospital care one step beyond already successful “no fault, no blame” approaches, calling now for penalties for doctors and nurses who fail to comply with proven safety measures.
9/30/09H1N1 (SWINE INFLUENZA) EXPERTS AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS
Johns Hopkins has a wide range of experts available for interviews and comments about H1N1 and seasonal flu, emergency preparedness, infection control, transmission in children, vaccine safety, flu treatment, public health ethics, flu in cancer patients, and public communications strategies.?
9/28/09

JOHNS HOPKINS EPIGENETIC CENTER RECEIVES $16.8 MILLION NIH GRANT
--Funds will further research on genetic regulation’s role in diseases
Johns Hopkins’ Center for the Epigenetics of Common Human Disease has been chosen as one of four recipients of a $45 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for Centers of Excellence to advance genomics research. The Hopkins Center will receive $16.8 million over five years.

9/24/09NIH “PIONEER” AND “INNOVATOR” AWARDS GO TO JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS
?A Johns Hopkins scientist who proposes to manipulate forces to activate enzymes in live cells, and a second researcher who has developed a way to hunt down tuberculosis germs with real-time imaging have received a total of $4 million in special awards from the National Institutes of Health.
9/21/09

HEALING BADLY DAMAGED LUNGS: DISTINCT SET OF WHITE BLOOD CELLS FOUND TO SET THE PACE OF WOUND REPAIR
After more than 50 experiments in mice, medical scientists at Johns Hopkins have mapped out the basic steps taken by a particular set of white blood cells in setting the pace of recovery after serious lung injury.

9/21/09

MILD EXERCISE WHILE IN THE ICU REDUCES BAD EFFECTS ICU Research UpdateOF PROLONGED BED REST??
Critical care experts at Johns Hopkins are reporting initial success in boosting recovery and combating muscle wasting among critically ill, mostly bed-bound patients using any one of a trio of mild physical therapy exercises during their stays in the intensive care unit (ICU).

9/21/09JOHNS HOPKINS LAUNCHES STEM CELL WEB DOCUMENTARY?
-Multimedia production dovetails with 2009 World Stem Cell Summit in Baltimore, Md.
Johns Hopkins Medicine, a co-host of the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit, is telling a comprehensive stem cell story via a new interactive Web site http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/stem_cell_research/ on which its researchers and clinicians collectively describe their explorations into stem cell biology and engineering.
9/21/09HISTORIC JOHNS HOPKINS MULTIPLE KIDNEY SWAP OPERATIONS TO BE FEATURED ON THE DR. OZ SHOW
Robert A. Montgomery, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center and 11 Johns Hopkins patients, who were part of the first eight-way, multihospital, domino kidney transplant this summer, will be featured on the new Dr. Oz Show.
9/18/09CHEAP, QUICK BEDSIDE “EYE MOVEMENT” EXAM OUTPERFORMS MRI FOR DIAGNOSING STROKE IN PATIENTS WITH DIZZINESS
-- Small study demonstrates possibilities of reducing unnecessary MRI tests and improving safety
In a small “proof of principle” study, stroke researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Illinois have found that a simple, one-minute eye movement exam performed at the bedside worked better than an MRI to distinguish new strokes from other less serious disorders in patients complaining of dizziness, nausea and spinning sensations.
917/09

ANTIOXIDANT CONTROLS SPINAL CORD DEVELOPMENT
--Johns Hopkins Neuroscientists Discover New Molecular Control
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered how one antioxidant protein controls the activity of another protein, critical for the development of spinal cord neurons. The research, publishing this week in Cell, describes a never-before known mechanism of protein control.

9/16/09GENETIC HINT FOR RIDDING THE BODY OF HEPATITIS C
More than seventy percent of people who contract Hepatitis C will live with the virus that causes it for the rest of their lives and some will develop serious liver disease including cancer. However, 30 to 40 percent of those infected somehow defeat the infection and get rid of the virus with no treatment. In this week’s Advanced Online Publication at?Nature, Johns Hopkins researchers working as part of an international team report the discovery of the strongest genetic alteration associated with the ability to get rid of the infection.
9/16/09GUIDE ON LUNG CANCER IN “NEVER-SMOKERS”: A DIFFERENT DISEASE AND DIFFERENT TREATMENTS
---Sixth largest cancer killer
A committee of scientists led by Johns Hopkins investigators has published a new guide to the biology, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in never-smokers, fortifying measures for what physicians have long known is a very different disease than in smokers.
9/15.09BEST DRESSED SALE SET FOR OCTOBER 1-4
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 2009, now in its 42nd year. 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.
9/10/09

DIVIDING CELLS “FEEL” THEIR WAY OUT OF WARP? Robinson
Every moment, millions of a body’s cells flawlessly divvy up their genes and pinch perfectly in half to form two identical progeny for the replenishment of tissues and organs — even as they collide, get stuck, and squeeze through infinitesimally small spaces that distort their shapes.

9/3/09SURGICAL SCRUB SOLUTION: IT’S GOOD FOR PATIENTS, TOO
- Chlorhexidine bathing is cheap and effective means of protecting patients chlorhexidine YouTube videofrom superbugs?
Giving critically ill hospital patients a daily bath with a mild, soapy solution of the same antibacterial agent used by surgeons to “scrub in” before an operation can dramatically cut down, by as much as 73 percent, the number of patients who develop potentially deadly bloodstream infections, according to a new study by patient safety experts at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and five other institutions.
9/3/09ANTICANCER DRUG YIELDS POSITIVE RESPONSE IN PEOPLE WITH ADVANCED OR RECURRING SKIN AND BRAIN CANCER
The Hedgehog signaling pathway is involved in a preliminary study and case report describing positive responses to an experimental anticancer drug in a majority of people with advanced or metastatic basal cell skin cancers. One patient with the most common type of pediatric brain cancer, medulloblastoma, also showed tumor shrinkage.
8/28/09HIV SUBTYPE LINKED TO INCREASED LIKELIHOOD FOR DEMENTIA
--Subtype D may cause one of leading types of dementia worldwide
Patients infected with a particular subtype of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are more likely to develop dementia than patients with other subtypes, a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers shows.
8/26/09DISCLOSING FINANCIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST TO RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS MAY NOT BE ENOUGH
Disclosure of financial conflicts of interests to potential participants in research is important, but may have a limited role in managing these conflicts, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins, Duke and Wake Forest.
8/26/09BRAIN CANCER EXPERTS AT JOHNS HOPKINS
Johns Hopkins’ Brain Tumor Center is one of the largest brain tumor treatment and research centers in the world. With specialists ranging from neurosurgeons, oncologists, and laboratory researchers currently developing new cutting edge treatments, Johns Hopkins can provide you with unique sources who can answer your timely questions about brain tumors.
8/25/09SETTING PRIORITIES FOR PATIENT-SAFETY EFFORTS WILL MEAN HARD CHOICES
--Johns Hopkins bioethicists and safety experts suggest guidelines for policy makers.
Is it more urgent for hospitals, doctors and nurses to focus resources on preventing the thousands of falls that injure hospitalized patients each year, or to home in on preventing rare but dramatic instances of wrong-side surgery? Is it best to concentrate immediately on preventing pediatric medical errors or on preventing drug interactions in the elderly?
8/18/09MILK SAFE, EVEN ENCOURAGED, FOR SOME AFTER TREATMENT FOR MILK Robert WoodALLERGY
-Small study followed 18 children for up to 17 months
Some children with a history of severe milk allergy can safely drink milk and consume other dairy products every day, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and published in the Aug. 10 online edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
8/17/09COMMON SLEEPING DISORDER UPS CHANCES OF DYING? video
- Study is the first to quantify death rates for sleep apnea, especially in people who snore?
Nightly bouts of interrupted, oxygen-deprived sleep from a collapsed airway in the upper neck raises the chances of dying in middle-aged to elderly people by as much as 46 percent in the most severe cases, according to a landmark study on sleep apnea by lung experts at Johns Hopkins and six other U.S. medical centers.
8/6/09JOHN D. STRANDBERG, D.V.M., PH.D., D.A.C.V.P., 1939-2009
John D. Strandberg, Distinguished Member of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and former director of the Division of Comparative Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, passed away on Aug. 1 in St. Paul, Minn. after a long illness. He was 69.
8/6/09JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS MAKE STEM CELLS FROM DEVELOPING SPERM
The promise of stem cell therapy may lie in uncovering how adult cells revert back into a primordial, stem cell state , whose fate is yet to be determined. Now, cell scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have identified key molecular players responsible for this reversion in fruit fly sperm cells. Reporting online this week in Cell Stem Cell, researchers show that two proteins are responsible redirecting cells on the way to becoming sperm back to stem cells.
8/6/09

COLON CANCER MAY YIELD TO CELLULAR SUGAR STARVATION
--Dietary sugar intake unlikely to have any impact, scientists caution
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have discovered how two cancer-promoting genes enhance a tumor’s capacity to grow and survive under conditions where normal cells die. The knowledge, they say, may offer new treatments that starve cancer cells of a key nutrient - sugar. However, the scientists caution that research does not suggest that altering dietary sugar will make any difference in the growth and development of cancer.

8/06/09HOPKINS SCIENTISTS FIND CELLS RESPONSIBLE FOR BLADDER CANCER'S SPREAD
Powerful cells located in same tissue location as bladder stem cells
Johns Hopkins scientists have tracked down a powerful set of cells in bladder tumors that seem to be primarily responsible for the cancer’s growth and spread using a technique that takes advantage of similarities between tumor and organ growth. The findings, reported in the July Stem Cells, could help scientists develop new ways of finding and attacking similar cells in other types of cancer.
8/03/09IS THERE LONG-TERM BRAIN DAMAGE AFTER BYPASS SURGERY? MORE EVIDENCE PUTS THE BLAME ON HEART DISEASE ITSELF
Brain scientists and cardiac surgeons at Johns Hopkins have evidence from 227 heart bypass surgery patients that long-term memory losses and cognitive problems they experience are due to the underlying coronary artery disease itself and not ill after-effects from having used a heart-lung machine.
7/31/09MEDIA SOURCE: BIOETHICIST RUTH FADEN CAN DISCUSS THE ETHICAL RAMIFICATIONS OF H1N1 VACCINE PRIORITY GROUP
Dr. Ruth Faden, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, is available to discuss the ethical ramifications of this recommendation and other morally challenging dimensions of pandemic influenza, health care reform, and research involving pregnant women.
7/30/09HOPKINS PSYCHIATRISTS NAMED “TOP THERAPISTS” BY WASHINGTONIAN MAGAZINE
Four Johns Hopkins psychiatrists have been named “Top Therapists” in this month’s Washingtonian magazine. The list includes geriatric psychiatrist Peter V. Rabins, M.D., M.P.H.; eating disorders psychiatrist Angela S. Guarda, M.D.; general psychiatrist Todd S. Cox, M.D.; and child and adolescent psychiatrist Elizabeth A. Kastelic, M.D.
7/30/09BRING ON THE “SUDS”: PROTOTYPE, 7-FOOT-TALL SANITIZER AUTOMATES SUDSDISINFECTION OF HARD-TO-CLEAN HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT
- SUDS machine designed to reduce infections and cut back on expensive “disposables”
Hopkins experts in applied physics, computer engineering, infectious diseases, emergency medicine, microbiology, pathology and surgery have unveiled a 7-foot-tall, $10,000 shower-cubicle-shaped device that automatically sanitizes in 30 minutes all sorts of hard-to-clean equipment in the highly trafficked hospital emergency department. The novel device can sanitize and disinfect equipment of all shapes and sizes, from intravenous line poles and blood pressure cuffs, to pulse oximeter wires and electrocardiogram (EKG) wires, to computer keyboards and cellphones.
7/26/09AN ‘EYE CATCHING’ VISION DISCOVERY
Nearly all species have some ability to detect light. At least three types of cells in the retina allow us to see images or distinguish between night and day. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered in fish yet another type of cell that can sense light and contribute to vision.
7/22/09CLOSE CAREGIVER RELATIONSHIP MAY SLOW ALZHEIMER’S DECLINE
--Study believed first to document potential impact of emotional closeness on course of disease
A study led by Johns Hopkins and Utah State University researchers suggests that a particularly close relationship with caregivers may give people with Alzheimer’s disease a marked edge over those without one in retaining mind and brain function over time. The beneficial effect of emotional intimacy that the researchers saw among participants was on par with some drugs used to treat the disease.
7/22/09

HEPATITIS C INFECTION: TREATMENT OPTIONS EQUALLY EFFECTIVE, LIKELIHOOD OF SUCCESS KNOWN EARLY ON
- Landmark “comparative effectiveness” study redefines treatment for potentially deadly, liver-damaging disease
Results of a long-awaited study of 3,070 American adults at Johns Hopkins and 118 other U.S. medical centers show that treatment with either of the two standard antiviral drug therapies is safe and offers the best way for people infected with hepatitis C to prevent liver scarring, organ failure and death.

7/20/09JOHNS HOPKINS CO-SPONSORS 2009 WORLD STEM CELL SUMMIT?
Johns Hopkins Medicine is co-sponsoring the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit to be held in Baltimore this September.
7/20/09DAILY POTASSIUMM CITRATE WARDS OFF KIDNEY STONES IN SEIZURE PATIENTS ON HIGH-FAT DIET?
Children on the high-fat ketogenic diet to control epileptic seizures can prevent the excruciatingly painful kidney stones that the diet can sometimes cause if they take a daily supplement of potassium citrate the day they start the diet, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
7/20/09HOPKINS-DESIGNED ANIMAL TB "TRACKER" TO SPEED DRUG AND VACCINE STUDIES?
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a novel way to monitor in real time the behavior of the TB bacterium in mouse lungs noninvasively pinpointing the exact location of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The new monitoring system is expected to speed up what is currently a slow and cumbersome process to test the safety and efficacy of various TB drug regimens and vaccines in animals. Plans are already under way for developing a similar system to monitor TB disease in humans.
7/17/09JOHNS HOPKINS FACULTY MEMBERS AWARDED 2009 WHITE HOUSE EARLY CAREER AWARDS
Pablo A. Celnik, M.D., an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Thao (Vicky) Nguyen, 32, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering at The Johns Hopkins University, are among the 100 winners of this year’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
7/16/09JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE TO OFFER NEW DEGREE PROGRAM IN INFORMATICS
- ‘Applied Health Sciences Informatics’ Approved by MHEC
A new, intensive, one-year master’s degree program designed to prepare graduates for informatics leadership positions in clinical, public health and scientific settings will be offered beginning in September by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) approved the new program in June.
7/16/09THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL TOPS U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT “HONOR ROLL” 19TH YEAR IN A ROW
The Johns Hopkins Hospital has once again – for the 19th consecutive time -- earned the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of more than 4,800 American hospitals, placing first in three medical specialties and in the top 16 in 13 others.
7/16/09JOHNS HOPKINS PHYSICIANS TO PRESENT A CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION COURSE AT AT ST. MATTHEW'S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) and St. Matthew’s University (SMU), Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, will present a wide-ranging series of continuing medical education (CME) lectures focusing on new advances in treatment of arthritis and brain tumors, and other topics for local health care professionals and medical students on July 17, 2009.
7/15/09RESEARCHERS ID BRAIN-PROTECTING PROTEIN
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a novel protein that can protect brain cells by interrupting a naturally occurring “stress cascade” resulting in cell death.
7/15/09

HOPKINS SURGEON EARNS AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN John CameronPANCREATIC CANCER TREATMENT
Surgeon John L. Cameron, M.D., for 19 years the surgeon in chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, is among the 2009 recipients of the Hope Funds Awards of Excellence in cancer research. He is being honored for decades of work refining the Whipple procedure, one of the most common surgical treatments for pancreatic cancer, work that has helped reduce postsurgery death rates from 25 percent to less than 5 percent.

7/9/09HOPKINS SCIENTIST IS 2009’S OUTSTANDINChristine ZinkG WOMAN?VETERINARIAN
A Johns Hopkins veterinarian whose vocation is HIV research and avocation is the care of dog “athletes” has been named the 2009 Outstanding Woman Veterinarian of the Year by the Association for Women Veterinarians Foundation.
7/9/09

ETHICISTS URGE INCLUSION OF PREGNANT WOMEN IN FEDERAL CHILD-HEALTH STUDY
A team of ethicists from Johns Hopkins, Duke and Georgetown universities is urging organizers of a recently begun $3 billion decades-long study of children’s health to immediately add provisions to look at the health and medical profiles of the children’s mothers during their pregnancies.

7/7/09

JOHNS HOPKINS LEADS FIRST 16-PATIENT, MULTICENTER “DOMINO DONOR” KIDNEY TRANSPLANT
Surgical teams at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit successfully completed the first eight-way, multihospital, domino kidney transplant. The transplant involved eight donors — 3 men and 5 women along with eight organ recipients — 3 men and 5 women.

7/7/09WRONG DOSE OF HEART MEDS TOO FREQUENT IN CHILDREN
-Infants experience errors most often
Infants and young children treated with heart drugs get the wrong dose or end up on the wrong end of medication errors more often than older children, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center to be published July 6 in Pediatrics.
7/2/09BIOETHICISTS LEAD CALL FOR PUBLIC DEBATES ON FUTURE USES OF STEM CELLS
--Science is running ahead of public debate and guidelines to grapple with use of stem cell-derived eggs and sperm.
More than 40 scientists, bioethicists, lawyers and science journal editors are calling on their colleagues, policy makers and the public to begin developing guidelines for the research and reproductive use of stem cell-derived eggs and sperm, even though such use may be a decade or more away.
7/2/09SUBURBAN HOSPITAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM JOINS JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE
-Celebratory Event To Be Held at Suburban July 1, at 3:00 P.M. Ahead of schedule, officials of Suburban Hospital Healthcare System (SHHS) and The Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation completed and signed documents on June 30, 2009, officially integrating the Montgomery County-based SHHS into the Johns Hopkins Health System (JHHS). Under terms of the transaction, which does not involve any financial exchange, SHHS becomes a wholly owned subsidiary corporation of JHHS and a member of Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), while retaining its commitment to the local community and community physicians. The SHHS name is not expected to change at this time, and both leadership and day-to-day operations at Suburban will remain the same.
7/1/09PREDICTING THE RETURN OF PROSTATE CANCER: NEW JOHNS HOPKINS STUDY BETTERS THE ODDS OF SUCCESS
Cancer experts at Johns Hopkins say a study tracking 774 prostate cancer patients for a median of eight years has shown that a three-way combination of measurements has the best chance yet of predicting disease metastasis.
6/29/09FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS WITH ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS SHOWN POSSIBLE IN ANIMAL STUDIES
Tuberculosis (TB) experts at Johns Hopkins have evidence from a four-year series of experiments in mice that anti-inflammatory drugs could eventually prove effective in treating the highly contagious lung disease, adding to current antibiotic therapies.
6/29/09

VENOM SHOTS WORK FOR SEVERE “LOCAL” STING REACTIONS, TOO
--Study encourages use beyond treatment for life-threatening stings
The same bee and other insect venom shots that doctors use to prevent deadly systemic reactions to insect stings can also tone down large local allergic reactions that, while not dangerous, can be painful and inconvenient, a Johns Hopkins study shows. Results of the study are published in the June 2009?Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.?

6/29/09CRUNCHING THE (SOMETIMES SURPRISING) NUMBERS ON HORMONE-RELATED DISEASE
A dogged review of the medical literature has produced what is believed to be the nation’s first comprehensive estimate of the extent of dozens of endocrine disorders in the United States.
6/18/09JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS EDIT GENES IN HUMAN STEM CELLS
Johns Hopkins Researchers Edit Genes in Human Stem Cells
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have successfully edited the genome of human- induced pluripotent stem cells, making possible the future development of patient-specific stem cell therapies. Reporting this week in Cell Stem Cell, the team altered a gene responsible for causing the rare blood disease paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH, establishing for the first time a useful system to learn more about the disease
6/18/09JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS OUT A GENE FOR GOUT
Having partnered last year with an international team that surveyed the genomes of 12,000 individuals to find a genetic cause for gout, Johns Hopkins scientists now have shown that the malfunctioning gene they helped uncover can lead to high concentrations of blood urate that forms crystals in joint tissue, causing inflammation and pain — the hallmark of this disease.
6/17/09

HOPKINS CHILDREN'S ON USN&WR LIST OF BEST CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS
Hopkins Children’s Ranks in the Top Ten of Nine Specialties
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center is among the top ten children’s hospitals in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of American children’s hospitals. This year, the 2009 America's Best Children's Hospitals included an “Honor Roll” of 10 pediatric hospitals in no particular order that ranked in all 10 specialties. Hopkins Children’s is among the ten best.

6/17/09HIV ANTIBODY TESTS UNRELIABLE FOR EARLY INFECTIONS IN TEENS
A previously healthy teenager shows up at the doctor’s office with a sore throat, fever, aches and general malaise. Routine blood tests are normal, an HIV test comes back negative, and the pediatrician sends the patient home with a diagnosis of acute viral infection.
6/17/09ROUX-EN-Y WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY RAISES KIDNEY STONE? Brian MatlagaRISK
The most popular type of gastric bypass surgery appears to nearly?double the chance that a patient will develop kidney stones, despite earlier assumptions that it would not, Johns Hopkins doctors report in a new study. The overall risk, however, remains fairly small at about 8 percent.
6/11/09LOST MOLECULE IS LETHAL FOR LIVER CANCER CELLS IN MICE? livers
-MicroRNA kills tumor cells, lets healthy cells live
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered a potential strategy for cancer therapy by focusing on what’s missing in tumors.
6/10/09JOHNS HOPKINS NEUROSCIENTISTS WATCH MEMORIES FORM IN REAL TIME
Our ability to form long-term memories depends on cells in the brain making strong connections with each other. Yet while it’s not well understood how those connections are made, lost or changed, the process is known to involve the movement of the AMPA receptor protein to and from those neuronal connections
6/8/09JOHNS HOPKINS HOLDS RIBBON-CUTTING CEREMONY FOR NEW WILMER EYE INSTITUTE BUILDING
The Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins will celebrate the end of construction of the new Wilmer building at The Johns Hopkins Hospital with a one-hour ceremony and ribbon cutting, starting at 11 a.m., on Wednesday, June 10.
6/5/09JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE RETAINS CONSULTING GROUP TO HELP DEVELOP ADVANCED HEALTH CARE SERVICES FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC (JHHC), the managed care arm of Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), has signed an agreement with The Winkenwerder Company LLC for strategic consulting services, a move designed to build on and expand Johns Hopkins’ longstanding relationships with government health agencies.
6/4/09MYSTERY SOLVED: JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS SAY TINY PROTEIN-ACTIVATOR RESPONSIBLE FOR BRAIN CELL DAMAGE IN HUNTINGTON DISEASE
Johns Hopkins brain scientists have figured out why a faulty protein accumulates in cells everywhere in the bodies of people with Huntington’s disease (HD), but only kills cells in the part of the brain that controls movement, causing negligible damage to tissues elsewhere. The answer, reported this week in Science, lies in one tiny protein called “Rhes” that’s found only in the part of the brain that controls movement. The findings, according to the Hopkins scientists, explain the unique pattern of brain damage in HD and its symptoms, as well as offer a strategy for new therapy.
6/1/09HOPKINS STUDY: WHEN ADULT PATIENTS HAVE ANXIETY DISORDER, THEIR CHILDREN NEED HELP TOO
In what is believed to be the first U.S. study designed to prevent anxiety disorders in the children of anxious parents, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center have found that a family-based program reduced symptoms and the risk of developing an anxiety disorder among these children.
5/29/09Denyce Graves and guestsJOHNS HOPKINS TRANSPLANT TEAM HOLDS SUCCESSFUL?FUNDRAISER
- ‘Let the Music Move You’ event raises more than $70,000 for transplant research
An evening of opera music featuring Metropolitan opera star Denyise Graves was held recently to raise funds to benefit organ transplant surgery research and care at Johns Hopkins. The event, titled “Let the Music Move You,” was attended by 70 guests at Graves’ home in Bethesda, Md.
5/29/09FILM CHRONICLE OF CODY UNSER’S 9-YEAR STRUGGLE WITH PARALYZING TRANSVERSE MYELITIS PREMIERES JUNE 2
-- Glenn Close narrates documentary featuring her treatment at Johns Hopkins
A documentary history of long-time Johns Hopkins patient Cody Unser, the daughter and granddaughter of Indy 500 car racing greats, will premiere at a benefit June 2 at the Hershey Theater in Hershey, Pa. The event is hosted by Mario Andretti and his wife Dee Ann. Andretti is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the Formula One World Championship.
5/28/09THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL NAMED TO INTERNATIONAL LIST OF MOST ETHICAL ORGANIZATIONS
The Ethisphere Institute, a New York-based think-tank established to advance best practices in business ethics and corporate social responsibility, has named The Johns Hopkins Hospital to its 2009 list of the business world’s most ethical companies and institutions.
5/27/09TV INDUSTRY FOUNDATION PICKS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS FOR CANCER RESEARCH “DREAM TEAMS”???
----“Stand Up to Cancer” research funds raised by ABC, CBS, NBC telecast last fall
A TV industry- and celebrity-driven cancer research project has chosen scientists at Johns Hopkins for two of five multi-institutional “dream teams” financed by “Stand Up to Cancer “ grants totaling more than $6 million.
5/25/09SURVEY SUGGESTS HIGHER RISK OF FALLS DUE TO DIZZINESS IN MIDDLE-AGED AND OLDER AMERICANS?
-- Millions unaware of danger from vestibular dysfunction; diabetes a risk factor, along with age
A full third of American adults, 69 million men and women over age 40, are up to 12 times more likely to have a serious fall because they have some form of inner-ear dysfunction that throws them off balance and makes them dizzy, according to Johns Hopkins experts.
5/20/09JOHNS HOPKINS PATIENT SAFETY PROGRAM RECEIVES HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS MAGAZINE’S 2009 INNOVATOR AWARD
Johns Hopkins Medicine’s patient safety program has earned second place in Healthcare Informatics magazine’s eighth annual Innovator Awards.
5/20/09HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES OFFERED FREE SCREENING FOR RISK OF DANGEROUS HEART ABNORMALTIES
-- “Heart Hype” event staffed by Johns Hopkins heart disease experts to kick-off second annual state campaign
For the second year in a row, volunteer heart disease experts from Johns Hopkins will staff and run Maryland’s only screening program to detect early signs of life-threatening heart abnormalities, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, in student athletes.
5/20/09SCIENCE WRITERS' SYMPOSIUM
“Ever Wonder What Gets Your Senses Revving?”
Come spend the day learning about the latest in sensory biology research at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
5/19/09HEART SURGEON DENTON A. COOLEY TO SPEAK AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE CONVOCATION
--Pioneering practitioner and Johns Hopkins graduate chosen by graduates for ceremony on May 22
?Denton A. Cooley, M.D., an American pioneer in heart surgery, will be the guest speaker at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s 114th convocation on Friday, May 22, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.
5/18/09MOCK CPR DRILLS IN KIDS SHOW MANY RESIDENTS FAIL IN KEY SKILLS
"Staged” CPR drills quickly close the training gaps
Research from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center exposes alarming gaps in training hospital residents in “first response” emergency treatment of staged cardiorespiratory arrests in children, while at the same time offering a potent recipe for fixing the problem.
5/15/09

NEW LEAD ON MALARIA TREATMENT
--Variation of Natural Compound Cures Malaria in Mice
Approximately 350 million to 500 million cases of malaria are diagnosed each year mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. While medications to prevent and treat malaria do exist, the demand for new treatments is on the rise, in part, because malaria parasites have developed a resistance to existing medications. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered one way to stop malaria parasite growth, and this new finding could guide the development of new malaria treatments.

5/14/09

OLD DIABETES DRUG TEACHES EXPERTS NEW TRICKS
Research from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center reveals that the drug most commonly used in type 2 diabetics who don’t need insulin works on a much more basic level than once thought, treating persistently elevated blood sugar — the hallmark of type 2 diabetes — by regulating the genes that control its production.

5/12/09RETINAL DISEASE, SIGHT MAY DEPEND ON SECOND SITES
If two people have the same genetic disease, why would one person go blind in childhood but the other later in life or not at all? For a group of genetic diseases — so-called ciliary diseases that include Bardet-Biedl syndrome, Meckel-Gruber syndrome, and Joubert syndrome — the answer lies in one gene that is already linked to two of these diseases and also seems to increase the risk of progressive blindness in patients with other ciliary diseases.?
5/10/09NEW GENES IMPLICATED IN HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, along with an international team of collaborators, have identified common genetic changes associated with blood pressure and hypertension. The study, reporting online next week in Nature Genetics, breaks new ground in understanding blood pressure regulation and may lead to advances in hypertension therapy.
5/6/09NEW EVIDENCE TIES GENE TO ALZHEIMER’S
Of dozens of candidates potentially involved in increasing a person’s risk for the most common type of Alzheimer’s disease that affects more than 5 million Americans over the age of 65, one gene that keeps grabbing Johns Hopkins researchers’ attention makes a protein called neuroglobin.
5/4/09JOHNS HOPKINS’ YOUNG ENGINEERS RECEIVE INDUSTRY SUPPORT
--Johnson & Johnson Fuels Prototype Development of Medical Devices
Metal detectors for removing surgical screws, intensive care walkers and radiological markers for locating tumors—what will they think of next?
5/5/09

NEWS TIPS FROM THE 2009 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PEDIATRIC ACADEMIC SOCIETIES
MAY 2-5, BALTIMORE CONVENTION CENTER, 1 PRATT ST.

  • BLACK KIDS WITH HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MAY BE AT HIGHER RISK FOR HEART DISEASE
  • MEMO TO DOCS: MINIMIZE SCANS THAT EXPOSE YOUNG PATIENTS TO RADIATION WHEN POSSIBLE
  • FLU SHOTS A MUST FOR KIDS WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE
  • TEEN PARENTS OF CRITICALLY ILL NEWBORNS DON’T GET SEVERITY OF ILLNESS
  • HIV TREATMENT LAGGING BEHIND FOR MANY INFECTED YOUTH
5/1/09WHEN CELLS REACH OUT AND TOUCH
J-RNA Production Revs Up During Cell-to-Cell Contact
MicroRNAs are single-stranded snippets that, not long ago, were given short shrift as genetic junk. Now that studies have shown they regulate genes involved in normal functioning as well as diseases such as cancer, everyone wants to know: What regulates microRNAs?
5/1/09CHEMICAL FOUND IN MEDICAL DEVICES IMPAIRS HEART FUNCTION
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have found that a chemical commonly used in the production of such medical plastic devices as intravenous (IV) bags and catheters can impair heart function in rats.
4/30/09FOLIC ACID MAY HELP TREAT ALLERGIES, ASTHMA
Folic acid, or vitamin B9, essential for red blood cell health and long known to reduce the risk of spinal birth defects, may also suppress allergic reactions and lessen the severity of allergy and asthma symptoms, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
4/28/09STATEMENT FROM JOHNS HOPKINS ABOUT SWINE FLU SAFETY
As always, Johns Hopkins' first priority is the safety and care of patients, visitors, employees and students. Experts and officials at Johns Hopkins Medicine are working closely with federal, state and local public health offices during this rapidly changing public health problem. The Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) has plans for emerging infections. These plans are being implemented as needed, and JHM will take all required steps to help assure your safety.
4/24/09SUBURBAN HOSPITAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM TO JOIN JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE
In a move to build on longstanding ties and to address growing regional interest in more efficient, integrated regional health care services for patients, officials of Suburban Hospital Healthcare System (SHHS)?and The Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation have formally agreed to integrate SHHS into the Johns Hopkins Health System (JHHS).
4/23/09JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE RANKED #2 IN NATION
Once again, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has retained its top-tier ranking in U.S. News & World Report’s edition on the best graduate schools in the nation.
4/22/09DOUBLE-LUNG TRANSPLANTS WORK BETTER THAN SINGLE FOR LONG-TERM SURVIVAL
Having both lungs replaced instead of just one is the single most important feature determining who lives longest after having a lung transplant, more than doubling an organ recipient’s chances of extending their life by over a decade, a study by a team of transplant surgeons at Johns Hopkins shows.
4/20/09FORMER NIH DIRECTOR ELIAS ZERHOUNI REJOINS JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE AS SENIOR ADVISOR
It’s a homecoming, of sorts. Elias Zerhouni, M.D., director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2002 to 2008 and former Johns Hopkins Medicine executive vice dean, returns to Hopkins May 1, 2009, as a senior advisor to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
4/16/09EVIDENCE GROWS THAT MATERNAL IMMUNE RESPONSE TO FETAL BRAIN DURING PREGNANCY A KEY FACTOR IN SOME AUTISM
?-Mouse studies with human antibodies at Hopkins Children’s add weight to earlier research
New studies in pregnant mice using antibodies against fetal brains made by the mothers of autistic children show that immune cells can cross the placenta and trigger neurobehavioral changes similar to autism in the mouse pups\
4/16/09AUTOPSY STUDY LINKS PROSTATE CANCER TO SINGLE ROGUE CELL
One cell…one initial set of genetic changes - that’s all it takes to begin a series of events that lead to metastatic cancer. Now, Johns Hopkins experts have tracked how the cancer process began in 33 men with prostate cancer who died of the disease. Culling information from autopsies, their study points to a set of genetic defects in a single cell that are different for each person’s cancer.
4/13/09JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
April 18–22, New Orleans, La.
  • CHIPPING AWAY AT PROTEINS
  • THE PROMISE OF CHEMICAL RESCUE
  • HOW CELLS FOLLOW THEIR "NOSE"
4/10/09IN THE ICU, USE OF BENZODIAZEPINES, OTHER FACTORS MAY PREDICT SEVERITY OF POST-STAY DEPRESSION
?Psychiatrists and critical care specialists at Johns Hopkins have begun to tease out what there is about a stay in an intensive care unit (ICU) that leads so many patients to report depression after they go home.
4/9/09

JOHNS HOPKINS HONORS YOUNG INVESTIGATORS
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine will honor 18 young researchers who have gone above and beyond in their search for answers.

4/9/09

PHYSICIAN ALERT: STOP COMMONLY PRESCRIBING STOMACH-UPSET DRUGS FOR ASTHMATICS WITHOUT SERIOUS HEARTBURN
- Proton-pump inhibitor drugs do not stop recurrent attacks in people with the lung disease
Lung experts from Johns Hopkins and elsewhere are calling on physicians to suspend the routine use of potent heartburn medications in asthmatics solely to temper recurrent attacks of wheezing, coughing and breathlessness.

4/8/09NEW COMMON PATHWAY IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE IS A POSSIBLE DOOR TO A POINT OF NO RETURN
A just-out study suggests that what keeps chronic nervous system diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and ALS going — until they overcome the internal protective mechanisms a body can throw at them — may largely come down to poor conversational skills.
4/8/09NEW JHM POLICIES TIGHTEN RULES ON INDUSTRY INTERACTIONS
-Action seeks elimination of undue industry influence and better oversight of collaborations
Johns Hopkins Medicine has adopted a new policy that significantly limits interactions with industry while ensuring effective, principled and appropriate partnerships with drug and medical device makers.
4/6/09COMPENDIUM OF PANCREATIC CANCER BIOMARKERS ESTABLISHED AS STRATEGIC APPROACH TO EARLY-DETECTION RESEARCH
A cancer scientist from Johns Hopkins has convinced an international group of colleagues to delay their race to find new cancer biomarkers and instead begin a 7,000-hour slog through a compendium of 50,000 scientific articles already published to assemble, decode and analyze the molecules that might herald the furtive presence of pancreatic cancer
4/6/09

GUTSY GERMS SUCCUMB TO BABY BROCCOLI??Jed Fahey
A small, pilot study in 50 people in Japan suggests that eating two and a half?ounces of broccoli sprouts daily for two months may confer some protection against a rampant stomach bug that causes gastritis, ulcers and even stomach cancer

4/2/09ABC DOCUMENTARY “HOPKINS” WINS PRESTIGIOUS PEABODY AWARDABC Hopkins banner
-Sequel to original Hopkins 24/7 series focused on young physicians in training
“Hopkins,” the seven-part ABC network news documentary filmed entirely at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and aired in late summer of 2008, is among the 2008 winners of the 68th Annual Peabody Awards for electronic media. Winners, chosen by the Peabody board, were named in a ceremony on April 1 by The University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
4/2/09HOPKINS RANKS AMONG BEST HOSPITALS IN AARP PHYSICIAN SURVEY
-Johns Hopkins Hospital recommended for Heart, Cancer, “Mystery Diagnoses,” Neurosurgery, and Ophthalmology
A new survey of U.S. physicians commissioned by AARP ranks The Johns Hopkins Hospital among the “most frequently recommended” medical centers for heart disease, cancer, “mystery diagnoses,” neurosurgery and ophthalmology. Results of the survey, conducted by Consumers’ Checkbook, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research organization, are published in AARP magazine’s May/June issue.
4/1/09JOHNS HOPKINS’ YOUNG ENGINEERS RECEIVE INDUSTRY SUPPORT
--Johnson & Johnson Fuels Prototype Development of Medical Devices
Metal detectors for removing surgical screws, intensive care walkers and radiological markers for locating tumors, what will they think of next?
3/31/09JOHNS HOPKINS APPOINTS NEW CLINICAL DIRECTOR OF CARDIOLOGYEdward Kasper
– Edward Kasper also to serve as co-director of Heart and Vascular Institute
Physician-science investigator Edward Kasper, M.D., an expert in chronic heart failure and the heart transplantation that often results from the disease, has been named the new clinical director of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology and co-director of the School’s Heart and Vascular Institute.
3/26/09THREE JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS NAMED HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE EARLY CAREER SCIENTISTS
Three researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been named early career scientists by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Xinzhong Dong, Ph.D., Joshua Mendell, M.D., Ph.D., and Sinisa Urban, Ph.D., all will remain faculty at Hopkins but also become employees of HHMI, which will provide research funding and salary for the next six years.
3/24/09GENETIC CHANGES OUTSIDE NUCLEAR DNA SUSPECTED TO TRIGGER MORE THAN HALF OF ALL CANCERS?
A buildup of chemical bonds on certain cancer-promoting genes, a process known as hypermethylation, is widely known to render cells cancerous by disrupting biological brakes on runaway growth. Now, Johns Hopkins scientists say the reverse process — demethylation — which wipes off those chemical bonds may also trigger more than half of all cancers.
3/24/09

SAFE DRIVING EDUCATION SHOULD BE PART OF ROUTINE TEEN PHYSICALS, HOPKINS CHILDREN'S EXPERTS SAY
The “are you driving yet?” talk should become part of every pediatrician’s regular physical exam for teenagers, Hopkins Children’s experts say. Pediatrician Letitia Dzirasa, M.D., notes that car accidents kill more 15- to -20-year-olds than any disease, so teenage driving should be considered a risky behavior, in need of as much attention as unprotected sex or underage drinking.

3/24/09STARVE A YEAST, SWEETEN ITS LIFESPANChakravarti??
--Johns Hopkins scientists find molecular mechanisms linking sugar production and longevity
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a new energy-making biochemical twist in determining the lifespan of yeast cells, one so valuable to longevity that it is likely to also functions in humans.
3/22/09HOPKINS SCIENTISTS ID 10 GENES ASSOCIATED WITH A RISK FACTOR FOR SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH
One minute, he’s a strapping 40-year-old with an enviable cholesterol level, working out on his treadmill.? The next, he’s dead.
3/18/09TRADITIONAL “MATCH DAY” AT JOHNS HOPKINS MARCH
-School of Medicine fourth-year students gather with classmates and family to learn their residency sites
Although the majority of the nation’s fourth-year medical students can go online to find out which residencies are theirs, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine class of ’09 will continue the school’s annual ritual of gathering and opening official letters in the presence of classmates, professors and loved ones.
3/18/096.5 MILLION MORE PATIENTS MIGHT BENEFIT FROM STATINS TO PREVENT HEART ATTACKS, STROKES
--Study expands on recent findings showing benefits for patients with low cholesterol
Millions more patients could benefit from taking statins, drugs typically used to prevent heart attacks and strokes, than current prescribing guidelines suggest, Johns Hopkins doctors report in a new study.
3/16/09

JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES NEW CARDIAC SURGERY COLLABORATION IN ITALY
Two of the world’s leading experts in cardiac surgery will be in Pavia, Italy, tomorrow to attend the signing ceremony of a three-year collaboration agreement between Johns Hopkins Medicine International and San Matteo Hospital.

3/11/09LENGTHY “DAISY CHAIN” TRANSPLANTS POSSIBLE FROM ONE ALTRUISTIC DONOR KIDNEY
- 10-way swaps of donor kidneys could theoretically give way to dozens or hundreds
A new variation in kidney paired donation (KPD) — pioneered and developed at Johns Hopkins — could theoretically generate an endless number of transplants, researchers report.
3/11/09JEREMY NATHANS AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS SCJeremy NathansOLNICK PRIZE
--For Discoveries in Color Vision
March 11, 2009- Jeremy Nathans, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and genetics, neuroscience and ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has been awarded the sixth annual Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience by the McGovern Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Scolnick Prize is awarded each year to recognize an individual who has made outstanding advances in the field of neuroscience.
3/11/09DIAGNOSTIC ERRORS: THE NEW FOCUS OF PATIENT SAFETY EXPERTS
--JAMA commentary highlights problem, suggests solutions to reduce the number of diagnoses that are missed, wrong or delayed
Johns Hopkins patient safety experts say it’s high time for diagnostic errors to get the same attention from medical institutions and caregivers as drug-prescribing errors, wrong-site surgeries and hospital-acquired infections. Diagnostic misadventures represent a potentially much larger source of preventable health problems and deaths than many of the more popular targets of safety reform, they say in a commentary in the March 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
3/10/09SEAWEED AND FIREFLIES BREW MAY GUIDE STEM CELL Day2TREATMENT?FOR PERIPHERAL ARTERY DISEASE
An unlikely brew of seaweed and glow-in-the-dark biochemical agents may hold the key to the safe use of transplanted stem cells to treat patients with severe peripheral arterial disease (PAD), according to a team of veterinarians, basic scientists and interventional radiologists at Johns Hopkins.
3/9/09THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EYE CELLS IS…SUMO?
--Johns Hopkins Researchers Discover Critical Switch in Eye Development
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Washington University School of Medicine have identified a key to eye development — a protein that regulates how the light-sensing nerve cells in the retina form. While still far from the clinic, the latest results, published in the Jan. 29 issue of Neuron, could help scientists better understand how nerve cells develop.
3/5/09"PERSONALIZED" GENOME SEQUENCING FINDS DISEASE-CAUSING GENES
Scientists at the Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have used "personalized genome" sequencing on an individual with a hereditary form of pancreatic cancer to locate a mutation in a gene called PALB2 that is responsible for initiating the disease. The discovery marks their first use of a genome scanning system to uncover suspect mutations in normal inherited genes.
3/3/09JOHNS HOPKINS-AFFILIATED CLEMENCEAU MEDICAL CENTER IN Clemenceau Medical CenterLEBANON
The Clemenceau Medical Center (CMC) in Beirut, Lebanon, has been awarded the official accreditation of the Joint Commission International (JCI). CMC is one of only two medical centers in Lebanon to hold JCI accreditation.
2/25/09JOHNS HOPKINS SAFETY TEAM WORKS TO ELIMINATE BLOODSTREAM INFECTIONS IN THE NATION AND THE WORLD
- Likely to save the health care industry billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives annually in the United States alone
A widely heralded Johns Hopkins safety initiative to reduce bloodstream infections in intensive care units (ICUs) was implemented in 30 states starting Feb. 1 and could save an estimated $3 billion dollars and 30,000 lives annually. In addition, the program has been launched in Spain and will begin in the United Kingdom starting in April. Pilot programs are also under discussion with health care leaders in Peru and Chile.
2/20/09PROSTATE SPECIFIC ANTIGEN TESTING MAY BE UNNECESSARY FOR SOME OLDER MEN
Certain men age 75 to 80 are unlikely to benefit from routine prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing, according to a Johns Hopkins study published in the April 2009 issue of The Journal of Urology.
2/19/09TWO GENE MUTATIONS LINKED TO MOST COMMON BRAIN CANCERS
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Duke University Medical Center have linked mutations in two genes, IDH1 and IDH2, to nearly three-quarters of several of the most common types of brain cancers known as gliomas. Among the findings: people with certain tumors that carry these genetic alterations appear to?survive at least twice as long as those without them.
2/19/09CLOT-BUSTER BOOSTS SURVIVAL, DECREASES DISABILITY FOR DEADLY SUBSET OF STROKE
--Patients continued to improve function six months after treatment
New results from a multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins show that patients who got an experimental clot-busting treatment for a particularly lethal form of stroke were not only dramatically more likely to survive but also continued to shed lingering disabilities six months later.?
2/17/09RESEARCHERS EXPLORE NEW DRIVER OF TRANSPLANT REJECTION: PLATELETS
--“Platelet guy” at Johns Hopkins finds there’s a lot more to these cells than blood clotting
Platelets, tiny and relatively uncharted tenants of the bloodstream known mostly for their role in blood clotting, turn out to also rally sustained immune system inflammatory responses that play a critical role in organ transplant rejection, according to a new report from Johns Hopkins scientists.
2/16/09JOHNS HOPKINS LEADS FIRST 12-PATIENT, MULTICENTER “DOMINO DONOR” KIDNEY TRANSPLANT
Six donor-recipient pairs interchange kidneys in simultaneous, multistate procedure
Surgical teams at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City successfully completed Saturday the first six-way, multihospital, domino kidney transplant. All six donors — one man and five women, and six organ recipients – four men and two woman — are in good condition, according to Robert Montgomery, M.D., Ph.D., chief transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins.
2/15/09WHAT’S FEEDING CANCER CELLS?
--Johns Hopkins Researchers Discover How Critical Cancer Gene Controls Nutrient Use
Cancer cells need a lot of nutrients to multiply and survive. While much is understood about how cancer cells use blood sugar to make energy, not much is known about how tey get other nutrients. Now, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered how the Myc cancer-promoting gene uses microRNAs to control the use of glutamine, a major energy source. The results, which shed light on a new angle of cancer that might help scientists figure out a way to stop the disease, appear Feb. 15 online at Nature.
2/14/09THE GENOME'S TRAVELING SALESMEN: TIPS ON NEWSMAKERS AT AAAS
Transposons — the traveling salesmen of the genome composed of DNA sequences with no fixed address — are the focus of a symposium at the annual meeting of the AAAS led by experts from the Johns Hopkins
2/9/09NEW JOHNS HOPKINS IMAGING CENTER TO WIDEN WINDOWS ON THE BRAIN
It’s a classic academic mismatch: Researchers aren’t able to make use of seminal improvements in technology—often from colleagues just across the street—either because they don’t know about them or because gaining familiarity makes unrealistic demands on their time.
2/9/09VOLUNTEER WORK IN GRADE SCHOOLS PRODUCES PERSISTENT HEALTH BENEFIT FOR OLDER BLACK WOMEN
February 9, 2009- A Johns Hopkins study reveals that older black women who spend time with young children in the classroom are not only more active than similar women who don’t volunteer, but seem to stay active.
2/9/09DRUG THERAPY REDUCES HIV TRANSMISSION IN COUPLES REGARDLESS OF CONDOM USE OR SAFE-SEX PRACTICES
Antiretroviral drug therapy in an HIV-positive man or women can alone help prevent the transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner, regardless of counseling, the patient’s use of condoms or other safe-sex practices, AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins report
2/8/09VIRAL-LOAD TESTING: A BETTER WAY TO PREDICT ANTI-HIV, DRUG-TREATMENT FAILURES IN AFRICA
Johns Hopkins and Ugandan scientists say counting the number of HIV viruses in the blood rather than relying solely on counting the number of circulating HIV-fighting CD4 immune system cells is a far better way to uncover early signs that antiretroviral drugs are losing their punch, and to signal the need to get patients on more potent treatments to keep the disease in check.
2/4/09JOHNS HOPKINS OFFERS FREE SOFTWARE TOOL FOR LARGE-SCALE DISASTER "SURGE" PLANNING
-Computer Modeling Program Developed By Hopkins’ Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response and Applied Physics Lab Team
A team of Johns Hopkins experts is offering a free, Web-based tool it developed that calculates and predicts in advance the impact on individual hospitals of a flu epidemic, bioterrorist attack, flood or plane crash, accounting for such elements as numbers of victims, germ-carrying wind patterns, available medical resources, bacterial incubation periods and bomb size.
2/3/09JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS DISCOVER NEW SCHIZOPHRENIA GENE
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are one gene closer to understanding schizophrenia and related disorders. Reporting in the Jan. 9 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, the team describes how a variation in the neuregulin 3 gene influences delusions associated with schizophrenia.
2/2/09HOPKINS TRANSPLANT SURGEONS REMOVE HEALTHY KIDNEY THROUGH DONOR’S VAGINA
- Minimally invasive organ removal could increase donations, surgeons say
?In what is believed to be a first-ever procedure, surgeons at Johns Hopkins have successfully removed a healthy donor kidney through a small incision in the back of the donor’s vagina.
2/2/09JOHNS HOPKINS APPOINTS NEW DIRECTOR OF CARDIOLOGY
Gordon Tomaselli also to serve as co-director of Heart and Vascular Institute
Physician-scientist Gordon Tomaselli, M.D., an expert on sudden cardiac death and heart rhythm disturbances, has been named the new director of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology and co-director of the School’s Heart and Vascular Institute.?
1/30/09STUDY CONFIRMS PERSISTENCE OF DIVERSITY PROBLEMS IN ACADEMIC MEDICINE
A survey study believed to be one of the first efforts to put hard numbers around long-held beliefs about diversity in medical school faculties has affirmed that awareness and sensitivity to racial and ethnic diversity are believed by most faculty to be poor and even poorer among faculty who are members of underrepresented minorities.
1/30/09TEACHING AN OLD DRUG NEW TRICKS
--Leprosy medicine holds promise as therapy for autoimmune diseases
A century-old drug that failed in its original intent to treat tuberculosis but has worked well as an antileprosy medicine now holds new promise as a potential therapy for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.
1/29/09JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE INTERNATIONAL APPOINTS NEW CEO AT AL CORNICHE
-Brings highly experienced team to manage maternity facility
Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI), the international arm of Johns Hopkins Medicine, has appointed Ronald S. Lavater chief executive officer of Al Corniche Hospital (Abu Dhabi, UAE), which handles more than 12,000 births and 216,000 outpatient visits a year. Al Corniche Hospital is a Joint Commission International (JCI)-accredited health care facility owned by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA).
1/27/09LUNG TRANSPLANTS: DOING MORE IS BETTER AND SAFER, A JOHNS HOPKINS STUDY SUGGESTS
Transplant surgeons at Johns Hopkins have evidence that hospitals performing at least 20 lung transplant procedures a year, on average, have the best overall patient survival rates and lowest number of deaths from the complex surgery.?
1/26/09STATEWIDE STUDY CONFIRMS “PAPERLESS” HOSPITALS ARE BETTER FOR PATIENTS
Results from a large-scale Johns Hopkins study of more than 40 hospitals and 160,000 patients show that when health information technologies replace paper forms and handwritten notes, both hospitals and patients benefit strongly.
1/22/09HOW CHEMOTHERAPY DRUGS BLOCK BLOOD VESSEL GROWTH, SLOW CANCER SPREAD
--Implications for Further Personalizing Cancer Treatment
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered how a whole class of commonly used chemotherapy drugs can block cancer growth. Their findings, reported online this week at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition, suggest that a subgroup of cancer patients might particularly benefit from these drugs.
1/20/09SURVIVING DANCE CLUB MUSIC (NOISE) WITH HEARING INTACT
By tweaking a system in the ear that limits how much sound is heard, a global team of researchers has discovered one alteration that shows that the ability of the ear to turn itself down contributes to protecting against permanent hearing loss.
1/19/09

KIDNEY TRANSPLANT SURVIVAL CAN BE LONG-TERM FOR PEOPLE WITH HIV
A Johns Hopkins study finds that HIV-positive kidney transplant recipients could have the same one-year survival rates for themselves and their donor organs as those without HIV, provided certain risk factors for transplant failure are recognized and tightly managed.

1/18/09LARGE DNA STRETCHES, NOT SINGLE GENES, SHUT OFF AS CELLS MATURE
--Epigenetic finding adds insight on how cells become brain, liver – and malignant
Experiments at Johns Hopkins have found that the gradual maturing of embryonic cells into cells as varied as brain, liver and immune system cells is apparently due to the shut off of several genes at once rather than in individual smatterings as previous studies have implied.
1/18/09GENE SWITCH SITES FOUND MAINLY ON “SHORES,” NOT JUST “ISLANDS” OF THE HUMAN GENOME
---Study vastly expands prospects for understanding disease and new treatments against colon cancer
Scientists who study how human chemistry can permanently turn off genes have typically focused on small islands of DNA believed to contain most of the chemical alterations involved in those switches. But after an epic tour of so-called DNA methylation sites across the human genome in normal and cancer cells, Johns Hopkins scientists have found that the vast majority of the sites aren’t grouped in those islands at all, but on nearby regions that they’ve named “shores.”
1/14/09JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE INTERNATIONAL SIGNS MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT WITH PANAMA'S HOSPITAL PUNTA PACIFICA
Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI)—the Baltimore, Maryland, USA-based international arm of Johns Hopkins Medicine—and Hospital Punta Pacífica (HPP) in Panama City, Panama, have entered into a seven-year agreement that gives JHI complete managerial oversight of the 75-bed hospital.
1/12/09OLDER WOMEN LESS LIKELY THAN MEN TO BE LISTED FOR KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS
A Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon has found strong evidence that women over 45 are significantly less likely to be placed on a kidney transplant list than their equivalent male counterparts, even though women who receive a transplant stand an equal chance of survival.
1/8/09GROWTH OF NEW BRAIN CELLS REQUIRES ‘EPIGENETIC’ SWITCH
New cells are born every day in the brain’s hippocampus, but what controls this birth has remained a mystery. Reporting in the January 1 issue of Science, neuroscientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that the birth of new cells, which depends on brain activity, also depends on a protein that is involved in changing epigenetic marks in the cell’s genetic material.
1/7/09LOST IN TRANSLATION
-- Perfectionist protein-maker trashes errors
The enzyme machine that translates a cell’s DNA code into the proteins of life is nothing if not an editorial perfectionist.
1/6/09FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE . . . PTEROSAURS HAVE LIFT OFF!
--Hopkins researcher reports that ancient flying reptiles used four legs to launch
Pterosaurs have long suffered an identity crisis. Pop culture heedlessly — and wrongly — lumps these extinct flying lizards in with dinosaurs. Even paleontologists assumed that because the creatures flew, they were birdlike in many ways, such as using only two legs to take flight.
1/5/09

NEW HOPE FOR CANCER COMES STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART
--Johns Hopkins Researchers Discover New Use for Digoxin
?Digitalis-based drugs like digoxin have been used for centuries to treat patients with irregular heart rhythms and heart failure and are still in use today. In the Dec. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine now report that this same class of drugs may hold new promise as a treatment for cancer.?

1/5/09

VIAGRA’S OTHER TALENTS: TO HELP A ‘SIGNALING’ PROTEIN SHIELD THE HEART FROM HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE DAMAGE
Johns Hopkins and other researchers report what is believed to be the first direct evidence in lab animals that the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil amplifies the effects of a heart-protective protein.

1/5/09

PROLONGED NEVIRAPINE IN BREAST-FED BABIES PREVENTS HIV INFECTION BUT LEADS TO DRUG-RESISTANT HIV
Babies born to HIV-positive mothers and given the antiretroviral drug nevirapine through the first six weeks of life to prevent infection via breast-feeding are at high risk for developing drug-resistant HIV if they get infected anyway, a team of researchers report. But the investigators highlight the proven superiority of the six-week regimen in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission in breast-fed infants.?