Our experts are interested in contributing to the ever-growing field of scientific knowledge in Dermatology. Below are a few recent scientific article published by our faculty members, demonstrating the impressive breadth of areas of expertise in the Department of Dermatology at Johns Hopkins. For more on our research mission, please refer to the section of our website dedicated to Research.
Dr. Janis Taube and a group of other pathology researchers published in the Dec. 2012 American Journal of Surgical Pathology about using a unique technique to visualize HPV in patients with squamous cell carcinoma. They suggest that this new method should become routine in the laboratory. Read the article here: Detection of Transcriptionally Active High-risk HPV in Patients With Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma as Visualized by a Novel E6/E7 mRNA In Situ Hybridization Method.
Drs. Luis Garza, Sewon Kang, and Jon Meyerle partnered with others to conduct a retrospective study on the High Prevalence of Stump Dermatoses 38 Years or More After Amputation, pubished in the Nov. 2012 Archives of Dermatology. A research registry of Vietnam War veterans with combat-related amputations agreed to participate in the study which determined that nearly four decades after major limb amputation, stump site complications still cause significant disease burden and oftern lead to prosthesis abandonment.
Investigating the use of non-invasive optical, radiographic and nano-CT imaging to further characterize bacterial biofilms on orthopaedic implants, Dr. Lloyd Miller and his team published Monitoring Bacterial Burden, Inflammation and Bone Damage Longitudinally Using Optical and nano-CT Imaging in an Orthopaedic Implant Infection in Mice recently in 2012. Their study utilized bioluminescent and fluorescent optical imaging, X-ray and nano-CT to measure changes in bacterial burden over time in a mouse model.
The Oct. 2012 Immunity featured Dr. Lloyd Miller's collaborative article on allergic skin inflammation. The study demonstrated that interaction between LTB4 and BLT1 is necessary for allergic skin inflammation. LTB4 driven neutrophil recruitment to the skin is essential for allergic skin inflammation is significant because it substantiates that pharmacologic blocking of the LTB4 formation can�inhibits allergic skin inflammation.
The American Journal of the Academy of Dermatology published Dr. Janis Taube's Hopkins research group's findings on Sox10 expressions in various melanocytic neoplasms in Oct. 2012. Their findings outline how this transcription factor does not express in certain proliferations, meaning more specific diagnoses may be made by utilizing the Sox10 agent. "Sox10 is a highly sensitive marker for melanocytic proliferations and may be useful diagnostically when the differential diagnosis includes fibrohistiocytic and histiocytic proliferations demonstrating S100 expression." Read their article here.
Dr. Ginette Hinds published in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma, and Leukemia in Oct. 2012: Age, Race, Sex, Stage, and Incidence of Cutaneous Lymphoma. The research found that nonwhite racial groups present with the disease at an earlier age compared with white, and African American patients typically present with higher T-stage than white patients. Dr. Hinds' team noted that the findings indicate the need for earlier diagnosis and that further study is needed to identify the reasons for such racial disparity in age and stage of presentation.
Dr. Janis Taube collaborated with a team from Johns Hopkins and other academic institutions to assess experimental drugs aimed at restoring the immune system's ability to spot and attack cancer.�Their findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine on June 2, 2012: Safety, Activity, and Immune Correlates of Anti-PD-1 Antibody in Cancer. The immune system pathway studied includes two proteins, PD-L1 and PD-1, which bind together to form a shield for tumor cells against the immune system. By blocking PD-L1 or PD-1 with an experimental drug, scientists showed that patients' tumors shrunk in a significant percentage of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, or kidney cancer. These findings indicate that the PD-L1/PD-1 pathway may be an important target for cancer therapies. More information, including a video, is available at http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/cancer_therapy_that_boosts_immune_system_ready_for_wider_testing.
Dr. Janis Taube was lead author in the March 28, 2012 Science Translational Medicine article Colocalization of Inflammatory Response with B7-H1 Expression in Human Melanocytic Lesions Supports an Adaptive Resistance Mechanism of Immune Escape (abstract/free full text). The paper focuses on how activated tumor infiltrating lymphocytes may induce B7-H1 on melanocytes, indicating adaptation by tumor cells to avoid host immune surveillance.
Dr. Luis Garza was featured in the L.A. Times, the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun as the lead author of a publication in Science Translational Medicine published March 21, 2012 exploring male-pattern baldness: Prostaglandin D2 inhibits hair growth and is elevated in bald scalp of men with androgenic alopecia. In the paper, the research team found that a prostaglandin called PGD2 is plentiful in skin areas where baldness occurs compared to patches where hair grows normally. In mice, the PGD2 prostaglandin was shown to be a trigger to the shedding phase of the hair follicle cycle.
Dr. Luis Garza and Dr. Gerald Lazarus were co-authors on an innovative research paper in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology entitled Hemoglobin A1c predicts healing rate in diabetic wounds; published in advance online June 23, 2011. The article describes findings of a retrospective cohort study of 183 diabetic individuals treated at the Wound Center at the Johns Hopkins Bayiew Medical Center.
Dr. Janis Taube and Dr. Timothy Wang co-wrote a scientific rticle for the Seminars in Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery journal in collaboration with colleagues in Oncology and Plastic Surgery. Merkel Cell Carcinoma: Update and Review was published in March 2011. The authors discuss the history of the disease, as well as new advances in diagnosis and national guidelines for staging.
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