David W. Eisele, M.D., has been appointed the new director of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Andelot Professor of Laryngology and Otology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He will begin his tenure on March 1, 2012.

Johns Hopkins neurologists report success with a new means of getting rid of potentially lethal blood clots in the brain safely without cutting through easily damaged brain tissue or removing large pieces of skull. The minimally invasive treatment, they report, increased the number of patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) who could function independently by 10 to 15 percent six months following the procedure.

Cell biologists at Johns Hopkins have identified key steps in how certain molecules alter a cell’s skeletal shape and drive the cell’s movement. Results of their research, published in the December 13 issue of Science Signaling, have implications for figuring out what triggers the metastatic spread of cancer cells and wound-healing.

After a leadership tenure of fifteen years, Gary A. Carnes will be retiring as president and CEO of All Children’s Hospital, with an anticipated effective date of February 29, 2012.

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TV crime shows like Bones and CSI are quick to explain each death by showing highly detailed scans and video images of victims’ insides. Traditional autopsies, if shown at all, are at best in supporting roles to the high-tech equipment, and usually gloss over the sometimes physically grueling tasks of sawing through skin and bone.

Thousands more American senior citizens with kidney disease are good candidates for transplants and could get them if physicians would get past outdated medical biases and put them on transplant waiting lists, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

As part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Joining Forces initiative, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is teaming up with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) to create a new generation of doctors, medical schools and research facilities that will make sure our military veterans and their families receive the care worthy of their service. Recognizing veterans and their families’ sacrifice and commitment, Johns Hopkins has pledged to mobilize its uniquely integrated missions in education, research and clinical care to train the nation’s physicians to meet veterans and their families’ unique health care needs, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

After a 20-year quest to find a genetic driver for prostate cancer that strikes men at younger ages and runs in families, researchers have identified a rare, inherited mutation linked to a significantly higher risk of the disease.

Cancer cells have been long known to have a “sweet tooth,” using vast amounts of glucose for energy and for building blocks for cell replication.

Neuroscientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered how the sense of touch is wired in the skin and nervous system. The new findings, published Dec. 22 in Cell, open new doors for understanding how the brain collects and processes information from hairy skin.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that DNA changes in a gene that drives the growth of a form of lung cancer can make the cancer’s cells resistant to cancer drugs. The findings show that some classes of drugs won’t work, and certain types of so-called kinase inhibitors like erlotinib—may be the most effective at treating non-small cell lung cancers with those DNA changes.

Monitoring Internet search traffic about influenza may prove to be a better way for hospital emergency rooms to prepare for a surge in sick patients compared to waiting for outdated government flu case reports. A report on the value of the Internet search tool for emergency departments, studied by a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine over a 21-month period, is published in the January 9 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Building on the success of recent Hopkins research showing obese participants were able to lose significant weight and keep it off for two years using telephone coaching and a specially designed website, Johns Hopkins Medicine is collaborating with Healthways to help bring the innovative weight-loss program to many more who could benefit from it.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a private, nonprofit organization that accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations, has recognized all five of Johns Hopkins Community Physicians’ (JHCP) sites that applied for Patient-Centered Medical Home program recognition. JHCP facilities in Canton Crossing, Hagerstown, Montgomery, Water’s Edge and the Wyman Park Internal Medicine offices were acknowledged for excellent patient-centered care and for achieving high marks in the program.

Five Johns Hopkins students have been selected as finalists in a competition to find new ways to cure metastatic cancer. The five, whose ideas were chosen from among 44 presentations, will compete on January 13, 2012, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., for the top prize of $20,000 and a chance to pursue their research proposals.

Although more patients with abdominal gunshot and stab wounds can successfully forego emergency “exploratory” surgery and its potential complications, new Johns Hopkins research suggests that choosing the wrong patients for this “watchful waiting” approach substantially increases their risk of death from these injuries.

Gregg L. Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins is one of two recipients of this year’s Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award, given by the American Society for Clinical Investigation for their “contributions to the molecular understanding of cellular oxygen sensing and cellular adaptation to hypoxia.” Semenza and his co-recipient, William G. Kaelin Jr., M.D., of Harvard Medical School, will share the $10,000 honorarium and present the Korsmeyer Lecture at the 2012 ASCI/AAP Meeting, April 27 to 29, in Chicago, Illinois.

New research by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests that vitamin D, long known to be important for bone health and in recent years also for heart protection, may stop conferring cardiovascular benefits and could actually cause harm as levels in the blood rise above the low end of what is considered normal.

Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer announced today that it has granted a license for the Artificial IMmune (AIM) nanotechnology to NexImmune, a start-up company formed in part by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty members who are also involved in the development of the technology. AIM, which involves engineering artificial cells to stimulate specific immune responses, represents a potentially important advance in the development of immunotherapies for a variety of cancers and other diseases.

Working with mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins have successfully used a commonly prescribed blood pressure medicine, losartan (Cozaar), to prevent almost all of the lung damage caused from two months of exposure to cigarette smoke. The treatment specifically targeted lung tissue breakdown, airway wall thickening, inflammation and lung over-expansion.