2007 Press Releases

OBESE PATIENTS WAIT LONGER FOR KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS, RESEARCH SUGGESTS
--- Medicare payment plans are a factor
New research from Johns Hopkins specialists suggests that obese kidney disease patients face not only the usual long odds of a tissue match and organ rejection, but also are significantly less likely than normal-weight people to receive a kidney transplant at all.

OLDER ANTIBIOTIC GAINS NEW RESPECT AS POTENT TREATMENT FOR TUBERCULOSIS
- Rifapentine is already approved for use in humans
It has no current market, not even a prescription price.  Its makers stopped commercial production years ago, because demand was so low.  But an antibiotic long abandoned as a weak, low-dose treatment for tuberculosis (TB) may have found renewed purpose, this time as a potent, high-dose fighter against the most common and actively contagious form of the lung disease

PAIN TREATMENT IN THE FIELD: GOOD FOR SOLDIERS’ COMFORT AND BETTER FOR REBUILDING TROOP STRENGTH
Noncombat-related acute and recurrent chronic pain are the leading causes of soldier attrition in modern war, with the return-to-duty rate as low as 2 percent when these soldiers are treated outside the theaters of operation. However, that rate jumps to 95 percent when troops and officers are treated and managed for pain in the field of instead of being sent elsewhere for therapy, according to a new study from a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist.

Milk and Egg Allergies Harder To Outgrow, Hopkins Study Shows

MORE “FUNCTIONAL” DNA IN GENOME THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
Surrounding the small islands of genes within the human genome is a vast sea of mysterious DNA. While most of this non-coding DNA is junk, some of it is used to help genes turn on and off. As reported online this week in Genome Research, Hopkins researchers have now found that this latter portion, which is known as regulatory DNA and contributes to inherited diseases like Parkinson’s or mental disorders, may be more abundant than we realize.

KEEPING AT-RISK CELLS FROM DEVELOPING CANCER
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that cancers arising from epigenetic changes - in this case the inappropriate activation of a normally silent gene - develop by becoming addicted to certain growth factors. Reporting online in next week’s Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, the team shows that blocking this “addiction” can greatly prevent cancer growth.

SILENCING SMALL BUT MIGHTY CANCER INHIBITORS
Researchers from Johns Hopkins and the University of Pennsylvania have uncovered another reason why one of the most commonly activated proteins in cancer is in fact so dangerous. As reported in Nature Genetics this week, the Myc protein can stop the production of at least 13 microRNAs, small pieces of nucleic acid that help control which genes are turned on and off.

Hopkins TB Fighters Make Esquire's "Best And Brightest" List
Hidden in a lab, clad in plastic gowns, booties and gloves, poring over lung-tissue samples, Hopkins infectious disease specialists Jacques Grosset, Sanjay Jain, Gyanu Lamichhane and Eric Nuermberger don’t conjure up the image of those you would read about on the glossy pages of an upscale men’s magazine. But the four have landed spots on Esquire’s “Best and Brightest” list for 2007 for their work to find new cures for TB.

“EPIGENETIC” MARKS A CLUE TO MULTIPLE FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN
A team of Johns Hopkins scientists has catalogued chemical tags attached to more than 800 genes from 76 human brain samples and collected the first evidence of how these special, inherited epigenetic “marks” might account for different brain functions. The results appear in the December issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics.

JOHNS HOPKINS INSTALLS FIRST 320-SLICE CT SCANNER IN NORTH AMERICA
- Device safely images whole heart or brain, as well as tiny blood vessels
The first 320-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner in North America, the most powerful X-ray imaging machine in its class, has been installed and is in operation at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

OBESITY-LINKED HIGH BLOOD VOLUMES RENDER PSA PROSTATE CANCER TEST LESS EFFECTIVE, STUDY SUGGESTS
--Findings could have wide-reaching effects for other blood tests in the seriously overweight
The extra blood volume produced in the obese may so dilute levels of a telltale protein produced by prostates that the popular PSA test may be significantly less effective for diagnosing prostate cancer in men carrying extra pounds, a new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association suggests.

$1.5 MILLION CINQUE FOUNDATION GRANT GOES TO ALS DRUG RESEARCH AT JOHNS HOPKINS PACKARD CENTER
--Grant will fund research to find new uses for “old” FDA-approved drugs
The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins announced today that it has received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Cinque Foundation.  The money will support the screening of thousands of drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and on the market for their potential value in treating people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

Hopkins Diabetes Experts Available
World Diabetes Day is Nov. 14. If you are planning a story on diabetes, a disease that affects more than 20 million Americans, please consider calling on experts from the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Diabetes Center. With diabetes specialists ranging from clinical endocrinologists to nutritionists to scientists who perform basic research, the Diabetes Center can provide you with unique sources who can answer your questions about this ever-growing disease.

ADULT BRAIN CELLS ARE MOVERS AND SHAKERS
--Study reveals a subset of mature neurons that can retain a youthful form of plasticity
It’s a general belief that the circuitry of young brains has robust flexibility but eventually gets "hard-wired" in adulthood. As Johns Hopkins researchers and their colleagues report in the Nov. 8 issue of Neuron, however, adult neurons aren’t quite as rigidly glued in place as we suspect.

PATIENT SAFETY EXPERTS ADVANCE INTERNAL HOSPITAL SAFETY RATING SYSTEM
In a bid to clean up misleading institutional safety comparisons and go further to fix safety problems, Johns Hopkins experts are proposing standard guidelines to be used as hospital safety rating tools.

LUNGS PRESSURE NEEDN’T THREATEN HEART TRANSPLANT SURVIVAL
Heart surgeons at Johns Hopkins say people who need heart transplants can largely avoid transplant failure due to elevated blood pressure in their lungs with the help of proper drug treatment.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE OR IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT LINKED TO ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE PROGRESSION
Study suggests treatment of vascular diseases might lessen memory loss
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may progress more rapidly in people with high blood pressure or a form of irregular heartbeat, atrial fibrillation, according to results of a Johns Hopkins study published in the Nov. 6, 2007, issue of Neurology. The findings suggest that treating these conditions may also slow memory loss in people with AD.

RESULTS OF DEFINITIVE STUDY ARE IN: LIVES ARE SAVED WHEN DEFIBRILLATORS ARE PLACED IN LARGE PUBLIC SPACES
- Good-Samaritan access to “shock” devices doubles survival from sudden heart attack
Heart experts at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have evidence that at least 522 lives can be saved annually in the United States and Canada by the widespread placement of automated external defibrillators, the paddle-fitted, electrical devices used to shock and revive people whose hearts have suddenly stopped beating. 

HIGH-TECH CT SCANS: NOT A BAD CHOICE TO TEST FOR CLOGGED ARTERIES
-- Catheterization still gold standard, but 64-slice scanners are coming on strong
A study by an international team of cardiac imaging specialists, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins, concludes that sophisticated computed tomography (CT) scans of the heart and its surrounding arteries are almost as reliable and accurate as more invasive procedures to check for blockages.

Urban Kids With Asthma Need More Frequent Check-ups, Hopkins Study Suggests
Because even mild asthma among young inner-city children appears to be more unpredictable than ever, four or more check-ups a year after diagnosis is a wise move as a hedge against dangerous flare-ups of wheezing and trips to the emergency room, according to a study from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Current asthma guidelines call for follow-up of one to six months after diagnosis, but six months may be too long for many patients, researchers report in the November issue of Pediatrics.

AGING HEART CHANGES SHAPE, SHRINKS AND LOSES PUMPING FUNCTION TOO
-- Study defines precisely why age is a risk factor for heart failure
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have evidence to explain why the supposedly natural act of aging is by itself a very potent risk factor for life-threatening heart failure.

MIROWSKI FAMILY FOUNDATION GIVES $1.5 MILLON TO JOHNS HOPKINS HEART INSTITUTE
The Johns Hopkins Heart Institute today announced a $1.5 million gift from the Mirowski Family Foundation for cardiovascular research. The Michel Mirowski, M.D. Discovery Fund, named in honor of Mirowski and his wife, Anna, will support researchers pursuing novel ideas not yet eligible for traditional sources of funding.

EMERGENCY ROOMS FALL SHORT OF NATIONAL GOALS
----An estimated 22,000 preventable deaths result
Emergency departments across the nation are failing to meet national goals in treating many heart attack and pneumonia patients, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers published in the October issue of Academic Emergency Medicine. 

HOPKINS RESEARCHER AWARDED GRANT TO PURSUE POTENTIAL DOWN SYNDROME TREATMENT
The Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation has awarded a $250,000 grant to Roger H. Reeves, Ph.D., a professor of physiology and member of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins. Reeves and his research team will extend their current studies on a potential drug to see if its positive effects can improve brain development in mouse models of Down syndrome.

EARS RINGING? JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS I.D. THE BRAIN’S OWN CLARION
Brain scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered how cells in the developing ear make their own noise, long before the ear is able to detect sound around them. The finding, reported in this week’s Nature, helps to explain how the developing auditory system generates brain activity in the absence of sound. It also may explain why people sometimes experience tinnitus and hear sounds that seem to come from nowhere.

OH BROTHER: FAMILY TIES DETERMINE WHO GETS HEART DISEASE
- Hereditary link to heart disease puts male sibs at higher risk, but sisters not off the hook
The genetic family ties that bind brothers and sisters also link their risk for developing clogged arteries and having potentially fatal heart attacks, scientists at Johns Hopkins report.  And according to researchers, brothers bear the brunt of the burden.

MEN WITH BLADDER EXSTROPHY REPORT ROBUST SEX LIVES, BUT WOMEN FARE WORSE, HOPKINS STUDY SHOWS
Adult men born with a severe urological anomaly in which the bladder forms outside of the abdomen report much more robust sexual lives than women born with the same condition, according to a small study led by urologists at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. The findings are being reported at the American Academy of Pediatrics Conference Oct. 26 through Oct. 30 in San Francisco.

BEST DRESSED SALE SET FOR NOVEMBER 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 2007, now celebrating it’s 40th anniversary.   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.

ARMY VETERAN WITH CARDIAC DISEASE PUTS HIS “HEART ON THE LINE” FOR CAUSE
Hopkins patient will participate in AHA Heart Walk on Saturday, Oct. 27, in Baltimore
Jose Vargas could not understand why completing the exercise portion of his Army training in 2002 was so difficult.  He was exhausted after running, had lost his appetite and was increasingly lethargic.  For the seemingly healthy 24-year-old, the symptoms were mysterious and troubling.

FUTURE LEADERS IN CARDIOVASCULAR RESEARCH HONORED WITH BLUMENTHAL PRIZES
Outstanding researchers in cardiovascular medicine will be honored in The Johns Hopkins Hospital Houck Lobby at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 24, as part of the Johns Hopkins Heart Institute’s annual awards ceremony named to commemorate the late Hopkins physician Stanley L. Blumenthal, B.A. ’39 and M.D. ’43.

CAN YOU FEEL THE HEAT? YOUR CILIA CAN
Johns Hopkins researchers and colleagues have found a previously unrecognized role for tiny hair-like cell structures known as cilia: They help form our sense of touch.

Broccoli Sprout-Derived Extract Protects against Ultraviolet Radiation
A team of Johns Hopkins scientists reports in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that humans can be protected against the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation - the most abundant cancer-causing agent in our environment - by topical application of an extract of broccoli sprouts.

HOPKINS RESEARCHERS RELEASE GENOME DATA ON AUTISM
--Most detailed look at genetic contributions to date
Researchers at Johns Hopkins’ McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine today are releasing newly generated genetic data to help speed autism research. The Hopkins data, coordinated with a similar data release from the Autism Consortium, aims to help uncover the underlying hereditary factors and speed the understanding of autism by encouraging scientific collaboration. These data provide the most detailed look to date at the genetic variation patterns in families with autism.

INFORMING POOR IN INDIA BOOSTS PUBLIC SERVICE USE
--Method could improve healthcare, education in developing countries
Simply informing the poor about government-provided health, educational, and social services they are entitled to could empower them to take greater advantage of free or low-cost public services, a study in India suggests. The finding, reported in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, could be an overlooked, relatively easy way to boost health and well-being in developing countries around the world.

SIMPLE EYE SCAN OPENS WINDOW TO MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
-- potential to track the disease at a fraction of the cost of current test
A five-minute eye exam might prove to be an inexpensive and effective way to gauge and track the debilitating neurological disease multiple sclerosis, potentially complementing costly magnetic resonance imaging to detect brain shrinkage - a characteristic of the disease’s progression.

GENOME UPDATE DEFINES LANDSCAPE OF BREAST AND COLON CANCERS
--Represents next major step in cancer genome sequencing
One year after completing the first large-scale report sequencing breast and colon cancer genes, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have studied the vast majority of protein-coding genes which now suggest a landscape dominated by genes that each are mutated in relatively few cancers.

New Baltimore-based Diabetes Center to Focus on Prevention, Childhood Diabetes
Multimillion Dollar NIH Grant to Fund Joint Hopkins-University of Maryland Effort
The National Institutes of Health will award $7.4 million to The Johns Hopkins University to establish the Baltimore Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC), which will conduct basic research and community-level research on diabetes and obesity in both adults and children.

SIX JHU RESEARCHERS ELECTED TO INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
Six Johns Hopkins University researchers have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. Ron Brookmeyer, Ph.D., Frederick M. Burkle Jr., M.D., M.P.H., Aravinda Chakravarti, Ph.D., Kay Dickersin, Ph.D., Andrew Feinberg, M.D., M.P.H., and Lynn R. Goldman, M.D., M.P.H., are among 65 new members nationwide. Election to this prestigious body affirms their remarkable contributions to medical science, health care and public health, as well as to the education of generations of physicians. It is one of the highest honors for those in the biomedical profession.

JOHNS HOPKINS’ CAROL GREIDER AWARDED 2007 LOUISA GROSS HORWITZ PRIZE FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS UNDERSTANDING TELOMERES
Carol Greider, Ph.D., the Daniel Nathans Professor and director of molecular biology and genetics in the Johns Hopkins Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences, and one of the world’s pioneering researchers on telomeres, the structures capping the ends of chromosome, will share the 2007 Horwitz Prize with Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco and Joseph G. Gall, Ph.D., of the Carnegie Institution. The awardees, who were recognized by the Lasker Foundation last year, are again honored for their work contributing to the understanding of telomeres and their role in cancer and stem cell failure.

INSIDE JOB: NEW RADIOACTIVE AGENTS FOR COLON CANCER WORK INSIDE CELLS
Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a potentially novel way to fight colorectal cancer using tiny molecules to deliver potent barrages of radiation inside cancer cells, unlike current treatments that bind to the surface of cells and attack from the outside and cause unwanted side effects.

WHAT EMOTIONAL MEMORIES ARE MADE OF
  -- Mouse experiments reveal “flight or fight” hormone’s role
Both extensive psychological research and personal experiences confirm that events that happen during heightened states of emotion such as fear, anger and joy are far more memorable than less dramatic occurrences. In a report this week in Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers and their collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor and New York University have identified the likely biological basis for this: a hormone released during emotional arousal “primes” nerve cells to remember events by increasing their chemical sensitivity at sites where nerves rewire to form new memory circuits.

CILIA: SMALL ORGANELLES, BIG DECISIONS
Johns Hopkins researchers say they have figured out how human and all animal cells tune in to a key signal, one that literally transmits the instructions that shape their final bodies. It turns out the cells assemble their own little radio antenna on their surfaces to help them relay the proper signal to the developmental proteins “listening” on the inside of the cell.

BOOK SIGNING AND DISCUSSION
David Linden, Ph.D., will be reading, leading a discussion and signing copies of his recently published book The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God

MINI STROKES LINKED TO URIC ACID LEVELS
-- findings could explain mental decline in some older adults
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that high-normal uric acid (UA) levels may cause barely detectable mini strokes that potentially contribute to mental decline in aging adults.

STANDARD TREATMENT FOR PROSTATE CANCER MAY ENCOURAGE SPREAD OF DISEASE
--finding may lead to changes in androgen deprivation therapy
A popular prostate cancer treatment called androgen deprivation therapy may encourage prostate cancer cells to produce a protein that makes them more likely to spread throughout the body, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests.

FEDS HONOR THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL AND HEALTH SYSTEM FOR EQUAL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has given one of its handful of annual awards for fair and equal employment practices to The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation (JHHS).

JOHNS HOPKINS CELEBRATES A CENTURY OF SOCIAL WORK
Two Events, Art Contest to Mark Social Work Centennial
Grinding poverty, splintered families, tuberculosis, syphilis, typhoid and polio were daily realities for the poor in 19th century Baltimore. For many, their only help was provided by the fledging social worker services of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. More than a century later, the need - and the mission - remain remarkably similar for Johns Hopkins social workers, and new problems have been added to the urban mix: widespread drug abuse, immigration, an aging population, crime and homelessness. It is this urgent and abiding need that defines the role of the Hopkins social worker.

“GENES AND ENVIRONMENT” GRANT FUNDS CLOSE LOOK AT NATURE-NURTURE OVERLAP IN COMMON DISEASES
Johns Hopkins’ McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine is one of two gene-hunting facilities in the nation to win a new $11.7 million four-year federal grant to rigorously sort out how such environmental factors as diet, exercise, stress and addictions interact with people’s individual genetic makeup to affect their risk for disorders as wide-ranging as cancer, diabetes, tooth decay and heart disease.

BRAIN SCIENCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES COLLABORATION WITH BIOGEN TO DEVELOP NEW TREATMENTS FOR BRAIN DISORDERS
Johns Hopkins University’s newly formed Brain Science Institute (BSI) and pharmaceutical development company Biogen Idec have agreed to collaborate on the development of new therapies for such neurodegenerative diseases as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

NEW ANTIBIOTIC DRUG COMBO TO SPEED UP TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS
A team of tuberculosis experts at Johns Hopkins and in Brazil have evidence that substituting the antibiotic moxifloxacin in the regimen of drugs used to treat the highly contagious form of lung disease could dramatically shorten the time needed to cure the illness from six months to four.

MOUSE MODEL FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA HAS GENETIC ON-OFF SWITCH
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have developed a mouse model for schizophrenia in which a mutated gene linked to schizophrenia can be turned on or off at will.

HOW VITAMIN C STOPS THE BIG “C”
-An unexpected antioxidant mechanism is at play, researchers say
Nearly 30 years after Nobel laureate Linus Pauling famously and controversially suggested that vitamin C supplements can prevent cancer, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists have shown that in mice at least, vitamin C - and potentially other antioxidants - can indeed inhibit the growth of some tumors ? just not in the manner suggested by years of investigation.

NORMAL ROLE FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA RISK GENE IDENTIFIED
--disc1 makes protein that helps new neurons integrate into our neural network
How the gene that has been pegged as a major risk factor for schizophrenia and other mood disorders that affect millions of Americans contributes to these diseases remains unclear. However, the results of a new study by Hopkins researchers and their colleagues, appearing in Cell this week, provide a big clue by showing what this gene does in normal adult brains.

JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL ONLY MARYLAND HOSPITAL TO EARN "HOSPITAL OF CHOICE" AWARD IN 2007
The Johns Hopkins Hospital has again received the American Alliance of Healthcare Providers’ (AAHP) American Hospital of Choice Award. The award is made for excellence in four areas of a patient’s experience with a hospital: security, comfort, convenience, and caring. JHH, the only hospital in Maryland to win this year’s award.

“QI” PROJECTS MAY - OR MAY NOT - IMPROVE PATIENT SAFETY AND OUTCOMES
Mandatory classes that aim to improve the quality of medical care seem to successfully teach doctors new concepts but don’t necessarily improve patient outcomes, suggests a thorough review of articles that examine quality improvement (QI) curricula.

UPDATE: STOLEN COMPUTERS
Officials at Johns Hopkins report that a stolen computer containing patient information has been recovered and returned to the institution, where an intense preliminary investigation over the Labor Day weekend concluded it is highly unlikely that any information was accessed or compromised.

"MIGHTY MICE" MADE MIGHTIER
The Johns Hopkins scientist who first showed that the absence of the protein myostatin leads to oversized muscles in mice and men has now found a second protein, follistatin, whose overproduction in mice lacking myostatin doubles the muscle-building effect.

EXPERIMENTAL ANTI-CANCER DRUG MADE FROM CORN LILLIES KILLS BRAIN TUMOR STEM CELLS
A drug that shuts down a critical cell-signaling pathway in the most common and aggressive type of adult brain cancer successfully kills cancer stem cells thought to fuel tumor growth and help cancers evade drug and radiation therapy, a Johns Hopkins study shows.

GENE SIGNATURE SPELLS POOR OUTCOME
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have found a genetic signature for aggressive melanomas.

LASER BLASTS VIRUSES IN BLOOD
A father-son research team working from separate laboratory benches across the country has discovered a new use for lasers — zapping viruses out of blood.  The technique, which holds promise for disinfecting blood for transfusions, uses a low-power laser beam with a pulse lasting just fractions of a second.

NORWALK VIRUS: “CRUISE SHIP” ILLNESS CHALLENGING AND COSTLY TO HOSPITALS, TOO
-- Outbreaks mostly affect health care workers
A review of measures taken to address a 2004 outbreak of the highly infectious Norwalk virus at The Johns Hopkins Hospital has provided the first solid documentation of expenses and efforts in the United States to stop the infection from spreading among patients, staff and visitors.  Total hospital costs for the three-month outbreak - including extra cleaning supplies, staff sick leave, diagnostic tests, replacement staff, and salaries and lost revenue from closed beds - were estimated at more than $650,000.

WHEN IS A STEM CELL NOT REALLY A STEM CELL?
Working with embryonic mouse brains, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists seems to have discovered an almost-too-easy way to distinguish between "true" neural stem cells and similar, but less potent versions. Their finding, reported this week in Nature, could simplify the isolation of stem cells not only from brain but also other body tissues.

FINDING THAT ONE-IN-A-BILLION THAT COULD LEAD TO DISEASE
--Cell machinery sniffs out gene damage by trying on DNA for size
Errors in the genetic code can give rise to cancer and a host of other diseases, but finding these errors can be more difficult than looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. Now, scientists at Johns Hopkins have uncovered how the tiny protein-machines in cells tasked to search for such potentially life-threatening genetic damage actually recognize DNA errors.

CHRISTEN BROWNLEE JOINS NEWS AND COMMUNICATIONS STAFF AT JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE
Christen Brownlee, who holds a master’s degree in science and environmental reporting, has joined the staff at Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Division of Media Relations and Public Affairs as a senior media relations representative. Brownlee, who has nearly a decade of experience as a science writer, author, editor and media relations professional, most recently served as an editor of a startup science and social studies magazine for middle school students published by National Geographic.

FOLATE MYSTERY FINALLY SOLVED
Some biochemical processes, especially those in bacteria, have been so well studied it’s assumed that no discoveries are left to be made. Not so, it turns out, for Johns Hopkins researchers who have stumbled on the identity of an enzyme that had been a mystery for more than 30 years. The report appears in the May 15 issue of Structure.

NATURAL CHEMICAL FOUND IN BROCCOLI HELPS COMBAT SKIN BLISTERING DISEASE
Johns Hopkins scientists have found yet another reason why you should listen to your mother when she tells you to eat your vegetables. Sulforaphane, a chemical present at high levels in a precursor form in broccoli and related veggies (cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc.), helps prevent the severe blistering and skin breakage brought on by the rare and potentially fatal genetic disease epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS).

ELECTRICAL IMPLANT STEADIES BALANCE DISORDER IN ANIMALS
-- Tests in chinchillas show promise for treating long-term unsteadiness and blurry vision
Hearing and balance experts at Johns Hopkins report successful testing in animals of an electrical device that partly restores a damaged or impaired sense of balance.

NEW TECHNIQUE TO "SEE" AND PROTECT TRANSPLANTS SUCCESSFUL IN DIABETIC ANIMAL MODEL
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found a way to overcome a major stumbling block to developing successful insulin-cell transplants for people with type I diabetes

HOPKINS TEAM DEVELOPS FIRST MOUSE MODEL OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
Johns Hopkins researchers have genetically engineered the first mouse that models both the anatomical and behavioral defects of schizophrenia, a complex and debilitating brain disorder that affects over 2 million Americans

MEDICAL RESIDENTS SCORE POORLY IN DIAGNOSING AND MANAGING TUBERCULOSIS
When quizzed about their knowledge in diagnosing tuberculosis and deciding on the best treatment, medical residents in Baltimore and Philadelphia get almost half the answers wrong, according to a survey by TB disease experts at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere.

STATEMENT ON TUBERCULOSIS TRANSMISSION FROM PATIENT TO STAFF
Routine annual TB screening of staff at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in mid-March has revealed that a nonmedical employee of the hospital has contracted tuberculosis (TB).

JOHN GRIFFITH, M.D., M.P.H., 44, JOHNS HOPKINS FACULTY PHYSICIAN
The Johns Hopkins Medicine community mourns the untimely death of John Griffith, M.D., M.P.H., who was killed Saturday while bicycling south of Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. Griffith, 44, was a full-time assistant professor in The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Fibroid Center for the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Johns Hopkins.

OLDER IS BETTER: TOP-10 COMPARISON OF DIABETES DRUGS GIVES METFORMIN TOP GRADE
A type 2 diabetes drug taken orally and in widespread use for more than a decade has been found to have distinct advantages over nine other, mostly newer medications used to control the chronic disease, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

NEW MECHANISM FOUND FOR MEMORY STORAGE IN BRAIN
--persistent changes in "slow" nerve currents may also link memory and addiction
Our experiences -the things we see, hear, or do-can trigger long-term changes in the strength of the connections between nerve cells in our brain, and these persistent changes are how the brain encodes information as memory. As reported in Neuron this week, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a new biochemical mechanism for memory storage, one that may have a connection with addictive behavior.

NEUTRAL EVOLUTION HAS HELPED SHAPE OUR GENOME
Johns Hopkins researchers have added to the growing mound of evidence that many of the genetic bits and pieces that drive evolutionary changes do not confer any advantages or disadvantages to humans or other animals.

IMMUNE SYSTEM "ESCAPE HATCH" GIVES CANCER CELLS TRACTION
-- Discovery explains why anticancer vaccines mostly fail
Scientists at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere say they have mapped out an escape route that cancers use to evade the body’s immune system, allowing the disease to spread unchecked.

THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL TOPS U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT "HONOR ROLL" 17TH YEAR IN A ROW
The Johns Hopkins Hospital has again earned the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of American hospitals, placing first in four medical specialties and high in 11 others.

DRUG WARNING PROMPTS TREATMENT CHANGES FOR THOSE INFECTED WITH HEPATITIS B AND HIV
-- Study identified risks for co-infected patients about taking entecavir
Cross-resistance alarms raised earlier this year by Johns Hopkins researchers about a widely used antiviral therapy for hepatitis B liver infections have prompted swift treatment revisions by the drug's maker and governmental agencies.

COLON CANCER PROTEINS SHOW PROMISE FOR BLOOD TEST
Searching for less invasive screening tests for cancer, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered proteins present in blood that accurately identify colon cancer and precancerous polyps.

GROUNDBREAKING SET FOR ADDITIONAL WILMER EYE INSTITUTE BUILDING
Seven-story building planned for west side of Broadway at Orleans Street
The historic and top ranked Wilmer Eye Institute will break ground June 6 for a new, $100 million, 200,00-square foot structure to house additional research and clinical facilities across the street from The Institute’s current landmark facility adjacent to the major Johns Hopkins “dome.”

ADULT BRAIN CELLS REDISCOVER THEIR INNER CHILD
-Hopkins study shows adult-born nerves experience brief period of child-like learning
You may not be able to relive your youth, but part of your brain can. Johns Hopkins researchers have found that newly made nerves in an adult brain’s learning center experience a one-month period when they are just as active as the nerves in a developing child. The study, appearing this week in Neuron, suggests that new adult nerves have a deeper role than simply replacing dead ones

SURGEONS REBUILD IRAQ WAR VETERAN’S ENTIRE NOSE USING HIS OWN BODY PARTS
-- Technology, developed for surgery after nasal cancers, used in multiple reconstructive operations on 23-year-old whose face was disfigured
-- Surgeons praise soldier’s “courage”
It took only seconds for the Humvee to flip over and crash on a highway near Camp Bucca in southern Iraq in August 2005.  The force of impact was blunted by the body armor protecting Senior Airman Michael Fletcher.  But his gear was not strong enough to stop the wreck from crushing the rest of him.  His left arm was gone, and along with it a sizeable chunk of his midface, including his nose.

News Tips from the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies

• Pediatricians in Training and End-of-Life Care: Better Prep is Needed
• Kids High Blood Pressure Often Missed
• HIV and Teens: Many Pediatricians Still Follow Old Testing Rules
• Even Mild Kidney Disease Harms Quality of Life
• Doctors: Parents of Dying Newborns Need Clearer Explanations of Care Options

CANCER CELLS "REPROGRAM" ENERGY NEEDS TO GROW AND SPREAD, STUDY SUGGESTS
Studying a rare inherited syndrome, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that cancer cells can reprogram themselves to turn down their own energy-making machinery and use less oxygen, and that these changes might help cancer cells survive and spread.

BRAIN’S WHITE MATTER: MORE “TALKATIVE” THAN ONCE THOUGHT
Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered to their surprise that nerves in the mammalian brain’s white matter do more than just ferry information between different brain regions, but in fact process information the way gray matter cells do.

MAJOR GIFT TO JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE HONORS U.A.E. SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL NAHYAN
"Transformational" contribution to support new clinical tower and research at the Baltimore institution
Johns Hopkins officials today announced a significant financial commitment to Johns Hopkins Medicine from His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Most of the gift, made in honor of Sheikh Khalifa’s late father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, will support construction of The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s new cardiovascular and critical care tower, currently under construction on the East Baltimore campus.

JOHNS HOPKINS RADIOLOGY WINS MEDICAL IMAGING MAGAZINE "CREAM OF THE CROP" AWARDS
--Department Voted #1 in Nation; Elliot K. Fishman, M.D., Hopkins Professor of Radiology and Oncology, Voted Top U.S. Radiologist.
--Other Hopkins Radiologists Listed in Top 10
The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science at Johns Hopkins and one of its faculty, Elliot Fishman, M.D., were ranked the nation’s best by 600 readers of Medical Imaging Magazine in its second annual survey of the specialty field.

ANTIFUNGAL DRUG STOPS BLOOD VESSEL GROWTH
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered to their surprise that a drug commonly used to treat toenail fungus can also block angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels commonly seen in cancers. The drug, itraconazole, already is FDA approved for human use, which may fast-track its availability as an antiangiogenesis drug.

SOLOMON SNYDER AWARDED NATION’S RICHEST MEDICAL PRIZE
For his work on how proteins on cell surfaces enable cells to communicate with each other, Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has been honored with the 2007 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. Snyder shares the $500,000 prize with Robert J. Lefkowitz of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and Ronald M. Evans of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.

ANTIDANDRUFF COMPOUND MAY HELP FIGHT EPILEPSY
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that the same ingredient used in dandruff shampoos to fight the burning, itching and flaking on your head also can calm overexcited nerve cells inside your head, making it a potential treatment for seizures. Results of the study can be found online in Nature Chemical Biology.

HOPKINS RESEARCHERS FIND A BETTER BLOOD TEST FOR PROSTATE CANCER 
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-- EPCA-2 testing curtails unnecessary biopsies and can differentiate disease that has spread outside the prostate from cancer within the prostate, Hopkins team says
New studies of a blood protein recently identified at Johns Hopkins, early prostate cancer antigen-2 (EPCA-2), may change the way men are screened for prostate cancer - a disease that kills tens of thousands of men every year.

SHORT CHROMOSOMES PUT CANCER CELLS IN FORCED REST
A Johns Hopkins team has stopped in its tracks a form of blood cancer in mice by engineering and inactivating an enzyme, telomerase, thereby shortening the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres.

SPEEDING "FINGERTIP" DISCOVERY-TWENTY YEARS OF PROTEIN INFO IN ONE PLACE
--New information about old proteins offers researchers shortcuts to study disease
Researchers at Johns Hopkins took advantage of a new technique that reads the makeup of proteins to identify nearly all chemical changes nature makes by adding phosphate to proteins manufactured in human cells.

MOOD DISORDERS SYMPOSIUM WILL DISCUSS NEW FINDINGS IN RESEARCH AND TREATMENT OF BIPOLAR DISORDERS AND RECURRENT DEPRESSION
-- Co-authors Frederick K. Goodwin, M.D., and Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., will discuss the new edition of "Manic Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression."
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will hold its 21st annual Mood Disorders Symposium titled "Bipolar Revisited: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going," at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, April 24, to draw attention to new findings in basic and clinical research on depression and bipolar disorder.

JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE HONORS YOUNG INVESTIGATORS
--30th Annual Celebration Recognizes Talents of Students and Fellows

How we listen to ourselves when we talk, the underlying defect in a rare neurological disorder and a plan for identifying potential drugs faster and cheaper are a few of many research projects that will be honored this year at the 30th annual Young Investigators' Day at Johns Hopkins. Eleven students and seven fellows will be celebrated, along with all young investigators in the School of Medicine.

JOHNS HOPKINS BEGINS AGGRESSIVE SCREENING FOR "SUPERBUGS" IN CHILDREN
- Safety study triggered decision to go beyond standard monitoring and testing schedules
Infection control and critical care experts at The Johns Hopkins Hospital have ordered testing for the two most common hospital superbugs for every child admitted to its pediatric intensive care unit.

MOST-AT-RISK NURSING HOME RESIDENTS TO BE TESTED FOR "SUPERBUGS"
A Johns Hopkins study of adult patients admitted to The Johns Hopkins Hospital showed that patients who resided in nursing homes or other kinds of long-term care facilities at any time within the last six months were far more likely than other adult patients to carry or be infected with a drug-resistant superbug.

JOHNS HOPKINS DEVELOPS PANCREAS CANCER RISK MODEL
May help decide who should get early screening
People with a family history of pancreas cancer now have a way to accurately predict their chance of carrying a gene for hereditary pancreas cancer and their lifetime risk of developing the disease. Developed by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers, the novel computer software tool is designed to help genetic counselors and physicians decide who would most benefit from early screening.

FUSION PROTEIN FOUND BY JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS
-- Without it, muscle cells refuse to fuse
Working with fruit flies, scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered a protein required for two neighboring cells to fuse and become one super cell.

Power Lawn Mower Injuries Crop up with Change of Season
Spring is here, the sky is blue, the grass is green and its time to give that lawn a trim. But beware: Lawn mower injuries are a seasonal threat to children and the leading cause of amputations in adolescents, say specialists from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Maryland's designated pediatric trauma center where the most severe injuries are treated.

PneuStep: MRI-SAFE MOTOR MAKES ROBOTIC BIOPSIES POSSIBLE
--Johns Hopkins Medicine engineers announce plastic, air- and light-driven device more precise than human hand
Engineers at the Johns Hopkins Urology Robotics Lab report the invention of a motor without metal or electricity that can safely power remote-controlled robotic medical devices used for cancer biopsies and therapies guided by magnetic resonance imaging. The motor that drives the devices can be so precisely controlled by computer that movements are steadier and more precise than a human hand.

STATINS LINKED TO LOWER RISK OF INFECTION
Markedly lower frequency of sepsis in dialysis patients observed
Researchers at Johns Hopkins may have discovered an unintended benefit in the drugs millions of Americans take to lower their cholesterol: The medications, all statins, seem to lower the risk of a potentially lethal blood infection known as sepsis in patients on kidney dialysis. The study is published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

NEED OXYGEN? CELLS KNOW HOW TO SPEND AND SAVE
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered how cells fine-tune their oxygen use to make do with whatever amount is available at the moment.

ADVISORY - PRESS CONFERENCE
Senator Barbara A. Mikulski will visit Johns Hopkins to discuss stem cell research and the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007.

MYTHS ABOUT MANHOOD KEEP TEEN BOYS FROM SEXUAL HEALTH CARE
Research led by specialists at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center has found that teenage boys who hold some traditional beliefs about what it means to be a "real man" can undermine their sexual health and good preventive care in general.

HOPKINS RANKED IN THE TOP TIER OF MEDICAL SCHOOLS BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
In the attached letter, the Dean of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine thanks faculty and staff for helping maintain the School of Medicine’s position as # 2 in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of the nation’s 125 accredited medical schools. The accompanying letter provides detailed information about that ranking as well as information regarding the top-10 placement of Johns Hopkins’ medical specialty programs.

GENE MUTATIONS LINKED TO HEREDITARY LUNG DISEASE
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have identified the genetic culprits that trigger a hereditary form of a fatal lung disease. The findings, published in the March 29, 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, may provide new directions in diagnosis and treatment for families that inherit genes for the disease, as well as for those that develop non-inherited forms of the illness.

JOHNS HOPKINS RECEIVES ADDITIONAL $12.6 MILLION FROM DONALD W. REYNOLDS FOUNDATION TO STUDY SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH
Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Donald W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center have been awarded $12.6 million in additional funding from its original namesake, the Las Vegas-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, to continue studies into the causes of sudden cardiac death. More than 300,000 Americans die each year when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood, triggered by an electrical disturbance in the heart.

WHO GETS HEART FAILURE? RACE TAKES BACK SEAT TO DIABETES AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
-- Study limits role of race in explaining high rates of disease among African Americans
Diabetes and high blood pressure, two conditions rooted in genetics and environmental surroundings, play a much greater role than race alone in determining who is mostly likely to develop heart failure, according to the latest study from cardiologists at Johns Hopkins. Each year, nearly 300,000 Americans die from heart failure.

HEART PUMPING VARIATIONS REVEALED AMONG AFRICAN AND CHINESE AMERICANS
- Racial differences may explain risk levels
Generally healthy African Americans may be at higher risk of heart failure because of racial variations in heart muscle’s pumping ability, a Johns Hopkins study suggests.

JOHNS HOPKINS HOUSING AND TESTING ONLY 256-SLICE CT SCANNER IN NORTH AMERICA
- Device can image whole hearts or brain, and tiny vessels safely
Johns Hopkins Medicine has installed for three months of initial safety and clinical testing a 256-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner, believed to be the world’s most advanced CT imaging software and machinery. 

PHYSICIAN-SCIENTIST NEIL R. POWE NAMED DISTINGUISHED EDUCATOR BY NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL RESEARCH TRAINING
Johns Hopkins internist and epidemiologist Neil R. Powe, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., who has trained hundreds of fellow clinical researchers and medical students in the past two decades, has been named the 2007 Distinguished Educator by the National Association of Clinical Research Training.

“SHRUG OFF” SHOULDER SURGERY MYTH, STUDY SUGGESTS
Total shoulder replacements as safe as swapping out hips and knees, according to Hopkins researchers
Contrary to widespread belief, total surgical replacement of arthritic shoulder joints carries no greater risk of complications than replacement of other major joints, a Johns Hopkins study suggests.

Hopkins Researcher Develop Novel X-Ray System for Tracking the Delivery and Distribution of Stem Cells
In a first of its kind study, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have developed a new technique that transports therapeutic stem cells in a multilayer microcapsule that not only protects the cells from being attacked by the body's immune system but also enables them to be seen on X-ray

MAKING MICE WITH ENHANCED COLOR VISION
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and their colleagues have found that mice simply expressing a human light receptor in addition to their own can acquire new color vision, a sign that the brain can adapt far more rapidly to new sensory information than anticipated.

NEW TECHNIQUE DEVELOPED FOR TRACKING CELLS IN THE BODY
Scientists’ inability to follow the whereabouts of cells injected into the human body has long been a major drawback in developing effective medical therapies. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a promising new technique for noninvasively tracking where living cells go after they are put into the body.  The new technique, which uses genetically encoded cells producing a natural contrast that can be viewed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), appears much more effective than present methods used to detect injected biomaterials.

JOHNS HOPKINS JOINS SEVEN OTHER INSTITUTIONS TO WARN CONGRESS  ABOUT DANGERS OF FLAT FUNDING OF BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
New Report Outlines Threat to Medical Progress in Combating Cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, Spinal Cord Injuries and Other Conditions
Johns Hopkins University and a consortium of seven other leading U.S. scientific and medical institutions today warned Congress that persistent flat funding of biomedical research could thwart advances in treatments for such diseases as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, and erode U.S. dominance in science.

OBESITY HIGH AMONG BALTIMORE’S HOMELESS, JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS SAY
Findings could point to wider epidemic among the U.S. homeless
A small but telling study from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center reveals an ominous trend: more than expected, obesity shadows Baltimore’s homeless children and their caregivers, putting them at high risk for heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, among other conditions.

COMPUTER PROGRAM HELPS HOSPITALS PREPARE FOR MASS CASUALTIES
Johns Hopkins emergency medicine specialists have developed a tool to help hospitals prepare for disasters with the potential to overwhelm services.

JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE TRUSTEES SUPPORT STATEWIDE SMOKING BAN IN PUBLIC SPACES
The governing board of Johns Hopkins Medicine today unanimously voted to throw its support behind Maryland legislators’ efforts to ban smoking in all indoor public spaces in the state.

WIDELY USED HEPATITIS B DRUG SPURS HIV DRUG RESISTANCE
- Hopkins experts have notified FDA and caution co-infected patients about taking entecavir  
A Johns Hopkins study has proven false established medical practice that an antiretroviral drug widely used to treat hepatitis B liver infections was safe to use on its own in patients co-infected with HIV.  Their findings demonstrate that treatment with entecavir leads to cross-resistance to other antiviral drugs used to treat the AIDS virus.

GENE HUNTERS CLOSE IN ON LOU GEHRIG’S DISEASE
In the first genome-wide search for the genetic roots of the most common form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Johns Hopkins scientists have newly identified 34 unique variations in the human genetic code among 276 unrelated subjects with ALS.

PATRICK WALSH SELECTED PHYSICIAN OF THE YEAR
Publisher of ‘America’s Top Doctors’ to honor Johns Hopkins urologist
Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., the publishing company behind the well-known medical directory America’s Top Doctors, has named Johns Hopkins urologist Patrick C. Walsh, M.D., one of three honorees to receive the organization’s "Physician of the Year" award. Walsh was selected from a pool of more than 600,000 physicians from around the country.

STUDY LINKS ATTEMPTED SUICIDE WITH GENETIC EVIDENCE IDENTIFIED IN PREVIOUS SUICIDE RESEARCH
A Johns Hopkins-led study has found evidence that a genetic tendency toward suicide has been linked to a particular area of the genome on chromosome 2 that has been implicated in two additional recent studies of attempted suicide.

PRIMITIVE YEAST YIELDS SECRETS OF HUMAN CHOLESTEROL AND DRUG METABOLISM
--Regulator of cholesterol production identified
By first probing the way primitive yeast make cholesterol, a team of scientists has discovered a long-sought protein whose human counterpart controls cholesterol production and potentially drug metabolism.

MEDICAL SCHOOL’S MASS SPEC EXPERTS AID SEARCH FOR LIFE ON MARS
--Device the size of a "shoebox" will be about right
Biomedical scientists at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have won a $750,000 NASA grant to design the prototype for a mini mass spectrometer that fits on a Mars Rover and can analyze the chemicals of life as it crawls over the Red Planet’s dust.

Winter Colds, Over-Wrapping Raise the Risk of SIDS, Doctors Warn
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) – the leading cause of death in infants under 1 year of age – can happen at any time. But parents and caregivers should be extra careful during the cold winter months, when the flu and other infections and the urge to bundle up babies extra warmly increase the risk of SIDS, say experts from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

CALL MADE FOR CHANGES IN WOMEN’S HEART DISEASE RISK-FACTOR LIST
-- Family history and blood C-reactive protein should be added to traditional risk factors for all older women
Johns Hopkins cardiologists are calling for an expansion of the criteria widely used by physicians to detect and assess a postmenopausal woman’s chances of developing cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among women in the United States.

HUMAN STEM CELL TRANSPLANTS REPAIR RAT SPINAL CORDS
Human nerve stem cells transplanted into rats’ damaged spinal cords have survived, grown and in some cases connected with the rats’ own spinal cord cells in a Johns Hopkins laboratory, overturning the long-held notion that spinal cords won’t allow nerve repair.

HOPKINS SCIENTISTS UNCOVER CAUSE OF ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUG WEIGHT GAIN
Johns Hopkins brain scientists have hit on how and why some powerful drugs used for treating mental illnesses cause patients to gain so much weight that they often develop life-threatening complications such as diabetes and heart disease.

HOPKINS “ALLIANCE” AWARDS FOSTER TECH DEVELOPMENT
A nerve-growth chemical and cancer drug delivery “envelope” are two of the novel technologies awarded by Johns Hopkins Medicine business development leaders.  The so-called Alliance awards support the development of new technologies to speed their entrance to health care and biotechnology markets.

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SEVERE FORM OF "ENLARGED PROSTATE" DISEASE DISCOVERED
Blood test developed to detect problems long before middle age
Millions of middle-aged and older men experience the symptoms of an enlarged prostate multiple times during the day and night. What they may not know is that the disease known as BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), marked by urgency and frequent urination, is not one but at least a pair of disorders, and that one of the pair ? tied to a newly identified gene ? has far more serious implications.

SKIN NEEDS "WINTERIZING" TO HEAD OFF DAMAGE
Results of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) suggest that at least 81 million Americans experience dry, itchy or scaly skin during the winter months due to blasts of colder, dryer air, winter sun exposure and over-heated homes and offices.

HIV DEMENTIA ALARMINGLY HIGH IN AFRICA
-Hopkins study suggests rates challenge Alzheimer’s and stroke dementia worldwide
An international study led by Johns Hopkins suggests that the rate of HIV-associated dementia is so high in sub-Saharan Africa that HIV dementia along with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia from strokes may be among the most common forms of dementia in the world.

RX FOR WRONG-SITE SURGERY: TWO MINUTES OF CONVERSATION
A study of Johns Hopkins surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses suggests that hospital policies requiring a brief preoperation ”team meeting” to make sure surgery is performed on the right patient and the right part of the body could decrease errors.

COMMON BLOOD PRESSURE DRUG TREATS MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY IN MICE
----Clinical promise grows out of new twists on Marfan syndrome research
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that a drug commonly used to lower blood pressure reverses muscle wasting in genetically engineered mice with Marfan syndrome and also prevents muscle degeneration in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The results are reported online this week at Nature Medicine.

BUILT-IN MOLECULAR BRAKES CURB THE SNIFFLES
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered how our anti-infection machinery turns itself down and limits the sniffles, congestion and fevers that are a side effect of the campaign against invading viruses. The discovery seems to solve part of the mystery of why the misery of the common cold lasts only so long.

$5 Million Gift Will Name Johns Hopkins Child Health Building for Trustee Rubenstein
Johns Hopkins University trustee David Rubenstein of Bethesda, Md., managing director of the Carlyle Group and a long-time patron of the institution, has given $5 million to support the new and only Hopkins outpatient facility exclusively devoted to children and adolescent health care.

WINNERS ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY CAN INCLUDE DIETERS
Think the heavy eating season is over? Some sources say Super Bowl Sunday is ranked as the number two "food consumption event" of the year, second only to Thanksgiving, and experts at Johns Hopkins have developed a game plan for dieters wary of packing on more pounds on Feb. 4.

Johns Hopkins Institutions’ 25th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration
Maya Angelou, author, poet, actress and one of America’s most influential civil rights activists, will be the featured speaker at this year’s annual event honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and marking community and civil rights service by Johns Hopkins employees.

RENEGADE RNA: CLUES TO CANCER AND NORMAL GROWTH
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a tiny piece of genetic code apparently goes where no bit of it has gone before, and it gets there under its own internal code.