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2008 Press Releases

Johns Hopkins Medicine Press Releases: 2008

12/31/08	BRIGHT LIGHTS, NOT-SO-BIG PUPILS A team of Johns Hopkins neuroscientists has worked out how some newly discovered light sensors in the eye detect light and communicate with the brain.
12/31/08	WHY PROSTATE CANCER PATIENTS FAIL HORMONE DEPRIVATION THERAPY --Johns Hopkins scientists identify receptor type that makes cancer cells resistant to therapy, more aggressive The hormone deprivation therapy that prostate cancer patients often take gives them only a temporary fix, with tumors usually regaining their hold within a couple of years. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered critical differences in the hormone receptors on prostate cancer cells in patients who no longer respond to this therapy.
12/30/08	JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS PULL PROTEIN’S TAIL TO CURTAIL CANCER When researchers look inside human cancer cells for the whereabouts of an important tumor-suppressor, they often catch the protein playing hooky, lolling around in cellular broth instead of muscling its way out to the cells’ membranes and foiling cancer growth.
12/23/08	LITTLE PROGRESS MADE IN PATIENT SAFETY IN SPITE OF INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE CALL TO ACTION ---- Physician autonomy must be balanced with team-based standardization Despite increased emphasis on patient safety, little progress has been made in making hospitals safer, says Johns Hopkins critical care specialist Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., in an article in the Dec. 24 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
12/21/08	JHM INFORMATION ON UNCOMPENSATED CARE The information on this page is provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine in response to an article on hospitals and uncompensated care published in The Baltimore Sun’s December 21, 2008 edition. Included is a statement for the news media, including a Question and Answer section and an explanation of the relationship between hospitals and the Health Services Cost Review Commission rate-setting system, as well as Johns Hopkins’s process for dealing with unpaid debt. Also included is a copy of a letter to employees and faculty of JHM from the president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System.
12/18/08	FIVE JHU RESEARCHERS NAMED 2008 AAAS FELLOWS Five Johns Hopkins University researchers have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science by their peers. Jonathan Bagger, Ted Dawson, Barbara Landau, Jun Liu and Jeremy Nathans are among 486 new fellows around the world. Election as a fellow honors scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
12/15/08	MOUSE STUDIES SUGGEST “TOXIC” CARBON MONOXIDE MAY PREVENT BRAIN DAMAGE AFTER STROKE Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that brain damage was reduced by as much as 62.2 percent in mice who inhale low amounts of carbon monoxide after an induced stroke.
12/15/08	JOHNS HOPKINS IMMUNOLOGISTS AWARDED $10M NIH GRANT --Hope to Dissect Immune System Intricacies Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been awarded a $10.3 million grant—the largest basic immunology grant ever received by Hopkins—from the National Institutes of Health to dissect the human immune system.
12/2/08	CLUES ABOUT CONTROLLING CHOLESTEROL RISE FROM YEAST STUDIES Having discovered how a lowly, single-celled fungus regulates its version of cholesterol, Johns Hopkins researchers are gaining new insight about the target and action of cholesterol-lowering drugs taken daily by millions of people to stave off heart attacks and strokes. Their work appears in the December issue of Cell Metabolism.
12/1/08	STUDY UNMASKS HOW OVARIAN TUMORS EVADE IMMUNE SYSTEM -- Potential exists for drugs to halt shedding of fatty molecules, stop tumor growth and kill cancer Scientists at Johns Hopkins have determined how the characteristic shedding of fatty substances, or lipids, by ovarian tumors allows the cancer to evade the body’s immune system, leaving the disease to spread unchecked. Ovarian cancer is considered to be one of the most aggressive malignancies, killing more than 70 percent of diagnosed women within five years, including an estimated 15,000 this year.
11/26/08	FRUIT FLY DISCOVERY GENERATES BUZZ ABOUT BRAIN-DAMAGING DISORDER IN CHILDREN --Investigators propose idea for therapy Johns Hopkins researchers have used fruit flies to gain new insights into a brain-damaging disorder afflicting children. Their work?suggests a possible therapy for the disease, for which there is currently no treatment.
11/16/08	Johns Hopkins World AIDS Day Events Faculty, staff and patients at The Johns Hopkins Hospital will mark World AIDS Day with several events designed to highlight the need for continued community leadership in Baltimore to deal with the city’s soaring HIV rate. More than 16,000 Baltimoreans are infected with HIV, earning the city the dubious distinction of having the nation’s second highest rate of infection.
11/26/08	STUDY SUPPORTS VALUE OF ADVANCED CT SCANS TO CHECK FOR CLOGGED ARTERIES -- Catheterization still gold standard, but 64-row scanners now shown equally useful in diagnosis In a development that researchers say is likely to quell concerns about the value of costly computed tomography (CT) scans to diagnose coronary artery blockages, an international team led by researchers at Johns Hopkins reports solid evidence that the newer, more powerful 64-CT scans can easily and correctly identify people with major blood vessel disease and is nearly as accurate as invasive coronary angiography.
11/25/08	INHALED CORTICOSTEROIDS RAISE PNEUMONIA RISK FOR LUNG DISEASE SUFFERERS - Call made for physicians to strongly weigh potential harm of commonly used drugs Lung disease experts at Johns Hopkins are calling for physicians to show much greater caution in prescribing inhaled corticosteroid drugs for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after finding evidence that the widely used anti-inflammatory medications increase the risk of pneumonia by a full third.
11/24/08	POTASSIUM LOSS FROM BLOOD PRESSURE DRUGS MAY EXPLAIN HIGHER RISK OF ADULT DIABETES Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that a drop in blood potassium levels caused by diuretics commonly prescribed for high blood pressure could be the reason why people on those drugs are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes. The drugs helpfully accelerate loss of fluids, but also deplete important chemicals, including potassium, so that those who take them are generally advised to eat bananas and other potassium-rich foods to counteract the effect.
11/21/08	$9.8 MILLION GRANT TO MAP “EPIGENOME” OF SCHIZOPHRENIA Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and four other academic medical centers have been awarded a $9.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health to pin down inherited changes that occur outside a cell’s DNA sequence in people with schizophrenia. Unlike changes or mutations in the DNA sequence itself, epigenetic marks or alterations can be affected by a lifetime of exposure to the environment in which cells operate.
11/17/08	JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHER SHARES SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD --Hongjun Song “A Leading Researcher of Adult Neural Stem Cells” The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is awarding the Young Investigator Award to co-recipient Hongjun Song, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for his work in understanding how adult neural stem cells mature into nerve cells and integrate into the existing neuronal circuitry.
11/17/08	NEUROSCIENCE 2008- NEWS TIPS WHY ALLERGY MEDS WORSEN RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME IT’S THE RATS KNEES: GRAPE POWDER ALLEVIATES JOINT INFLAMMATION CURRY SPICE AND PARKINSON’S DISEASE?
11/13/08	JOINT MEETING OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS ALLIANCE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND AT BALTIMORE (UMB) COMMERCIAL ADVISORY BOARD This is the first time Hopkins has co-hosted the annual meeting with UMB. Several Hopkins start-ups will be showcased and 15 new Hopkins faculty inventions will be featured, as well as several inventions from UMB. Experts from industry and academia will discuss the commercialization of new technology in a challenging economic environment.
11/12/08	MORE IS BETTER: EVIDENCE MOUNTS THAT THERE IS SAFETY IN NUMBERS FOR COMMUNITY HOSPITALS PERFORMING EMERGENCY ANGIOPLASTY - study shows 83 or more emergency procedures annually is best for surviving heart attack Heart experts at Johns Hopkins have evidence that life-saving coronary angioplasty at community hospitals is safer when physicians and hospital staff have more experience with the procedure.
11/12/08	HEART ASSOCIATION CALL FOR ROUTINE SCREENING OF HEART PATIENTS FOR DEPRESSION IS PREMATURE, JOHNS HOPKINS EXPERT SAYS -- Decision was difficult, but in the best interests of patients, he says A Johns Hopkins cardiologist well known for his studies on the links between depression and heart attack says there is not nearly enough evidence yet to support a recent call by the American Heart Association (AHA) to begin routine screening of millions of Americans for depression.
11/11/08	SCIENTISTS MAP STEPS TO BLOCK KEY ENZYME ACTION IN HEART FAILURE - S-nitrosylation of cysteine 181mimics action of Viagra-like drugs, which have been shown to rescue failing hearts Taking a cue from the way drugs like Viagra put the biological brakes on a key enzyme involved in heart failure, scientists at Johns Hopkins have mapped out a key chemical step involved in blocking the enzyme.
11/11/08	ESTROGEN, TESTOSTERONE MAY AFFECT ATHEROSCLEROSIS --Doctors may eventually check sex hormones to assess heart disease risk, researcher says Naturally produced sex hormones may influence the risk and progression of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, Johns Hopkins researchers report in a recent study. The findings may help explain the increased risk men have of developing heart disease, which runs about twofold higher than women’s heart disease risk worldwide.
11/11/08	ADVISORY – JOHNS HOPKINS GENETICS PRESS BRIEFINGS American Society of Human Genetics 58th Annual Meeting
11/9/08	QUINTET OF PROTEINS FORMS NEW, EARLY-WARNING BLOOD TEST BEFORE HEART ATTACK STRIKES A team of Johns Hopkins biochemists has identified a mixed bag of five key proteins out of thousands secreted into blood draining from the heart’s blood vessels that may together or in certain quantities form the basis of a far more accurate early warning test than currently in use of impending heart attack in people with severely reduced blood flow, or ischemia.
11/5/08	BEST OF THE BEST 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, Nov.5, as part of the Johns Hopkins Heart and Vascular Institute’s annual awards ceremony named to commemorate the late Hopkins physician Stanley L. Blumenthal, B.A. ’39 and M.D. ’43.
11/4/08	JOHNS HOPKINS PROSTATE CANCER SPECIALIST WILLIAM NELSON TO HEAD INSTITUTION’S CANCER CENTER William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., a member of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty since 1992, has been selected to lead the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.
11/3/08	NOTED HOPKINS SCIENTIST SAYS RESEARCH INDICATES NEED FOR EFFECTIVE HPV VACCINE FOR WOMEN AND MEN AND A SIMPLE HPV SCREENING TEST A call to explore a broader use of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines and the validation of a simple oral screening test for HPV-caused oral cancers are reported in two studies by a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigator.
11/3/08	PID DIAGNOSIS PREDICTS FUTURE STI'S IN TEENAGERS Writing a prescription and cursory follow-up won’t help, researchers warn. A study among Baltimore inner-city teenage girls treated for pelvic inflammatory disease shows they are highly vulnerable to subsequent sexually transmitted infections (STI) — sometimes within a few weeks or months of their treatment.
11/3/08	MEMO TO ER DOCS: SEND YOUNG VICTIMES OF VILENCE FOR ONE-ON-ONE COUNSELING Mentoring youths, counseling parents can reduce youth violence, researchers say A study of 113 children and teens physically victimized by peers concludes that one-on-one mentoring about how to safely avoid conflict and diffuse threats makes them far less likely to become victims again if guidance is initiated in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
10/29/08	DRINKING MILK TO EASE MILK ALLERGY? -Hopkins Children’s oral immunotherapy study shows promise, but do not try this at home Giving children with milk allergies increasingly higher doses of milk over time may ease, and even help them completely overcome, their allergic reactions, according to the results of a study led by the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and conducted jointly with Duke University.
10/28/08	PIONEERING PEDIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGIST JANET HARDY, M.D., DIES AT 92 Janet Hardy, professor emerita of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and an eminent pediatric epidemiologist whose pioneering work spanning six decades continues to influence modern-day neonatology and fetal medicine, died Oct. 23 at the age of 92 in Glen Arm, Md.
10/28/08	REM STUDY SHOWS BRAIN FUNCTIONS SAME WAY AWAKE OR ASLEEP Johns Hopkins researchers have found strong evidence supporting the view that the sleeping mind functions the same as the waking mind, a discovery that could significantly alter basic understanding of the normal and abnormal brain.
10/24/08	COLLEGIATE INVENTORS COMPETITION RECOGNIZES JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL STUDENT A Johns Hopkins medical student was chosen as one of 12 finalists to compete for a sizeable cash award and the prestige of being named the nation’s best collegiate inventor.
10/23/08	IF YOUR SYSTOLIC STINKS, "ROTTEN EGG" GAS MAY BE WHY --Researchers Discover Hydrogen Sulfide Is a Major Regulator of Blood Pressure Anyone with a nose knows the rotten-egg odor of hydrogen sulfide, a gas generated by bacteria living in the human colon. Now an international team of scientists has discovered that cells inside the blood vessels of mice — as well as in people, no doubt — naturally make the gassy stuff, and that it controls blood pressure.
10/22/08	SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH NUMBER ONE RISK FOR PATIENTS ON DIALYSIS -Inflammation, malnutrition identified as key risk factors In a 10-year study of more than a thousand kidney failure patients, sudden cardiac death emerged as the number one cause of death for patients on dialysis, according to a Johns Hopkins researcher. The study, already published online and appearing in the Nov. 2 issue of Kidney International, identified systemic inflammatory response and malnutrition as key risk factors for the fatal heart attacks.
10/21/08	MORE THAN $2M IN GIFTS GO TO JOHNS HOPKINS PATIENT SAFETY The Johns Hopkins Quality and Safety Research Group (QSRG), led by award-winning patient safety researcher Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., has received gifts worth more than $2 million to expand efforts to further reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections in hospital intensive care units. The philanthropic support comes through a matching fund gift from an anonymous donor and the Sandler Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.
10/20/08	JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS DETECT SWEET CACOPHANY WHILE LISTENING TO CELLULAR CROSS-TALK --Sugar Plays Key Role In How Cells Work Johns Hopkins scientists were dubious in the early 1980s when they stumbled on small sugar molecules lurking in the centers of cells; not only were they not supposed to be there, but they certainly weren't supposed to be repeatedly attaching to and detaching from proteins, effectively switching them on and off. The conventional wisdom was that the job of turning proteins on and off -- and thus determining their actions -- fell to phosphates, in a common and easy-to-detect chemical step in which phosphates fasten to and unfasten from proteins; a process called phosphorylation.
10/19/08	SWAMPING BAD CELLS WITH GOOD IN ALS ANIMAL MODELS HELPS SUSTAIN BREATHING, NEW JOHNS HOPKINS STUDY SHOWS --Targeted Cell Delivery to the Cervical Spinal Cord Is a Promising Strategy to Slow Loss of Motor Neurons in ALS In a disease like ALS - one that's always fatal and that has a long history of research-resistant biology - finding a proof of principle in animal models is significant.
10/15/08	INVITATION TO COVER PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN HEALTH POLITICS FORUM AT JOHNS HOPKINS The Department of Medicine will host a forum featuring official surrogates of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama at a special Grand Rounds. The format will include presentations representing each candidate’s position on health care issues and policies, including NIH funding for scientific research and ensuring fairness as it relates to indigent care and access.
10/15/08	THREE JHU RESEARCHERS ELECTED TO INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE Three Johns Hopkins University researchers have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. Harry C. Dietz, M.D., Lisa A. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H., and Nancy Kass, D.S., 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
10/14/08	CONSORTIUM TO RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO THE AIDS/TUBERCULOSIS EPIDEMIC GETS $32 MILLION BOOST FROM BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION An international effort led by physician-scientists at Johns Hopkins to control the global spread of HIV-related tuberculosis and treat the dual epidemics in hardest-hit countries has received $32 million in additional funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
10/13/08	RESEARCH CONFIRMS IT: NOXIOUS GAS STOVE EMISSIONS WORSEN ASTHMA SYMPTOMS IN YOUNG CHILDREN Johns Hopkins scientists report that high levels of a noxious gas from stoves can be added to the list of indoor pollutants that aggravate asthma symptoms of inner city children, especially preschoolers.
10/13/08	FORMER HEAD OF JOHNS HOPKINS PSYCHIATRY WINS INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE'S 2008 SARNAT AWARD IN MENTAL HEALTH The Institute of Medicine has awarded the 2008 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Award in Mental Health to Paul R. McHugh, M.D., the University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and professor of mental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
10/9/08	MOUSE STUDIES SUGGEST DAILY DOSE OF GINKGO MAY PREVENT BRAIN CELL DAMAGE AFTER A STROKE Working with genetically engineered mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that daily doses of a standardized extract from the leaves of the ginkgo tree can prevent or reduce brain damage after an induced stroke.
10/8/08	CHILDREN WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS NOT WELL COVERED BY GUIDELINES FOR VITAMIN D NEEDS Hopkins Children’s experts call for higher doses to address deficiencies Existing recommendations for treating vitamin D deficiency in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) are too low to cover the serious need, leaving most at high risk for bone loss and rickets, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
10/7/08	GET MOVING: JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCH SHOWS EARLY MOBILITY BETTER THAN BED REST FOR ICU PATIENTS A critical care specialist at Johns Hopkins who has reviewed recent studies of intensive care unit (ICU) patients and data from The Johns Hopkins Hospital concludes that the routine use of deep sedation and bed rest in ICU patients may be causing unnecessary and long-term physical impairment and poor quality of life after hospital discharge.
10/7/08	JOHNS HOPKINS SURGICAL LEADER ELECTED TO HEAD AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS John L. Cameron, M.D., Alfred Blalock Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and for 19 years chief of surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, will be installed as the 89th president of the American College of Surgeons on Oct. 12 during its annual meeting in San Francisco.
10/6/08	DIAGNOSING AND TREATING INFECTIONS: TOP CHALLENGE FOR NEUROLOGISTS In what is believed to be the first formal “census” of neurological diseases and their impact, Johns Hopkins researchers have found that brain and nervous system infections are more difficult to diagnose and treat and have a remarkably higher rate of morbidity and mortality compared to other neurological problems.
10/6/08	Steroid Treatment Offers No Benefit In Preemies, Hopkins Children’s Study Suggests Results of a multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center challenge the longstanding practice of treating premature babies with hydrocortisone, a steroid believed to fight inflammation and prevent lung disease. The researchers found that such treatment offers little or no benefit and that low cortisol levels are not even necessarily harmful. High cortisol levels, on the other hand, appeared to increase the risk of dangerous bleeding in the brain and require that babies be monitored aggressively to ward off life-threatening complications, according to the study published in the October issue of Pediatrics.
10/6/08	Burst Appendix or Stomach Flu? Hopkins Children’s Experts Say Doctors and Parents Can Sort Out Symptoms with a Checklist A young child arrives at the emergency room after several days of abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea and is sent home with a diagnosis of viral gastritis and treatment for the symptoms. The child seems better for a while, only to return to the ER with worse symptoms and a ruptured appendix, a life-threatening complication of appendicitis.
10/3/08	DISCOVERY OF NATURAL COMPOUNDS THAT COULD SLOW BLOOD VESSEL GROWTH --Johns Hopkins Researchers Discover Candidates for Fighting Disease Using computer models and live cell experiments, biomedical engineers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered more than 100 human protein fragments that can slow or stop the growth of cells that make up new blood vessels.
10/1/08	JOHNS HOPKINS PART OF GROUP TO RECEIVE $3 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT TO REDUCE BLOODSTREAM INFECTIONS The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has awarded nearly $3 million for a contract aimed at reducing central line-associated bloodstream infections in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) to a consortium made up of Johns Hopkins and the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA). The Health Research & Educational Trust, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, will coordinate the three-year program as part of AHRQ's overall initiative to reduce health care-associated infections.
10/1/08	HOPKINS “TELOMERE” EXPERT CAROL GREIDER SHARES GERMANY’S LARGEST SCIENCE PRIZE Carol Greider, Ph.D., Daniel Nathans Professor and director of molecular biology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will share the 100,000 euro 2009 Paul Erlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize with Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco for their “discovery of telomeres and telomerase and the elucidation of their significance for cell division and cell aging.”
10/1/08	WILL PATIENTS STICK TO PHYSICAL THERAPY? QUESTIONNAIRE CAN HELP DOCTORS PREDICT Patients' responses to a simple questionnaire can reliably predict whether they will adhere to physical therapy after spine surgery, Johns Hopkins researchers suggest in a new study. The findings could help physicians identify patients who might benefit from additional preoperative preparation to ensure they attend therapy sessions and follow through with prescribed exercise, a factor that can greatly affect their long-term recovery.
9/30/08	UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR HONORS JOHNS HOPKINS HEALTH SYSTEM WITH OPPORTUNITY AWARD Award Celebrates Best Corporate Practices of Equal Employment Opportunity with Ceremony on October 16 in Washington, D.C. The Johns Hopkins Health System is pleased to announce that it will receive a national equal opportunity employment award from the U.S. Department of Labor. This “Opportunity Award” will be presented at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, October 16, 2008. It is the first time in the history of the award that a hospital will receive it.
9/30/08	JOHNS HOPKINS MEDIA TEAM WELCOMES NEW EMPLOYEE Natalia Bolotina, Ph.D., has joined the media relations team within Johns Hopkins Marketing and Communications division as the primary media representative for Johns Hopkins International, the global arm of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
9/29/08	BEST DRESSED SALE SET FOR OCTOBER 2 - 5 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 2008, now in it’s 41st 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.
9/24/08	CAFFEINE EXPERTS AT JOHNS HOPKINS CALL FOR WARNING LABELS FOR ENERGY DRINKS - Caffeinated energy drinks may present health risks Johns Hopkins scientists who have spent decades researching the effects of caffeine report that a slew of caffeinated energy drinks now on the market should carry prominent labels that note caffeine doses and warn of potential health risks for consumers.
9/23/08	IN WOMEN, OVERSIZE WAISTLINES ARE A POTENT RISK FACTOR FOR HEART DISEASE -- Annual screenings encouraged to assess real risk of heart trouble A heart expert at Johns Hopkins is calling for all women with a waistline measuring more than 35 inches to get an annual check-up and detailed risk assessment for heart problems because excess abdominal fat, even in the mildly obese and overweight, leads more than a third of women to underestimate their lifetime risk of having a heart attack, stroke or chest pain (angina.)
9/23/08	TWO JOHNS HOPKINS PROFESSORS RECEIVE "GENIUS" GRANTS Two Johns Hopkins University professors — a physician who champions scientifically rigorous, common- sense approaches to improving patient safety and an astrophysicist who was a leader in the discovery of the universe's "dark energy" — were named today as winners of MacArthur Fellowships, the so-called "genius grants."
9/22/08	HIBERNATION STUDIES, TINY MEDICAL TOOLS LEAD TO MAJOR GRANTS NIH Gives $1.5 Million New Innovator Awards to Two Johns Hopkins Researchers Two Johns Hopkins researchers—a physician whose squirrel hibernation studies may lead to new treatments for muscle-wasting diseases, and an engineer who is building medical tools smaller than a speck of dust—have received prestigious 2008 New Innovator Awards, the National Institutes of Health announced today.
9/19/08	PEOPLE WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES CAN PUT FATTY LIVERS ON A DIET WITH MODERATE EXERCISE Weekly bouts of moderate aerobic exercise on a bike or treadmill, or a brisk walk, combined with some weightlifting, may cut down levels of fat in the liver by up to 40 percent in people with type 2 diabetes, a study by physical fitness experts at Johns Hopkins shows.
9/19/08	GENETIC FISHING EXPEDITION YIELDS SURPRISING CATCH IMPORTANT TO MAMMALS Johns Hopkins investigators report the discovery of master controllers of a gene critical to human and all mammalian development by trawling, implausibly enough, through anonymous genetic sequences using tiny zebrafish embryos.
9/17/08	JOHNS HOPKINS RECEIVES SECOND CONSECUTIVE CONTE GRANT FOR STUDY OF SYNAPTIC “BRAIN TALK” Brain scientists studying the molecular mechanisms of memory have earned a $1.5 million grant and the second consecutive designation for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as a Silvio A. Conte Center for Neuroscience Research by the National Institute of Mental Health.
9/16/08	JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS SUPPRESS “HUNGER HORMONE” New Minimally Invasive Method Tested in Pigs Yields Result as Good as Bariatric Surgery Johns Hopkins scientists report success in significantly suppressing levels of the “hunger hormone” ghrelin in pigs using a minimally invasive means of chemically vaporizing the main vessel carrying blood to the top section, or fundus, of the stomach. An estimated 90 percent of the body’s ghrelin originates in the fundus, which can’t make the hormone without a good blood supply.
9/16/08	PROSTATE CANCER GENES BEHAVE LIKE THOSE IN EMBRYO --Testosterone Activates Similar Genes in Prostate Development and Prostate Cancer Gene activity in prostate cancer is reminiscent of that in the developing fetal prostate, providing further evidence that all cancers are not equal, Johns Hopkins researchers report. The finding could help scientists investigate how to manipulate the genetic program to fight a disease whose biology remains poorly understood despite more than half a century of investigation.
9/15/08	HOPKINS CHILDREN’S STUDY: PARENTS OF DYING NEWBORNS NEED CLEARER EXPLANATION OF OPTIONS --Misunderstanding is rife Parent-doctor discussions about whether to maintain or withdraw life support from terminally ill or severely premature newborns are so plagued by miscommunication and misunderstanding that they might as well be in different languages, according to a small but potentially instructive new study from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center reported in the September issue of Pediatrics.
9/12/08	JOHNS HOPKINS NEUROSCIENTISTS DISCOVER A CRITICAL EARLY STEP OF MEMORY FORMATION -Paradoxical Mechanism: Turn It Off In Order To Turn It On Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report in the July issue of Neuron how nerve cells in the brain ensure that Arc, a protein critical for memory formation, is made instantly after nerve stimulation. Paradoxically, its manufacture involves two other proteins - including one linked to mental retardation - that typically prevent proteins from being made.
9/12/08	JOHNS HOPKINS BRAIN SCIENCE INSTITUTE PRESENTS "BIOTECH 2008 NEUROSCIENCE INVESTORS CONFERENCE: INVESTING IN BRAIN RESEARCH" More than 20 world-renowned scientists and industry leaders presenting the current state of neurobiology research and discussing challenges of speeding drug discovery for brain diseases to an audience of more than 200 research scientists, leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, business development executives, venture capitalists, investment bankers, and consulting and legal service providers.
9/10/08	JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS RECOGNIZED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNDERSTANDING VISION --Leaders in Color Vision and Visual Signaling Jeremy Nathans, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and genetics and ophthalmology, and King-Wai Yau, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience and ophthalmology, have been awarded the 2008 António Champalimaud Vision Award by the Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal for their “ground-breaking discoveries in the laboratory that enhance our knowledge and understanding of vision.”
9/4/08	COMPREHENSIVE GENETIC BLUEPRINTS REVEALED FOR LETHAL PANCREATIC, BRAIN CANCERS The complete genetic blueprint for lethal pancreatic cancer and brain cancer was deciphered by a team at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
9/3/08	HOPKINS IMAGING SCIENTIST EARNS NEW NIH "EUREKA" GRANT FOR EXCEPTIONAL, UNCONVENTIONAL RESEARCH Jeff W.M. Bulte, Ph.D., professor of radiology, biomedical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering in the Johns Hopkins Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, is one of 38 U.S. scientists to win one of the National Institutes of Health new EUREKA (for Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) grants.
9/3/08	JOHNS HOPKINS AWARDED $10 MILLION NIH ROADMAP GRANT --Johns Hopkins Ion Channel Center Will Serve As Nationwide Resource Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have been awarded a $10 million "Roadmap" grant by the National Institute of Mental Health branch of the National Institutes of Health to establish the new Ion Channel Center and work with researchers around the country to identify molecular probes that can bind and regulate the tiny protein channels that allow small nutrients into and out of cells.
9/2/08	Most Vaccine-Allergic Children Can Still Be Safely Vaccinated, Hopkins Experts Say Team offers step-by-step tool for safe immunization With close monitoring and a few standard precautions, nearly all children with known or suspected vaccine allergies can be safely immunized, according to a team of vaccine safety experts led by the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Writing in the September issue of Pediatrics, the multicenter research team offers pediatricians a step-by-step tool for quickly identifying children with allergic reactions to vaccines, and a much-needed guide, they say, to safely immunize those who are allergic.
9/2/08	HOPKINS RESEARCHERS PIECE TOGETHER GENE "NETWORK" LINKED TO SCHIZOPHRENIA --Patients Confirmed to Carry Mutations Reporting this week in the Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have uncovered for the first time molecular circuitry associated with schizophrenia that links three previously known, yet unrelated proteins.
8/29/08	HOPKINS RADIOLOGIST RECEIVES PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD Steve Cho, M.D., assistant professor in the division of nuclear medicine at the Johns Hopkins Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, is one of 19 scientists to earn a 2008 Young Investigator Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The awards, designed to encourage careers in prostate disease research, carries a stipend of $75,000 a year for three years, with matching amounts from an investigator's institution.
8/29/08	STUDY POINTS TO ONE CAUSE OF HIGHER RATES OF TRANSPLANTED KIDNEY REJECTION IN BLACKS A Johns Hopkins research team reports it may have an explanation for at least some of the higher organ rejection rates seen among black - as compared to white - kidney transplant recipients.
8/28/08	TREADMILL EXERCISE RETRAINS BRAIN AND BODY OF STROKE VICTIMS --Research shows improvement even years post-stroke People who walk on a treadmill even years after stroke damage can significantly improve their health and mobility, changes that reflect actual "rewiring" of their brains, according to research spearheaded at Johns Hopkins.
8/28/08	JOHNS HOPKINS HEALTHCARE EARNS URAC ACCREDITATION Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC (JHHC) has earned accreditation from the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC), a Washington, D.C.-based organization that establishes standards for the health care industry covering network management, provider credentialing, utilization management, quality improvement and consumer protection.
8/28/08	RESEARCHERS DEVISE MEANS TO CREATE BLOOD BY IDENTIFYING EARLIEST STEM CELLS Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered the earliest form of human blood stem cells and deciphered the mechanism by which these embryonic stem cells replicate and grow. They also found a surprising biological marker that pinpoints these stem cells, which serve as the progenitors for red blood cells and lymphocytes.
8/27/08	EXPERIMENTAL THERAPY MAY LEAD TO MACULAR DEGENERATION, AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF RESEARCHERS CAUTION Having discovered a genetic trigger for age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in people over 50, researchers report that an experimental state-of-the-art therapy for treating eye disease could adversely affect the vision of some patients with the "wrong" genetic makeup.
8/26/08	High Cholesterol Levels Drop Naturally In Children on High-Fat Anti-Seizure Diet Elevated cholesterol levels return to normal or near normal levels over time in four out of 10 children with uncontrollable epilepsy treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet, according to results of a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study reported in the Journal of Child Neurology. The study appears online ahead of print.
8/20/08	JOHNS HOPKINS AND MEXICAN SOCIETY OF NEUROSURGERY HOLDS JOINT CONFERENCE IN PUERTO VALLARTA Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Mexican Society of Neurosurgery co-hosted a day-long conference on brain tumor management in Mexico this month, an unusual joint venture the planners hope will be a model for continuing medical education programs covering a wide range of medical specialties in that country.
8/18/08	JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS DISCOVER WHAT DRIVES THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FATAL FORM OF MALARIA Platelets - those tiny, unassuming cells that cause blood to clot and scabs to form when you cut yourself - play an important early role in promoting cerebral malaria, an often lethal complication that occurs mostly in children. Affecting as many as half a billion people in tropical and subtropical regions, malaria is one of the oldest recorded diseases and the parasite responsible for it, Plasmodium, among the most studied pathogens of all time. Still, cerebral malaria, which results from a combination of blood vessel and immune system dysfunction, is not well understood.
8/12/08	RARE CASE IN A BALTIMORE COUPLE EXPLAINS WHY SOME INFECTED WITH HIV REMAIN SYMPTOM FREE FOR YEARS WITHOUT ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUGS - Finding renews promise of vaccine against AIDS; disproves theory of defective virus AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins say they have compelling evidence that some people with HIV who for years and even decades show extremely low levels of the virus in their blood never progress to full-blown AIDS and remain symptom free even without treatment, probably do so because of the strength of their immune systems, not any defects in the strain of HIV that infected them in the first place.
8/11/08	LOW VITAMIN D LEVELS POSE LARGE THREAT TO HEALTH -- Overall 26 percent increased risk of death Researchers at Johns Hopkins are reporting what is believed to be the most conclusive evidence to date that inadequate levels of vitamin D, obtained from milk, fortified cereals and exposure to sunlight, lead to substantially increased risk of death.
8/6/08	HIV EXPERT SAYS ONE STEP DOWN, TWO MORE TO GO IN QUEST TO CURE AIDS A Johns Hopkins expert in HIV and how the AIDS virus hides in the body says antiretroviral drugs have stopped HIV from replicating, the first of three key steps needed to rid people of the virus.
7/31/08	LIKE EAVESDROPPING AT A PARTY -- Johns Hopkins Scientists Discover How a Tiny Protein Senses All the Communications in a Cell Cells rely on calcium as a universal means of communication. For example, a sudden rush of calcium can trigger nerve cells to convey thoughts in the brain or cause a heart cell to beat. A longstanding mystery has been how cells and molecules manage to appropriately sense and respond to the variety of calcium fluctuations within cells.
7/31/08	NEW USES FOR OLD-LINE DIABETES MONITORING TEST: SCREENING AND DIAGNOSIS A blood test currently used as the gold standard for monitoring people already under care for diabetes may have far wider use in identifying millions with undetected diabetes, a team led by a Johns Hopkins physician suggests
7/28/08	NOTE TO PEOPLE WITH SCARRED AND STIFFENED LUNGS: MONITOR YOUR SLEEP BEFORE SEVERE FATIGUE SETS IN - Mother’s legacy shows impact of severe fatigue, $2 million in research funding to help study disease Family, friends and neighbors remember Lisa Sandler Spaeth as an active mother of two in Potomac, Md., with a lot on the go, juggling her son’s baseball games and her daughter’s horseback-riding lessons with numerous committee obligations, organizing women’s activities at her local synagogue.
7/29/08	SUMMER HEAT TOO HOT FOR YOU? WHAT IS COMFORTABLE? --Johns Hopkins Researchers Discover How Animals Sense the 'Comfort Zone' Extreme heat or cold is not only uncomfortable, it can be deadly-causing proteins to unravel and malfunction.
7/28/08	HOPKINS SCIENTISTS TO DIRECT RESEARCH INTO LONG SPACEFLIGHTS The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) has reappointed two scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to help lead nationwide research teams focused on the mental and cardiovascular risks associated with long-term spaceflight.
7/24/08	CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIATION AFTER SURGERY PROLONGS LIFE FOR PANCREATIC CANCER PATIENTS Pancreatic cancer patients treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation after surgery survive approximately six months longer than those receiving surgery alone, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists report.
7/23/08	TRANSPLANTATION OF KIDNEYS FROM BLACK CARDIAC-DEATH DONORS PROVIDE BLACK RECIPIENTS WITH THE BEST LONG-TERM SURVIVAL Finding could greatly increase transplantation of rarely used kidneys Contrary to prevailing assumptions, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that kidneys recovered from black donors who died from cardiac death offer the best survival rate for black recipients of a deceased-donor kidney.
7/23/08	VICTOR A. McKUSICK, M.D., “FATHER OF MEDICAL GENETICS,” 1921-2008 Victor Almon McKusick, M.D., University Professor of Medical Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, one of the two distinguished Johns Hopkins geneticists for whom the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine was named, and a towering international figure in genetics research, diagnosis and treatment, died Tuesday, July 22 at home. He was 86.
7/22/08	'STUFFY NOSE’ MOUSE: A PROMISE TO HELP TREAT 31 MILLION WITH SINUSITIS Mice with inflamed nasal tissue being tested at a Johns Hopkins laboratory may be unable to tell if something smells bad or good, but their sensory deficit is nothing to turn up a nose at.
7/22/08	HUMAN STEM CELL RESEARCH: STEPPING IT UP A NOTCH Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that the Notch protein helps human embryonic stem cells "decide" their own fate, a finding which may eventually be useful in programming cells for the development of stem cell therapies. Their results are reported in the May 2008 issue of Cell Stem Cell.
7/22/08	THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL EARNS NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR NURSING EXCELLENCE The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) has awarded The Johns Hopkins Hospital its prestigious Magnet Recognition status for excellence in nursing services.
7/15/08	“SMOTHERED” GENES COMBINE WITH MUTATIONS TO YIELD POOR OUTCOME IN CANCER PATIENTS Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers have identified a set of genes in breast and colon cancers with a deadly combination of traditional mutations and “smothered” gene activity that may result in poor outcomes for patients.
7/15/08	JAMA REVISITS CLASSIC HOPKINS "BLUE" BABY STUDY THAT REVOLUTIONIZED CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE A Johns Hopkins study published 63 years ago will make an encore appearance in the July 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) as part of a year-long retrospective celebrating JAMA's 125th anniversary by revisiting papers that changed the course of modern-day medicine.
7/11/08	THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL TOPS U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT “HONOR ROLL” 18TH YEAR IN A ROW The Johns Hopkins Hospital has once again - for the 18th consecutive time - earned the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of American hospitals, placing first in three medical specialties and very high in 12 others.
7/8/08	NOTE TO PEDIATRICIANS: TAPER MEDS IN KIDS WITH STABLE ASTHMA A study of how pediatricians prescribe asthma medications suggests that while most would readily increase a child’s medication if needed, many are reluctant to taper off drug use when less might be best. A report on the study, led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center researchers, appears in the July issue of Pediatrics.
7/1/08	SPIRITUAL EFFECTS OF HALLUCINOGENS PERSIST, JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS REPORT -Related report gives safety guidelines for hallucinogen research In a follow-up to research showing that psilocybin, a substance contained in "sacred mushrooms," produces substantial spiritual effects, a Johns Hopkins team reports that those beneficial effects appear to last more than a year.
6/27/08	Johns Hopkins Experts Available To Discuss Cardiac Arrythmia The state Medical Examiner's Office cited cardiac arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, as the cause of sudden death of 19 year-old U.S. Naval Academy student Kristen Dickmann.
6/25/08	Drug Treatment for Marfan Syndrome Looks Promising, Johns Hopkins Researchers Say A small study in 18 patients assessing the effectiveness of the drug losartan for treating Marfan syndrome in children has yielded encouraging results. Reporting in the June 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, Johns Hopkins researchers showed that losartan-a compound used for years to treat high blood pressure-slowed the enlargement of the aorta, the most life-threatening defect associated with Marfan syndrome
6/24/08	MENDEL DIDN’T HAVE THE WHOLE PICTURE: OUR GENOME CHANGES OVER LIFETIME, JOHNS HOPKINS EXPERTS SAY --Epigenetics Research Among Utah and Iceland Populations May Explain “Late-Onset” and Other Diseases Contrary to conventional wisdom, it appears that while the overall health of our genomes is indeed inherited from our parents, chemical marks on our genomes’ DNA sequences actually change as we age, driving increased risk of disease susceptibility for us and similarly for our close family members.
6/20/08	Johns Hopkins Medicine Hosts Five-Day Summer Science Camp for East Baltimore Elementary School Students Hopkins scientists and youngsters from Ft. Worthington Elementary, Dr. Rayner Browne Elementary, Dr. Bernard Harris, Sr. Elementary, William A. Paca Elementary, Harford Heights Intermediate and Tench Tilghman Elementary schools
6/17/08	DEPRESSION AND DIABETES: FELLOW TRAVELERS, RESEARCHERS SAY Researchers have long known that type-2 diabetes and depression oftengo hand in hand. However, it's been unclear which condition developsfirst in patients who end up with both. Now, a new study led by JohnsHopkins doctors suggests that this chicken-and-egg problem has a dualanswer: Patients with depression have an increased risk of developingtype-2 diabetes, and patients with type-2 diabetes have an increasedrisk of developing depression.
6/17/08	EFFECTIVE TREATMENT FOR SICKLE CELL UNDERUSED BY DOCTORS Uncertainties about proper use and possible long-term effects of hydroxyurea in the treatment of sickle cell anemia may be wrongly influencing doctors to avoid prescribing it to those in serious need, according to results of a literature review by specialists at Johns Hopkins.
6/17/08	RADIATION THERAPY PROLONGS LIFE IN MEN WITH RECURRENT PROSTATE CANCER Men whose tumors recur after prostate cancer surgery are three times more likely to survive their disease long term if they undergo radiotherapy within two years of the recurrence. Surprisingly, survival benefits were best in men whose new tumors were growing fastest, according to results of a "look-back" study of 635 men by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions researchers reported June 18 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
6/16/08	STAY OR GO? RESEARCHERS DISCOVER CONTROLLER OF CELL MOVEMENT --May Shed Light on Cancer Spread A zebra's stripes, a seashell's spirals, a butterfly's wings: these are all examples of patterns in nature. The formation of patterns is a puzzle for mathematicians and biologists alike. How does the delicate design of a butterfly's wings come from a single fertilized egg? How does pattern emerge out of no pattern?
6/15/08	NEW INDEX EXPLAINS WHY SOME DRUGS WORK BETTER THAN OTHERS AGAINST HIV A team of AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins has found a simple mathematical equation that accurately explains how well each of 25 anti-HIV drugs in five commonly used drug groups suppresses the virus and keeps the disease in check.
6/14/08	HOW MONTEZUMA GETS HIS REVENGE --Johns Hopkins Researchers Discover Clue to How Dysentery Parasite Might Evade Immune System Every year, about 500 million people worldwide are infected with the parasite that causes dysentery, a global medical burden that among infectious diseases is second only to malaria. In a new study appearing in the June 15 issue of Genes and Development, Johns Hopkins researchers may have found a way to ease this burden by discovering a new enzyme that may help the dysentery-causing amoeba evade the immune system.
6/12/08	THE SHAPE-SHIFTING MECHANICS OF CELLS Cell biologists at Johns Hopkins have discovered how tiny molecular motors within cells work together with other structural players to coordinate critical cell shape changes that accompany cell division.
6/10/08	“HICY” DRUG REGIMEN REVERSES MS SYMPTOMS IN SELECTED PATIENTS --New approach to immunosuppressant treatment tested in nine individuals shows promise A short-term, very-high dose regimen of the immune-suppressing drug cyclophosphamide seems to slow progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) in most of a small group of patients studied and may even restore neurological function lost to the disease, Johns Hopkins researchers report. The findings in nine people, most of whom had failed all other treatments, suggest new ways to treat a disease that tends to progress relentlessly.
5/29/08	JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHERS DEVELOP HUMAN STEM CELL LINE CONTAINING SICKLE CELL ANEMIA MUTATION --Improved Adult Cell Reprogramming Methods Open Doors for Disease Research Researchers at Johns Hopkins have established a human cell-based system for studying sickle cell anemia by reprogramming somatic cells to an embryonic stem cell like state. Publishing online in Stem Cells on May 29, the team describes a faster and more efficient method of reprogramming cells that might speed the development of stem cell therapies.
5/27/08	JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHER NAMED HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE INVESTIGATOR Duojia Pan, Ph.D., a professor of molecular biology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is one of 56 new members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Combined, the new class of investigators will receive more than $600 million in research funding.
5/20/08	PETER BEILENSON TO SPEAK AT SCHOOL OF MEDICINE COMMENCEMENT --Award-winning former Baltimore Health Commissioner was chosen by 205 graduates for ceremonies May 22 Peter Beilenson, M.D., M.P.H., health officer for Howard County and former Baltimore City health commissioner is the guest speaker at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s 113th diploma award ceremony on Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.
5/19/08	BYPASS NOT TO BLAME FOR HEART PATIENTS’ MENTAL DECLINE --Finding removes stigma from viable treatment, Hopkins researchers say Heart patients often experience lasting problems with memory, language, and other cognitive skills after bypass surgery. However, these problems aren’t caused by the surgery itself or the pump used to replace heart function during surgery, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The findings may lead to better approaches to prevent cognitive decline regardless of which treatment heart disease patients receive.
5/16/08	Senior Johns Hopkins leadership take hammers in hand for Habitat for Humanity Johns Hopkins Medicine’s top leadership team will replace their Blackberries, cell phones and pens on Friday morning with hammers, saws and paint brushes to help put finishing touches on a formerly empty and dilapidated East Baltimore row house. As part of the Habitat for Humanity program, the newly restored house will become home to a low-income family. The proud owner of the new house will be working along side Hopkins officials to complete the renovation.
5/15/08	YOUNG ATHLETES TO BE SCREENED FOR RISK OF SUDDEN HEART DEATH -- African-American players at special risk of death from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy Volunteer heart experts at Johns Hopkins have embarked on what is believed to be the largest single-day event to date to screen young athletes in the United States for early signs of life-threatening defects in the body’s blood-pumping organ.
5/14/08	RESEARCHERS FINE-TUNE CLOT-BUSTING TREATMENT FOR BLEEDING IN BRAIN --Treatment dramatically increases survival for deadly condition A multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins doctors has fine-tuned the dosage and timing for administering clot-busting tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to patients with strokes caused by bleeding within the brain. The treatment, as reported this week at the European Stroke Conference in Nice, France, has been shown to dramatically decrease death and disability in patients with this typically lethal subset of stroke.
5/14/08	Too Much Water Raises Seizure Risk In Babies It’s a recurrent summer-time scenario in the pediatric emergency room and doctors from Johns Hopkins Children’s are sounding the alarm on it: An otherwise healthy infant is brought in by panicked parents after suffering a seizure, which turns out to be caused by drinking too much water.
5/13/08	DRUG THERAPY FOR PKU REVERSES HEART DAMAGE -- Studies with BH4 in mice show promise A pricy drug used to treat a rare but well-known genetic disorder may hold wider promise as a treatment for millions of Americans with potentially lethal enlarged hearts, due mainly to high blood pressure, a study from Johns Hopkins shows.
5/13/08	TREATING SAFETY RESEARCH LIKE OTHER CLINICAL STUDIES SLOWS PROGRESS --Regulations for human studies may need overhaul, Hopkins researchers say Progress in patient safety research could slow to a crawl unless regulators work out a host of ethical issues, Johns Hopkins researchers assert in an upcoming opinion piece.
5/12/08	TOO HOT TO HANDLE! SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY HEAT SENSING REGULATOR Neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins are a step closer to understanding pain sensitivity - specifically why it’s variable instead of constant - having identified a gene that regulates a heat-activated molecular sensor.
5/8/08	HOPKINS RESEARCHERS DISCOVER NEW LINK TO SCHIZOPHRENIA --Mouse Model Mimics Clinical Features Neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered that mice lacking an enzyme that contributes to Alzheimer disease exhibit a number of schizophrenia-like behaviors. The finding raises the possibility that this enzyme may participate in the development of schizophrenia and related psychiatric disorders and therefore may provide a new target for developing therapies.
5/6/08	KILLER COMPETITION: NEURONS DUKE IT OUT FOR SURVIVAL The developing nervous system makes far more nerve cells than are needed to ensure target organs and tissues are properly connected to the nervous system. As nerves connect to target organs, they somehow compete with each other resulting in some living and some dying. Now, using a combination of computer modeling and molecular biology, neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered how the target tissue helps newly connected peripheral nerve cells strengthen their connections and kill neighboring nerves. The study was published in the April 18th issue of Science.
5/5/08	DAILY RECORD NAMES THREE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE WOMEN TO ITS LIST OF MARYLAND’S TOP 100 WOMEN Elizabeth A. Hunt, M.D., a clinical fellow in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Redonda G. Miller, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and assistant dean for student affairs, and Stephanie L. Reel, chief information officer for the Johns Hopkins University and Health System, have been named as three of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by the Daily Record business paper.
5/1/08	TIME MAGAZINE NAMES JOHNS HOPKINS PATIENT SAFETY EXPERT ONE OF WORLD’S ‘MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE’ OF 2008 Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., a practicing anesthesiologist and critical care physician at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an internationally prominent patient safety researcher and advocate has been named one of the world’s "most influential people" of 2008 by Time Magazine.
5/1/08	News Tips from the Eyes of Innovation, 2008 Annual Meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) DRUG THERAPY MORE EFFECTIVE THAN STANDARD TREAMENT IN FIGHT AGAINST DIABETES RETINAL SWELLING PROMISING TREATMENT FOR RETINAL THICKENING
5/01/08	STUDY IN 7,000 MEN AND WOMEN TIES OBESITY, INFLAMMATORY PROTEINS TO HEART FAILURE RISK -- Obesity-related inflammation also pegged as catalyst in metabolic syndrome Heart specialists at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere report what is believed to be the first wide-scale evidence linking severe overweight to prolonged inflammation of heart tissue and the subsequent damage leading to failure of the body’s blood-pumping organ.
4/30/08	JOHNS HOPKINS PROFESSORS ELECTED TO NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Gregg L. Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Jane I. Guyer, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology at The Johns Hopkins University were elected as members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for their excellence in original scientific research. Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. Semenza and Guyer will be inducted into the Academy next April during its 146th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
4/29/08	IMMUNE SYSTEM KICK-STARTED IN MOIST NASAL LINING IN SINUSITIS, ASTHMA AND COLDS -- Study explains why steroid therapy loses its punch over time Scientists at Johns Hopkins have outlined a new path for potential therapies to combat inflammation associated with sinusitis and asthma based on a new understanding of the body’s earliest immune response in the nose and sinus cavities.
4/28/08	TIGHT BLOOD PRESSURE CONTROL NOT ENOUGH TO TEMPER KIDNEY DISEASE IN AFRICAN AMERICANS --Other unknown factors at play in worsening this condition Even when their blood pressure is kept strictly under control with the best available medicine, African-American patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) continue to lose their kidney function over time, research led by a Johns Hopkins team shows. The finding suggests that treating CKD in this population may be vastly more complex than researchers had previously thought, with blood pressure control being only one piece of the therapeutic puzzle.
4/23/08	President Bush Meets with "Six-Way" Kidney Tranplant Team and Patients President George W. Bush met with patients, doctors and nurses who participated in the ground-breaking, twelve-patient “domino” kidney transplant in the Oval Office of the White House on April 23. Aside from being what is believed to be to first-ever simultaneous paired donation transplant of six kidneys, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton’s brother, Randall Bolton, was one of the patients.
4/21/08	HOPKINS DOCTOR URGES EARLY DIAGNOSIS TO AVOID CANCER’S “FORGOTTEN KILLER” - Free Oral Cancer Screening Scheduled for April 24 On average, two Marylanders each day are diagnosed with potentially fatal oral cancers that are often curable if identified and treated early. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Office of Oral Health reports that the state ranks in the country’s top 10 for number of deaths caused by oral cancers. Nationally, statistics show that the death rate from these cancers is higher than those of cervical cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, testicular cancer, and thyroid and malignant melanoma.
4/15/08	AMA FOUNDATION HONORS JOHNS HOPKINS PHYSICIAN AS AN OUTSTANDING LEADER IN MEDICINE Edbert Hsu, M.D., M.P.H., an emergency medicine physician at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has received the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation’s 2008 Leadership Award. This award provides medical students, residents/fellows, early career physicians and established physicians from around the country with special training to develop their skills as future leaders in organized medicine and community affairs.
4/14/08	OLYMPIC MEDALIST DOROTHY HAMILL AND ACTRESS MARIETTE HARTLEY FEATURED SPEAKERS AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS MOOD DISORDERS SYMPOSIUM The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will hold its 22nd annual Mood Disorders Symposium, focused this year on depression and bipolar illness among women and teenagers, at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, April 15. The symposium is to be held in the Thomas B. Turner Building, 720 Rutland Ave. on the Johns Hopkins medical campus.
4/10/08	BLOOD VESSELS: THE PIED PIPER FOR GROWING NERVE CELLS Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that blood vessels in the head can guide growing facial nerve cells with blood pressure controlling proteins. The findings, which suggest that blood vessels throughout the body might have the same power of persuasion over many nerves, are published this week in Nature.
4/9/08	HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH REVEALS EARLIEST STEP IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT --Finding Reinforces Limitations of Using Other Cell Types in Research, Scientists Say Researchers at Johns Hopkins have uncovered the molecular underpinnings of one of the earliest steps in human development using human embryonic stem cells. Their identification of a critical signal mediated by the protein BMP-4 that drives the differentiation of stem cells into what will become the placenta, will be published in the April issue of Cell Stem Cell.
4/8/08	HOPKINS PERFORMS HISTORIC "SIX-WAY DOMINO" KIDNEY TRANSPLANT Six donor-recipient pairs interchange kidneys in simultaneous group procedure Surgical teams at Johns Hopkins performed what is believed to be the first six-way donor kidney swap among 12 individuals Saturday, April 5. The 10-hour surgeries used six operation rooms and occupied nine surgical teams at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
4/7/08	JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL SCHOOL SETS RESEARCH AND TEACHING COLLABORATION WITH UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS IN GREECE The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has established a formal educational agreement with the University of Patras, the third largest university in Greece, to collaborate on research and student and faculty exchanges.
4/4/08	CLINICAL TRIAL VOLUNTEERS MOSTLY INDIFFERENT - BUT NOT BLIND TO - RESEARCHERS’ FINANCIAL CONFLICTS Unless a researcher has stock ownership in a company whose drug is being tested, telling potential research volunteers about an investigator’s financial interests is unlikely to affect their willingness to volunteer, a new study shows.
4/3/08	JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE HONORS 18 YOUNG INVESTIGATORS The 31st annual Young Investigators’ Day celebration at Johns Hopkins will highlight discoveries from how cells sense oxygen to how nerve cells grow and develop. Twelve students and six fellows will receive awards, and all young investigators at the School of Medicine will be celebrated.
4/2/08	RESEARCHERS ID GENE LINKED TO LUNG CANCER Researchers at Johns Hopkins, as part of a large, multi-institutional study, have found one gene variant that is linked to an increased risk of lung cancer.
4/1/08	LARGE MULTI-CENTER STUDY SHOWS OLDER CORNEAS SUITABLE FOR TRANSPLANTS In what could be a landmark, federally funded study, a team of scientists and a national team of researchers have shown that transplantation of corneas from older donors have rates of success similar to those from younger donors.
3/28/08	HOPKINS RANKED IN THE TOP TIER OF MEDICAL SCHOOLS BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT 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 2009 edition of its publication ranking the nation’s accredited medical schools.
3/27/08	ACTOR-ROBOTS “STAFF” PART OF NEW $5 SIMULATION TRAINING CENTER A medical student places a chest tube in a patient lying on an operating table, while another student conducts a colonoscopy. Everything is just as it would be in a real OR or treatment room, except that the patients won’t be harmed or complain if mistakes are made – they’re robots.
3/27/08	FOLATE SCORES ANOTHER WIN IN ANIMAL STUDIES: BRIEF, HIGH DOSES OF B VITAMIN BLUNT DAMAGE FROM HEART ATTACK -- Nutrient may act as heart energy reserve Long known for its role in preventing anemia in expectant mothers and spinal birth defects in newborns, the B vitamin folate, found in leafy green vegetables, beans and nuts has now been shown to blunt the damaging effects of heart attack when given in short-term, high doses to test animals.
3/26/08	LARGE MULTI-CENTER STUDY SUGGESTS NEW GENETIC MARKERS FOR CROHN’S DISEASE Results shed light on special genetic vulnerabilities of Ashkenazi Jews What is believed to be the largest study of its kind for the genetic roots of inflammatory bowel diseases has suggested new links to Crohn’s Disease as well as further evidence that some people of Jewish descent are more likely to develop it.
3/19/08	GOOD LUCK INDEED: 53 MILLION-YEAR-OLD RABBIT’S FOOT BONES FOUND One day last spring, fossil hunter and anatomy professor Kenneth Rose, Ph.D. was displaying the bones of a jackrabbit’s foot as part of a seminar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine when something about the shape of the bones looked oddly familiar.
3/13/08	SABOTAGE OF INFLAMMATION CHEMISTRY IN INJURED KIDNEY MAY TRIGGER WIDER ORGAN FAILURE --Finding in mice could help prevent common complications of kidney damage Kidney damage often sets off a slew of complications in patients, spreading organ failure like wildfire throughout their bodies. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have evidence in mice that this deadly progression-at least to the lungs-may be due to genetic alterations in kidney-based genes that sabotage inflammation control and send toxic signals to healthy organs. The signals convince these organs to react as if they, too, are damaged.
3/12/08	DNA DETECTIVES FIND GENETIC MARKERS FOR LUNG CANCERS MOST LIKELY TO RECUR Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have uncovered clearly recognizable genetic alterations in tumors and tissue removed from patients with early-stage lung cancers that look like good predictors of which of these cancers are more likely to recur.
3/12/08	HGH and Anabolic Steroids....What's the Difference? "Play Ball!" will soon be heard in major league baseball parks across the country. It may also signal renewed controversy over Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report on the use by professional athletes of such banned substances as anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH).
3/11/08	RESEARCHERS ID BEHAVIORAL RISK FACTORS FOR HEAD AND NECK CANCERS --Sex practices and lifestyle are culprits Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have teased out two distinct sets of risk factors for head and neck cancers, suggesting that there are two completely different kinds of the disease.
3/11/08	DEAN MILLER TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS Edward D. Miller, M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine, will testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Tuesday, March 11, at 11 a.m. in the Dirksen Room 430 on the growing risks to American medical research resulting from continued flat funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
3/11/08	PANDEMIC FLU EMERGENCY MOCK DRILL Second year medical students at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will participate in a drill simulating what would occur at hospitals during a pandemic flu outbreak.
3/11/08	INVESTIGATOR ATTENDANCE AT REVIEW BOARD REVIEWS: HINDRANCE OR HELP? Probably neither, Johns Hopkins study says Inviting researchers to attend institutional review board sessions designed to approve these same investigators’ requests to conduct research involving human subjects doesn’t seem to affect the efficiency of the process one way or the other, a new study led by Johns Hopkins bioethicists suggests.
3/11/08	WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT AND KEEP IT OFF? PERSONAL COUNSELING BEATS WEB-BASED INFORMATION --Differences were modest but clear that weight-loss Web site is no substitute for chats with trained counselors, JAMA study says Individuals are less likely to regain lost weight when they get monthly tips straight from trained counselors rather than from a weight-loss Web site, according to results of a study by Johns Hopkins and other researchers.
3/9/08	GENETIC RESEARCH UNVEILS COMMON ORIGINS FOR DISTINCT CLINICAL DIAGNOSES Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that two clinically different inherited syndromes are in fact variations of the same disorder. Reporting in the April issue of Nature Genetics, the team suggests that at least for this class of disorders, the total number and "strength" of genetic alterations an individual carries throughout the genome can generate a range of symptoms wide enough to appear like different conditions.
3/5/08	PACEMAKER TUNE-UP WORKS CHEMICAL WONDERS ON DAMAGED HEARTS IN DOGS -- Study points to longer-lasting treatment benefits for congestive heart failure Using pacemakers to electrically retune a heart damaged by long bouts of a wobbling heartbeat, where one heart muscle wall is beating sooner than the other, leads to fast improvements in the tissue levels of more than a dozen proteins key to the organ’s health, scientists at Johns Hopkins report in experiments in dogs.
3/4/08	RISK OF SURGERY FOR LUNG CANCER LOWER AT TEACHING HOSPITALS Patients cared for by hospitals with residents in training have a 17 percent less chance of dying after lung cancer surgery compared with patients undergoing surgery at non-teaching hospitals, according to results of a Johns Hopkins study published in the March issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
2/28/08	CHIEF OF MEDICINE HONORED FOR SUCCESSFULLY RECRUITING MINORITIES TO JOHNS HOPKINS Johns Hopkins cardiologist and physician in chief Myron "Mike" Weisfeldt, M.D., has been named the recipient of the 2008 Diversity Award by the Association of Professors of Medicine, an organization whose members come from across the United States and Canada. The award will be presented to Weisfeldt at a luncheon on Feb. 28 during the association’s annual meeting in Miami, Fla.
2/26/08	THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON JAZZ: RESEARCHERS USE MRI TO STUDY SPONTANEITY, CREATIVITY --Johns Hopkins researcher also trained as a jazz musician A pair of Johns Hopkins and government scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow
2/22/08	Autism's Origins: Mother's Antibody Production May Affect Fetal Brain The mothers of some autistic children may have made antibodies against their fetuses’ brain tissue during pregnancy that crossed the placenta and caused changes that led to autism, suggests research led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center investigators and published in the February issue of the Journal of Neuroimmunology.
2/15/08	ATAXIA TREATMENT CENTER TO BE ESTABLISHED AT JOHNS HOPKINS A new full-service patient care and clinical research center for people with a relatively rare and disabling brain disorder will be launched at Johns Hopkins with initial support from a $450,000 National Ataxia Foundation (NAF) grant funded by the Gordon and Marilyn Macklin Foundation. Gordon and Marilyn Macklin were members of the Chesapeake Chapter of the National Ataxia Foundation, which was instrumental in the development and funding of the center.
2/13/08	CHROMOSOME HIT-AND-RUN --3-D Analysis of Enzyme Reveals How It Alters Gene Function By solving the 3-D structure of one particular enzyme that controls genes, researchers at Johns Hopkins, working with colleagues at University of Pennsylvania and the Wistar Institute, have discovered how the enzyme adds chemical groups to chromosomes to alter gene function. The research team reports in this week’s Nature that the new structure paves the way for developing new chemical inhibitors and therapies for diseases like cancer.
2/12/08	"LAB ON A CHIP" MIMICS BRAIN CHEMISTRY ---- Will speed studies of brain cells. Johns Hopkins researchers from the Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine have devised a micro-scale tool - a lab on a chip - designed to mimic the chemical complexities of the brain. The system should help scientists better understand how nerve cells in the brain work together to form the nervous system.
2/8/08	Mock CPR "Codes" Expose Weaknesses In Hospital Emergency Response For Children Staging mock cardiac and respiratory arrests – “code” situations in hospital parlance – easily expose common failures in rapid response with CPR and other life-saving care for children and also set up powerful incentives to sharpen emergency skills and move fast to use them, suggests a study from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
2/7/08	JOHNS HOPKINS RESEARCHER LEADS INTERNATIONAL EFFORT TO CREATE “PROTEINPEDIA” --Online Human Protein Encyclopedia Will Speed Research A researcher at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Genetic Medicine has led the effort to compile to date the largest free resource of experimental information about human proteins. Reporting in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology, the research team describes how all researchers around the world can access this data and speed their own research.
2/5/08	BREAST-FEEDING NOW SAFER FOR INFANTS OF HIV-INFECTED MOTHERS - First solid evidence that viral transmission through breast milk can be prevented by a drug An antiretroviral drug already in widespread use in the developing world to prevent the transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their newborns during childbirth has also been found to substantially cut the risk of subsequent HIV transmission during breast-feeding.
1/30/08	JOHNS HOPKINS OPENS CENTER TO TREAT SEVERE SICKLE CELL PAIN --Infusion clinic could help patients avoid emergency room visits A new urgent care center specifically geared to treat sickle cell patients experiencing acute pain will open Feb. 5, physicians at Johns Hopkins Medicine announced. A formal opening celebration is scheduled for Feb. 18.
1/29/08	SECONDHAND SMOKE EXPOSURE WORSENS CYSTIC FIBROSIS --Discovery of Additional Genes at Play Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered the first genetic evidence that secondhand smoke can worsen lung disease. The report in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association describes one gene variation that can weaken lung function as well as shorten the lifespan of those affected by cystic fibrosis and also are exposed to secondhand smoke.
1/29/08	HEART TRANSPLANTS: DO MORE OR DO NONE, JOHNS HOPKINS STUDY SUGGESTS - Findings contradict recently lowered government standard Heart surgeons at Johns Hopkins have evidence to support further tightening rather than easing of standards used to designate hospitals that are best at performing heart transplants.
1/29/08	DOWNSIZED HEART AIDS BYPASS SURGERY An estimated one in 20 patients undergoing a common operation to boost blood supply to the heart and to ward off repeat heart attacks may do better if their surgeons also remold the heart to a near normal size, by cutting and suturing together stretched muscle and scar tissue resulting from the initial attack, according to cardiac surgeons at Johns Hopkins.
1/28/08	MODIFIED ATKINS DIET CAN CUT EPILEPTIC SEIZURES IN ADULTS --High-fat, low-carb diet may be an option when other treatments fail A modified version of a popular high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet can significantly cut the number of seizures in adults with epilepsy, a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The Atkins-like diet, which has shown promise for seizure control in children, may offer a new lifeline for patients when drugs and other treatments fail or cause complications.
1/24/08	MARIJUANA WITHDRAWAL AS BAD AS WITHDRAWAL FROM CIGARETTES Study could potentially help clinicians treat marijuana addiction Research by a group of scientists studying the effects of heavy marijuana use suggests that withdrawal from the use of marijuana is similar to what is experienced by people when they quit smoking cigarettes. Abstinence from each of these drugs appears to cause several common symptoms, such as irritability, anger and trouble sleeping - based on self reporting in a recent study of 12 heavy users of both marijuana and cigarettes.
1/23/08	JOHNS HOPKINS OFFICIAL NAMED TO "SUPERLAWYERS" LIST Wes Blakeslee, J.D., executive director of technology transfer at The Johns Hopkins University, has been named to the 2008 Maryland SuperLawyers list by Super Lawyers magazine, a national publication.
1/22/08	JOHNS HOPKINS TO PARTICIPATE IN 1000 GENOMES PROJECT --International Consortium to Support Disease Research Researchers at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine (IGM) at Johns Hopkins will join other national and international scientists in the 1000 Genomes Project, an ambitious effort that will involve sequencing the genomes of numerous people from around the world to create the most detailed and medically useful picture to date of human genetic variation.
1/22/08	HOPKINS TEAM IDENTIFIES AUTISM SUSCEPTIBILITY GENE -- mother-to-son transmission may be critical to inheriting susceptibility Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a common genetic alteration that appears to be associated with autism only when inherited by sons from their mother. The CNTNAP2 gene, also identified by two other groups publishing jointly in the January issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, is one of the strongest common genetic links to autism susceptibility found to date.
1/21/08	PROTEIN CLASS DISPLAYS STRONG ANTICANCER ACTION --May lead to drugs with less-harmful side effects Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a previously unsuspected mechanism of cell death that may afford a new way to find and develop stronger yet less-harmful anticancer drugs. Specifically, they have found that a cellular stress-response protein prevents cells from dying by interacting with a particular signaling protein and mediating its response to some conventional anticancer drugs. The results appear in last week’s Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
1/17/08	KIDNEY CYSTS: NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered a window in kidney growth that affects the onset of polycystic kidney disease and can mean, in mice, the difference between developing severe cystic disease early in adolescence or late in adulthood.
1/16/08	JOHNS HOPKINS’ VICTOR MCKUSICK WINS PRESTIGIOUS ‘JAPAN PRIZE’ -- Genetics pioneer is sole 2008 laureate for $470,000 prize in Medical Genetics and Genomics category Victor A. McKusick, M.D., University Professor of Medical Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Japan Prize in Medical Genetics and Genomics, the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan announced today in Tokyo.
1/16/08	TOXOPLASMA INFECTION INCREASES RISK OF SCHIZOPHRENIA, STUDY SUGGESTS Findings from what is believed to be the largest comparison of blood samples collected from healthy individuals and people with schizophrenia suggest that infection with the common Toxoplasma gondii parasite, carried by cats and farm animals, may increase the risk of schizophrenia.
1/14/08	RUBBER GLOVES: "BORN" - AND NOW BANISHED - AT JOHNS HOPKINS … move addresses potentially fatal allergy to latex William Stewart Halsted, The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s first surgeon in chief, is widely credited as the first to develop and introduce rubber surgical gloves in the United States. That was in 1894, five years after the institution opened.
1/14/08	TRUST BETWEEN DOCTORS AND PATIENTS IS CULPRIT IN EFFORTS TO CROSS RACIAL DIVIDE IN MEDICAL RESEARCH - Study shows lingering doubts and fears hamper research participation by African Americans More than three decades after the shutdown of the notorious Tuskegee study, a team of Johns Hopkins physicians has found that Tuskegee’s legacy of blacks’ mistrust of physicians and deep-seated fear of harm from medical research persists and is largely to blame for keeping much-needed African Americans from taking part in clinical trials.
1/11/08	WAYS TO IMPROVE INFORMED CONSENT ARE TESTABLE, STUDY SAYS --Findings could prevent costly but worthless attempts to improve mainstay of clinical trials New ways to make sure people are adequately informed about the risks and benefits of taking part in a clinical trial can be field-tested for effectiveness as rigorously as new medical treatments themselves, a study led by a Johns Hopkins bioethicist suggests.
1/10/08	STORY IDEAS FROM THE JOHNS HOPKINS' "A WOMAN'S JOURNEY" CONFERENCE Johns Hopkins Medicine is hosting its first Palm Beach area symposium on women’s health and new advances in preventing, detecting and treating women’s diseases on Thursday, Jan. 24. Called “A Woman's Journey” (AWJ), the event will be held from 9:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Raymond F. Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion.
1/9/08	STEM CELLS MAKE BONE MARROW CANCER RESISTANT TO TREATMENT Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that cancer stem cells for multiple myeloma share many properties with normal stem cells and have multiple ways of resisting chemotherapy and other treatments.
1/9/08	RNA SHOWN TO SILENCE CANCER SUPPRESSOR GENE ----Discovery sheds light on “epigenetic” mechanisms in tumor development in plants and animals One way cancer arises is when tumor suppressor genes that normally keep cell growth in check are mysteriously turned off. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that at least one tumor suppressor gene is in fact turned off by a “noncoding” single stranded RNA nucleic acid similar to its double-stranded DNA cousin.
1/9/08	CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATE TO SPEAK AT ANNUAL HOPKINS EVENT HONORING MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. The Rev. Al Sharpton, a Baptist minister, radio and television personality and outspoken civil rights advocate, will be the featured speaker at the 2008 event honoring Martin Luther King Jr. In what has become a much-anticipated annual tradition, Johns Hopkins Medicine will remember and honor the civil rights leader with tributes, music and community service awards during this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration.
1/9/08	ANNUAL JOHNS HOPKINS WOMEN’S HEALTH CONFERENCE COMING TO PALM BEACH The latest findings on women’s health and new advances in preventing, detecting and treating women’s diseases will be presented during this one-day symposium sponsored by Johns Hopkins Medicine.
1/9/08	ANNUAL JOHNS HOPKINS WOMEN’S HEALTH CONFERENCE COMING TO PALM BEACH The latest findings on women’s health and new advances in preventing, detecting and treating women’s diseases will be presented Thursday, Jan. 24, at Palm Beach’s first annual “A Woman’s Journey” symposium sponsored by Johns Hopkins Medicine. The one-day conference, at the Raymond F. Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion, begins at 9:15 a.m. and concludes at 2 p.m.
1/4/08	WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: HOPKINS RESEARCHERS PAINT PICTURE OF CANCER-PROMOTING CULPRIT They say that a picture can be worth a thousand words. This especially is true for describing the structures of molecules that function to promote cancer. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have built a three-dimensional picture of an enzyme often mutated in many types of cancers. The results, published Dec. 14 in Science, suggest how the most common mutations in this enzyme might lead to cancer progression.
1/3/08	GENE DOSE AFFECTS TUMOR GROWTH Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Ohio State University have found that the number of copies of a particular gene can affect the severity of colon cancer in a mouse model. Publishing in the Jan. 3 issue of Nature, the research team describes how trisomy 21, or Down syndrome in humans, can repress tumor growth.
1/2/08	PROTEIN A POSSIBLE KEY TO ALLERGY AND ASTHMA CONTROL Activating a protein found on some immune cells seems to halt the cells’ typical job of spewing out substances that launch allergic reactions, a study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The findings could eventually lead to new treatments for allergic reactions ranging from annoying bouts of hay fever to deadly asthma attacks.
1/1/08	"SWISH-AND-SPIT" TEST ACCURATE FOR CANCER A morning gargle could someday be more than a breath freshener - it could spot head and neck cancer, say scientists at Johns Hopkins. Their new study of a mouth rinse that captures genetic signatures common to the disease holds promise for screening those at high risk, including heavy smokers and alcohol drinkers.

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