The human brain makes about 35,000 decisions in a single day. Each of these decisions influences our actions and behaviors. For a long time, scientists have struggled to study the brain at a level of detail that would allow them to link events in the brain to behavior. Jeremiah Cohen, Ph.D., illustrates his journey to a scientific discovery on decision making — found through a research technique called optogenetics — that could change the way we think about brain and behavior.
Latest research findings from the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences
Fundamentals
The Summer Academic Research Experience (SARE) gives high school students from low-income and diverse backgrounds an opportunity to participate in biomedical research, providing them with a pathway into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Three SARE scholars share their thoughts on barriers to STEM and the importance of programs like SARE.
Some therapies for vision-threatening diseases require a drug injection to the eye as frequently as every four weeks. Ouch! By replacing disease-causing genes in the eye, ophthalmologist Peter Campochiaro hopes to develop more permanent treatments for macular degeneration.
At 4 a.m. on October 7, Gregg Semenza received a phone call that most scientists can only imagine: The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, informed him that he was a co-winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Cell biologist Andy Ewald reflects on the first year and a half of cancer research at the Johns Hopkins Center for Cancer Target Discovery and Development.
What makes Henrietta Lacks’ cells so immortal? Scientists suspect it has something to do with the human papilloma virus that caused her cancer. Henrietta’s cells helped to shape modern medicine as we know it.
When researchers need novel microscoping technologies, biomedical engineer Scot Kuo is ready for their call
Biologist Kenneth Witwer discusses the importance of extracellular vesicle research and a recent grant from the National Institutes of Health.
If you work in the lab of Johns Hopkins researcher Deborah Andrew, you’ll know that spit glands come in many colors. Our image of the month is from Andrew’s lab, where she has made a new discovery about the spit glands of mosquitos.
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Please contact Vanessa Wasta, Fundamentals Editor, at wasta@jhmi.edu