Taking a high dose of vitamin D3 is safe for people with multiple sclerosis and may help regulate the body’s hyperactive immune response, according to a pilot study published by Johns Hopkins physicians in the Dec. 30 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The specialized human ability to perceive the sound quality known as “pitch” can no longer be listed as unique to humans. Researchers at Johns Hopkins report new behavioral evidence that marmosets, ancient monkeys, appear to use auditory cues similar to humans to distinguish between low and high notes. The discovery infers that aspects of pitch perception may have evolved more than 40 million years ago to enable vocal communication and songlike vocalizations.

Johns Hopkins has demonstrated in animals that applying a pacemaker’s mild electrical shocks to push the heart in and out of normal synchronized contraction for part of each day may be an effective way to slow down the progression of heart failure, a disorder that afflicts millions of Americans.”

Johns Hopkins Medicine is pleased to announce the appointment of Redonda Miller, M.D., M.B.A., to the position of senior vice president for medical affairs for the Johns Hopkins Health System, effective Jan. 1, 2016.

When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued their 2014 quality and financial performance results in August, an accountable care organization (ACO) formed by Johns Hopkins achieved a perfect score for quality reporting.

Baltimore (Dec. 22, 2015) – In celebration of her efforts to push patient-centered care to the forefront of health care reform, The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Department of Nursing and the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing have launched the Karen B. Haller Endowed Scholarship. Haller previously served as the chief nursing officer for The Johns Hopkins Hospital and recently took on the role of vice president of nursing and clinical affairs for Johns Hopkins Medicine International.

Johns Hopkins Medicine launched its first awards program aimed to recognize physicians and care teams in all of its member hospitals and Johns Hopkins Community Physicians locations who embody the best in clinical excellence.

After observing that some gastrointestinal disease in premature human and mouse infants progresses only when certain immune system white blood cells go into inflammatory overdrive, Johns Hopkins researchers have found that giving large doses  of vitamin A to mice converts those blood cells into inflammation suppressors and reduces the severity of the disease, compared to untreated mice.

Low levels of vitamin D have long been identified as an unwanted hallmark of weight-loss surgery, but now findings of a new Johns Hopkins study of more than 930,000 patient records add to evidence that seasonal sun exposure — a key factor in the body’s natural ability to make the sunshine vitamin — plays a substantial role in how well people do after such operations.

Using information gleaned from more than 20,000 men, researchers at Johns Hopkins have affirmed the value of their alternative system for assessing the likelihood of growth and spread of prostate cancer. The new grading system, they say, is not only easier to use and understand, but also more accurate than the long-used Gleason grading system, and it has the potential to substantially reduce overtreatment of low-risk tumors.

Academic medical centers that take on community partners to form accountable care organizations face a number of unexpected challenges, says Scott Berkowitz, M.D., M.B.A., medical director of accountable care for the Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians and executive director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine accountable care organization (ACO) known as the Johns Hopkins Medicine Alliance for Patients (JMAP).

A study of general surgery residents at The Johns Hopkins Hospital suggests that in the efforts to prevent dangerous blood clots among hospitalized patients, regular, one-on-one feedback and written report cards work a lot better than the usual group lectures that newly minted surgeons receive as part of their training.

Prior to the rise of modern-day mammalian carnivores, North America was dominated by a now-extinct group of mammalian carnivores — the hyaenodontids. While fossils of hyaenodontids are relatively common from the early Eocene Epoch — between 50 million and 55 million years ago — most of these are specimens of teeth. A new find of a nearly complete skeleton has allowed for a more detailed study of the ecology and evolutionary relationships of these early carnivores.

A new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers shows wide racial and economic disparities in access to minimally invasive hysterectomies for early uterine cancer in the United States. This is despite years of accumulating evidence that the procedures to remove the uterus are linked to fewer postoperative complications, the researchers say.

Scientists have long known that when sounds are faint or objects are seen through fog in the distance, repetition of these weak or ambiguous sensory “inputs” can result in different perceptions inside the same brain. Now the results of new research have identified brain processes in mice that may help explain how those differences happen.

Although several studies suggest that women with denser breast tissue have an increased risk of breast cancer, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers discredits breast density as a risk factor in and of itself.

Johns Hopkins Home Care Group today announced that it has been named a Top Agency of the 2015 HomeCare Elite, a recognition of the top-performing home health agencies in the United States.

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a method to efficiently turn human stem cells into retinal ganglion cells, the type of nerve cells located within the retina that transmit visual signals from the eye to the brain.

Before the fluid of the middle ear drains and sound waves penetrate for the first time, the inner ear cells of newborn rodents practice for their big debut. Researchers at Johns Hopkins report they have figured out the molecular chain of events that enables the cells to make “sounds” on their own, essentially “practicing” their ability to process sounds in the world around them.

Fruit fly windpipes are much more like human blood vessels than the entryway to human lungs. To create that intricate network, fly embryonic cells must sprout “fingers” and crawl into place. Now researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have discovered that a protein called Mipp1 is key to cells’ ability to grow these fingers.

Richard T. Johnson, an internationally renowned Johns Hopkins neurologist who is credited with inventing the field of neurovirology — the study of viruses that infect the nervous system — died at The Johns Hopkins Hospital on November 22 of pneumonia.

Hal Dietz, M.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has received the 2015 Research Achievement Award from the American Heart Association “for lifesaving discoveries related to the cause and treatment of aortic aneurysm, a disorder that contributes to death in up to 2 percent of individuals in industrialized nations of the world.”

Four Johns Hopkins Medicine hospitals have been honored as leaders in care by the Joint Commission’s 2014 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures program.

Health experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine are calling on lawmakers and regulators to close loopholes in the Orphan Drug Act they claim give drug companies millions of dollars in unintended and misplaced subsidies and tax breaks and fuel skyrocketing medication costs.

As we age or develop neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, our brain cells may not produce sufficient energy to remain fully functional. Researchers discovered that an enzyme called SIRT3 that is located in mitochondria — the cell's powerhouse — may protect mice brains against the kinds of stresses believed to contribute to energy loss. Furthermore, mice that ran on a wheel increased their levels of this protective enzyme. 

Although the vast majority of pediatric spine surgeries are safe, a handful of neuromuscular conditions seem to fuel the risk of cardiac arrest during such operations, according to research led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

In a “look-back” analysis of data stored on 130 patients with pancreatic cysts, scientists at Johns Hopkins have used gene-based tests and a fixed set of clinical criteria to more accurately distinguish precancerous cysts from those less likely to do harm. The findings may eventually help some patients in real time safely avoid surgery to remove harmless cysts. A report on the findings is published in the November issue of Gastroenterology.

In a randomized clinical trial of more than 300 participants, researchers from Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have found that ranibizumab — a drug most commonly used to treat retinal swelling in people with diabetes — is an effective alternative to laser therapy for treating the most severe, potentially blinding form of diabetic retinal disease.

A “secret shopper” style study by researchers at Johns Hopkins analyzing foot traffic in and out of operating rooms suggests that for the sake of patient safety, OR teams may want to stay put more often.

Johns Hopkins researchers report that a new study of mouse cells has revealed reasons why attempts to grow stem cells to maturity in the laboratory often fail, and provided a possible way to overcome such “developmental arrest.”

Since the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the enzyme telomerase in 1984, identifying other biological molecules that lengthen or shorten the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes has been slow going. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins report uncovering the role of an enzyme crucial to telomere length and say the new method they used to find it should speed discovery of other proteins and processes that determine telomere length. 

A major source of American health information data contains a handful of glaring flaws related to health risks, say Johns Hopkins researchers in a study published online Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.

Some nerve cells in the inner ear can signal tissue damage in a way similar to pain-sensing nerve cells in the body, according to new research from Johns Hopkins. If the finding, discovered in rats, is confirmed in humans, it may lead to new insights into hyperacusis, an increased sensitivity to loud noises that can lead to severe and long-lasting ear pain.

A study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers suggests that awakening several times throughout the night is more detrimental to people’s positive moods than getting the same shortened amount of sleep without interruption.

Flu season is upon us again — and yes, you should get the flu vaccine.

Peter Calabresi, M.D., professor of neurology and director of the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis Center, was part of the team selected to receive the 2015 Barancik Prize for Innovation in Multiple Sclerosis Research awarded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The prize recognizes innovation and originality in MS research, with emphasis on the potential to lead to treatments and a cure for MS. 

The National Academy of Medicine, formerly the Institute of Medicine, has awarded the 2015 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health to Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., the Dalio Family Professor in Mood Disorders and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The National Pancreas Foundation has honored Martin Makary, M.D., M.P.H., professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, with the 2015 Nobility in Science award.

Karen B. Haller, Ph.D., R.N., a 27-year Johns Hopkins Medicine nursing veteran and leader, has been named vice president of nursing and clinical affairs for Johns Hopkins Medicine International.

A computer model developed by Johns Hopkins health care delivery specialists predicts that strengthening a handful of efforts to keep people with HIV in lifetime care, along with more rigorous testing, would potentially avert a projected 752,000 new HIV infections and 276,000 AIDS deaths in the United States alone over the next 20 years.

Results of a head-to-head comparison study led by Johns Hopkins researchers show that noninvasive CT scans of the heart’s vessels are far better at spotting clogged arteries that can trigger a heart attack than the commonly prescribed exercise stress that most patients with chest pain undergo.

A federally funded analysis of MRI scans of the aging hearts of nearly 3,000 adults shows significant differences in the way male and female hearts change over time.

Drug-resistant bacteria have dominated news headlines and the attention of public health experts, but a study by experts at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and the Duke Clinical Research Institute shows that nonresistant bacterial infections occur far more often and can take just as great a toll on newborns as their drug-resistant cousins.

Cancer “gene hunter” Kenneth W. Kinzler, Ph.D., co-director of the Ludwig Center at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, is one of 80 new members elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Members of the academy advise the U.S. government on medical and health issues. They are elected by their peers for their accomplishments and contributions to medical sciences, health care and public health.

The Johns Hopkins University and Microsoft have announced plans to work together to redesign the way medical devices in an intensive care unit (ICU) talk to each other.

Today, Johns Hopkins researchers introduced EpiWatch, designed to use Apple Watch to collect patient data through the open source ResearchKit framework designed by Apple. The app, which runs on Apple Watch and iPhone, collects data from patients with epilepsy before, during and after their seizures. 

A study led by Johns Hopkins researchers has linked the immunosuppressive drug mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) to an increased risk of central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma in solid organ transplant patients. But the same study also found that another class of immunosuppressive drugs, called calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs), given alone or in combination with MMF, appears to protect transplant patients against this rare form of lymphoma.

David M. Rubenstein, a philanthropist and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager, will donate $15 million to the Department Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to create a new hearing center focused on restoring functional hearing loss.

In a study involving 2,400 men who have sex with men who were also enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, researchers report that men with HIV who were treated effectively with HIV therapy — defined as no detectable HIV virus in the blood — were the least likely (80 percent less likely) to get infected with HBV over a median follow-up of approximately 9.5 years.

A multicenter study of young patients with bipolar disorder provides what may be the most scientifically rigorous demonstration to date that lithium — a drug used successfully for decades to treat adults with the condition — can also be safe and effective for children suffering from it.

In what they say was a lucky and unexpected finding, researchers at Johns Hopkins say they’ve discovered that male fruit flies lay down an odorant, or pheromone, that not only attracts females to lay eggs nearby, but also guides males and females searching for food. The discovery, they say, offers clues about how flies, and probably other creatures, navigate complex environments and use odors to guide important behavioral decisions.

Working with gut stem cells from humans and mice, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and the University of Pittsburgh have successfully grown healthy intestine atop a 3-D scaffold made of a substance used in surgical sutures.

Disease gene hunters usually focus on the regions of the genome known as exons, which form the genetic blueprints of proteins. In recent decades, it’s become clear that the DNA letters located between genes play a critical regulatory role, determining whether proteins get made. But exons retain their starring role in disease research. Now, however, as Sumantra Chatterjee, Ph.D., reports Oct. 7 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Baltimore, newly found genetic contributors to Hirschsprung’s disease suggest that increased research on noncoding DNA could help complete the map of genetic causes of many complex diseases.

A Johns Hopkins surgeon and prominent patient safety researcher is calling on hospitals to reform emergency room, surgical and other medical protocols that sicken up to half of already seriously ill patients — in some cases severely — with preventable and potentially dangerous bouts of food and sleep deprivation.

Johns Hopkins HealthCare announces its entrance in the Medicare Advantage market for the 2016 benefit year. The Medicare Advantage product, Johns Hopkins Advantage MD PPO, is the only Maryland Medicare Advantage plan that offers the full complement of Johns Hopkins providers, plus thousands of other network providers across the state of Marylan

The Kavli Foundation and its university partners announced on Oct. 1 the founding of three new neuroscience research institutes, including one at Johns Hopkins. The new Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute will bring an interdisciplinary group of researchers together to investigate the workings of the brain.

Using pieces of human tumors grafted into mice, a team led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers and their colleagues from the University of Torino has identified new mutations in six genes related to drug resistance and sensitivity in late-stage colorectal cancer.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Washington report new research that sheds light on how the retina sets its own biological rhythm using a novel light-sensitive pigment, called neuropsin, found in nerve cells at the back of the eye.

Lisa Cooper, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and her research team, have been selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to receive a $12.2 million research award, which will be funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) through a partnership with NIH.

Johns Hopkins Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR ACTION Registry-GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2015. Johns Hopkins is one of only 319 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor.

A sticky, protein-rich gel created by Johns Hopkins researchers appears to help stem cells stay on or in rat hearts and restore their metabolism after transplantation, improving cardiac function after simulated heart attacks, according to results of a new study.

Six Johns Hopkins business startups will participate in a live pitch competition as part of AOL cofounder, Steve Case’s, upcoming Rise of the Rest Road Trip to Baltimore on September 28. In total, eight start-ups will compete and one entrepreneur will win a $100,000 investment in his or her company.

Citing an analysis of more than 26,000 Maryland Medicaid claims, Johns Hopkins researchers report evidence that poor women with recent complications during their pregnancies are using the emergency room (ER) at higher rates after delivery and may not be getting the postpartum care and follow-up they need to prevent further health problems.

Taking the first close look at a federal program designed to provide cost-savings incentives in exchange for more efficient health care, a Johns Hopkins study published recently in the American Journal of Managed Care found that, while using those cost-savings as incentives for physicians showed promise, there appears to be no single formula for success.

For reasons unknown, many patients with breast cancer treated with the estrogen receptor-blocking drug tamoxifen eventually become resistant to the treatment despite the fact that their cancer cells still have the estrogen receptor proteins that the drug normally targets. Now, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists and their colleagues have traced out an intricate molecular pathway in those cells they say may explain, at least in part, how tamoxifen resistance develops.

Working with tissue, blood and DNA from six people with precancerous and cancerous lung lesions, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists has identified what it believes are among the very earliest “premalignant” genetic changes that mark the potential onset of the most common and deadliest form of disease.

James C. Harris, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, the founding director of the Developmental Neuropsychiatry Clinic in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, and a former director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, has received the American Psychiatric Association’s 2015 Frank J. Menolascino Award for Psychiatric Services to Persons with Intellectual Development Disorders/Developmental Disabilities.

Scientists have used a genetically engineered vaccine to successfully eradicate high-grade, precancerous cervical lesions in nearly half of women who received the vaccine in a clinical trial. The goal, say the scientists, was to find non-surgical ways to treat precancerous lesions caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Victoria Handa, M.D., professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has been named director of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and deputy director of gynecology and obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

L. Mario Amzel, Ph.D., director of the Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has been named a 2016 Fellow of the Biophysical Society.

A randomized trial of people with two common forms of arthritis has found that yoga can be safe and effective for people with arthritis. Johns Hopkins researchers report that 8 weeks of yoga classes improved the physical and mental wellbeing of people with two common forms of arthritis, knee osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Malnutrition is a known complication of weight loss surgery, but findings from a small study by researchers at Johns Hopkins show many obese people may be malnourished before they undergo the procedure.

Though national data suggest that women researchers are less likely to obtain independent research funding than men, a study published in the Journal of Women’s Health found that male and female researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are funded at nearly the same rate.

David E. Bush, M.D., an internationally recognized educator, cardiac CT expert, skilled angiographer and longtime Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty member, died on Sept. 3, 2015, after a long illness. He was 63.

Using data from their detailed analysis of senior medical services offered by nearly 5,000 U.S. hospitals before the 2009 passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), researchers led by a Johns Hopkins geriatrician say they have developed a Senior Care Services Scale (SCSS) that suggests a serious “mismatch” between what’s offered and what older adult populations need.

In a study with 18 adults who had never smoked, scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have demonstrated one of the earliest steps — nicotine “reinforcement” — in the process of addiction, and shown that some people are far more vulnerable to nicotine addiction than others.

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) tend to slow down and decrease the intensity of their movements even though many retain the ability to move quickly and forcefully. Now, scientists report evidence that the slowdown likely arises from the brain’s “cost/benefit analysis,” which gets skewed by the loss of dopamine in people with PD. In addition, their small study demonstrated that noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain temporarily improved some patients’ motor symptoms.

The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center will break ground Sept. 10 on a new $100 million, 184,000-square-foot cancer care building at one of the highest elevations in East Baltimore. Slated to open in late 2017, the building is named for Albert P. “Skip” Viragh Jr., a Maryland mutual fund investment leader, philanthropist and pancreatic cancer patient treated at Johns Hopkins who died of the disease in 2003 at age 62.

Baltimore, Sept. 9, 2015—Several Baltimore hospitals today proposed a change to state regulations to create up to 1,000 new positions for statewide residents from ZIP codes facing poverty and high unemployment.

Contrary to popular belief, the worst injuries baseball catchers face on the field come from errant bats and foul balls, not home-plate collisions with base runners, according to findings of a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The Johns Hopkins University and Luminox-Health, a leading Israeli startup hub focused on digital health, have entered into a multiyear collaborative agreement connecting Israeli entrepreneurs with Johns Hopkins medical expertise, faculty thought-leadership, technology, 

In use for more than a century, inhaled anesthetics like nitrous oxide and halothane have made modern surgery possible. Now, in experiments in mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have added to evidence that certain so-called “volatile” anesthetics — commonly used during surgeries — may also possess powerful effects on the immune system that can combat viral and bacterial infections in the lung, including influenza and pneumonia.

Men with relatively unaggressive prostate tumors and whose disease is carefully monitored by urologists are unlikely to develop metastatic prostate cancer or die of their cancers, according to results of a study by researchers at the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins, who analyzed survival statistics up to 15 years. 

Working with mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins have added to evidence that a commonly prescribed antidepressant called fluoxetine helps stroke victims improve movement and coordination, and possibly why.

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered some of the first steps in how a very common gene mutation causes the brain damage associated with both amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Analysis of blood samples from more than 5,000 people suggests that a more sensitive version of a blood test long used to verify heart muscle damage from heart attacks could also identify people on their way to developing hypertension well before the so-called silent killer shows up on a blood pressure machine.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, along with colleagues at Emory University and Cedars-Sinai, have published in the journal Gastroenterology the first major, in-depth analysis of genetic risk factors of inflammatory bowel disease in African-Americans

Engineers and physicians at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have developed a hand-held, battery-powered device that quickly picks up vital signs from a patient’s lips and fingertip.

A review of survey data from more than 300 obese people who participated in a federally funded weight loss clinical trial found that although the overall weight loss rates were modest, those who rated their primary care doctor’s support as particularly helpful lost about twice as many pounds as those who didn’t.

In-depth interviews conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine of 20 young women attending an urban sexually transmitted disease clinic have documented a variety of unexpected, unintended sexual encounters linked to their alcohol use before sex occurs.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have deciphered the structure and unusual shape of a bacterial protein that prepares segments of DNA for the insertion of so-called jumping genes. The clamshell shape, they say, has never before been seen in a protein but connects nicely with its function: that of bending a segment of DNA into a 180-degree U-turn.

Results of a trio of studies done on human cancer tissue biopsies have added to growing evidence that a so-called jumping gene called LINE-1 is active during the development of many gastrointestinal cancers. The Johns Hopkins scientists who conducted the studies caution there is no proof that the numerous new “insertions” of these rogue genetic elements in the human genome actually cause cancers, but they say their experiments do suggest that these elements, formally known as transposons, might one day serve as a marker for early cancer diagnosis.

In experiments with 500,000 genetically engineered zebrafish embryos, Johns Hopkins scientists report they have developed a potentially better and more accurate way to screen for useful drugs, and they have used it to identify 24 drug candidates that increase the number of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

In a commentary published in the Aug. 13 issue of JAMA, Johns Hopkins experts say consolidation of hospitals into massive chains threatens healthy competition, reduces patient choice and could drive up medical expenses.

In what appears to be an unexpected challenge to a long-accepted fact of biology, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have found that ribosomes — the molecular machines in all cells that build proteins — can sometimes do so even within the so-called untranslated regions of the ribbons of genetic material known as messenger RNA (mRNA).

The Johns Hopkins Family Medicine Interest Group received a Program of Excellence Award at the American Academy of Family Physicians’ National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students, which took place July 30–Aug. 1 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Tiffany Ho, M.P.H., a member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s class of 2016, has been elected to serve as a student member on the American Academy of Family Physicians board of directors for the next year. The election took place Aug. 1 at the organization’s National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students in Kansas City, Missouri.

Richard S. Ross, M.D., former dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, vice president for medicine of The Johns Hopkins University and a renowned cardiologist who served as president of the American Heart Association, died Aug. 11, 2015. He was 91 and had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

A review of 15 years’ worth of data in a national pediatric medical database has documented a substantial increase in the rate of hospitalizations for children with a form of high blood pressure once most common in those with congenital heart disease.

Findings from a pair of new studies could speed up the development of a universally accurate diagnostic test for human herpes simplex viruses (HSV), according to researchers at Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The work may also lead to the development of a vaccine that protects against the virus.

People infected with the hepatitis C virus are at risk for liver damage, but the results of a new Johns Hopkins study now show the infection may also spell heart trouble.

Acknowledging key strengths and “lessons learned,” preventive cardiologists from Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinic have developed a short list of suggested upgrades to the controversial heart disease prevention guidelines issued jointly in 2013 by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.

Based on responses to questionnaires and letters sent to CEOs and medical personnel from a nationwide sample of 53 hospitals, Johns Hopkins investigators have identified a handful of best practices they say are most likely to give patients a positive hospital experience, a sense of satisfaction and the feeling they come first.

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have identified a molecular partnership in pancreatic cancer cells that might help to explain how the disease spreads — metastasizes — in some cases. Their findings reveal urgently needed new targets to treat pancreatic cancer, which strikes nearly 50,000 people in the United States each year and has only a 5 percent survival rate five years after diagnosis.

Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a novel cell signaling pathway in mice through which mammals — presumably including people — can regenerate hair follicles and skin while healing from wounds.

Autopsies of nearly every patient with the lethal neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and many with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), show pathologists telltale clumps of a protein called TDP-43. Now, working with mouse and human cells, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have discovered the normal role of TDP-43 in cells and why its abnormal accumulation may cause disease.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil have designed a DNA-loaded nanoparticle that can pass through the mucus barrier covering conducting airways of lung tissue — proving the concept, they say, that therapeutic genes may one day be delivered directly to the lungs to the levels sufficient to treat cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and other life-threatening lung diseases. 

Howard W. Jones Jr., a pioneer in reproductive medicine who oversaw the 1965 Johns Hopkins research that resulted in the world’s first successful fertilization of a human egg outside the body, then collaborated with his wife, gynecologic endocrinologist Georgeanna Seegar Jones, to oversee the 1981 birth of the first “test tube” baby in the United States, died July 31 at Sentara Heart Hospital in Virginia. He was 104. He had published his most recent book, In Vitro Fertilization Comes to America: Memoir of a Medical Breakthrough, just last year.

A new blood test could help emergency room doctors quickly diagnose traumatic brain injury and determine its severity. The findings, published July 10 in the Journal of Neurotrauma, could help identify patients who might benefit from extra therapy or experimental treatments.

Oropharyngeal cancer patients who were found to have detectable traces of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) in their saliva following cancer treatment are at an increased risk for recurrence, a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found.

In a small study, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center report they have verified the ability of a free smartphone app to accurately read, interpret and record the color of a newborn’s poop as a possible early symptom of biliary atresia (BA) — a rare disorder that accounts for nearly half of pediatric end-stage liver disease in the United States.

In a proof-of-concept study at Johns Hopkins, researchers have shown that results of common and routine blood tests are not affected by up to 40 minutes of travel on hobby-sized drones.

Following several years of research and collaboration, physicians and engineers at Johns Hopkins and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center say they have developed a computer platform that provides rapid, real-time feedback before and during facial transplant surgery, which may someday improve face-jaw-teeth alignment between donor and recipient.

Johns Hopkins researchers say their review of 128 medical case histories suggests that financial penalties imposed on Maryland hospitals based solely on the total number of patients who suffer blood clots in the lung or leg fail to account for clots that occur despite the consistent and proper use of the best preventive therapies.

A Johns Hopkins-led study of outcomes among 1,200 people with implanted defibrillators — devices intended to prevent sudden cardiac death from abnormal heart rhythms — shows that within a few years of implantation, one in four experienced improvements in heart function substantial enough to put them over the clinical threshold that qualified them to get a defibrillator in the first place.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital ranked in the top five in nine specialties and #3 overall in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report annual Best Hospitals list, sharing the spot with UCLA Medical Center, in this year’s ranking of 4,716 hospitals. In the magazine’s ranking of hospitals in the state, The Johns Hopkins Hospital was again ranked #1 in all specialties. It also ranked #1 in all specialties in Baltimore.

In a survey of a diverse group of almost 250 young, low-income, inner-city pregnant and postpartum women, Johns Hopkins researchers have learned that more than 90 percent use smartphones or regular cellphones to give and get information. 

By using electrode implants to track nerve cells firing in the brains of rats as they plan where to go next, Johns Hopkins scientists say they have learned that the mammalian brain likely reconstructs memories in a way more like jumping across stepping stones than walking across a bridge. A summary of their experiments, published in the journal Science on July 10, sheds light on what memories are and how they form, and gives clues about how the system can fail.

Buying fresh fruits and vegetables can be hard for families living in low-income urban neighborhoods, many of which are known as “food deserts” for their lack of full-service grocery stores that stock healthy food.

Borrowing a page from a winning team’s playbook, Johns Hopkins endocrinologist Nestoras Mathioudakis, M.D., and his colleagues are taking on the topic of managing hospital patients’ diabetes.

Conventional wisdom has long blamed age-related hearing loss almost entirely on the death of sensory hair cells in the inner ear, but research from neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins has provided new information about the workings of nerve cells that suggests otherwise.

Breast cancer survivors with a family history of the disease, including those who carry BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, gained more weight over the course of four years than cancer-free women — especially if they were treated with chemotherapy, according to a prospective study by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers.

In a review of nearly 2,000 surveys with people whose loved ones died of cancer, researchers led by Johns Hopkins experts say they found a 40 percent increase over a 12-year period in the number of patients with cancer who participated in one form of advance care planning — designating durable power of attorney privileges to a loved one — but no corresponding impact on their rates of aggressive medical care received in the last weeks of life.

In a genome-sequencing study of pancreatic cancers and blood in 101 patients, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists say they found at least one-third of the patients’ tumors have genetic mutations that may someday help guide precision therapy of their disease. Results of blood tests to detect DNA shed from tumors, they say, also predicted cancer recurrence more than half a year earlier than standard imaging methods. 

Research with human tissue and cells suggests that genetic variations, in addition to failure to comply with treatment regimens, may account for some failures of an anti-HIV drug to treat and prevent HIV infection.

A new study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers of patients hospitalized with anorexia nervosa shows that a faster weight gain during inpatient treatment — well beyond what national standards recommend — is safe and effective.

Johns Hopkins researchers have found that offspring born to mother rats stressed during pregnancy lost weight faster and failed to turn on appropriate brain hunger signals in response to exercise and food restriction, compared to offspring from non-stressed mothers. The research reveals a specific combination of stress, personality, and environmental factors that may contribute to anorexic behaviors. 

The Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and The Queen’s Health Systems in Honolulu have entered into a collaboration agreement to improve patient safety and quality of care initiatives at hospitals in the state of Hawaii.

The Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery (JHDD) program, created with the mission of identifying novel drug targets arising from Johns Hopkins faculty research and translating them into new therapeutics, and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry , The Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) have entered into a five-year drug discovery research agreement to develop small-molecule and peptide drugs for a range of therapeutic areas including neurological diseases, cancer, and gastrointestinal disorders.

When Greek mythology and cell biology meet, you get the protein Callipygian, recently discovered and named by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University for its role in determining which area of a cell becomes the back as it begins to move.

Researchers have long had reason to hope that blocking the flow of calcium into the mitochondria of heart and brain cells could be one way to prevent damage caused by heart attacks and strokes. But in a study of mice engineered to lack a key calcium channel in their heart cells, Johns Hopkins scientists appear to have cast a shadow of doubt on that theory. A report on their study is published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

New research from The Johns Hopkins University suggests that a molecule commonly found “decorating” brain cells in higher animals, including humans, may affect brain structure. The study showed that small changes made in how sialic acid attaches to cell surfaces can cause damaged brain structure, poor motor skills, hyperactivity and learning difficulties in mice. The findings suggest that sialic acid plays a significant role in how brain cells communicate, possibly shedding light on the underlying causes of certain brain disorders.

For cell division to be successful, pairs of chromosomes have to line up just right before being swept into their new cells, like the opening of a theater curtain. They accomplish this feat in part thanks to structures called centrioles that provide an anchor for the curtain’s ropes. Researchers at Johns Hopkins recently learned that most cells will not divide without centrioles, and they found out why: A protein called p53, already known to prevent cell division for other reasons, also monitors centriole numbers to prevent potentially disastrous cell divisions.

Working in cell cultures and mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that an experimental drug called fostamatinib combined with the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel may overcome ovarian cancer cells’ resistance to paclitaxel.

The drug approved to treat patients infected with the hepatitis C virus needs no help from other antivirals, according to a study released online this week in the journal Hepatology.

An analysis of the results of more than 16,000 brain and spine surgeries suggests patients have nothing to fear from having residents — physicians-in-training — assist in those operations. The contributions of residents, who work under the supervision and alongside senior physicians, do nothing to increase patients’ risks of postoperative complications or of dying within 30 days of the surgery, the analysis showed.

The notion that geography often shapes economic and political destiny has long informed the work of economists and political scholars. Now a study led by medical scientists at Johns Hopkins reveals how geography also appears to affect the very survival of people with end-stage kidney disease in need of dialysis.

Working with heart muscle cells from diabetic rats, scientists at Johns Hopkins have located what they say is the epicenter of mischief wreaked by too much blood sugar and used a sugar-gobbling enzyme to restore normal function in the glucose-damaged cells of animal heart muscles.

On the hunt for better cancer screening tests, Johns Hopkins scientists led a proof of principle study that successfully identified tumor DNA shed into the blood and saliva of 93 patients with head and neck cancer. A report on the findings is published in the June 24 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

In a proof-of-concept study, a team led by a Johns Hopkins researcher reports that the vast majority of edible cannabis products sold in a small sample of medical marijuana dispensaries carried labels that overstated or understated the amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

A review of medical records for almost 200 patients with breast cancer suggests that more selective use of biomarker testing for such patients has the potential to save millions of dollars in health care spending without compromising care.

In what may be a major leap forward in the quest for new treatments of the most common form of cardiovascular disease, scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have found a way to halt and reverse the progression of atherosclerosis in rodents by loading microscopic nanoparticles with a chemical that restores the animals’ ability to properly handle cholesterol.

Mild elevations in blood pressure considered to be in the upper range of normal during young adulthood can lead to subclinical heart damage by middle age — a condition that sets the stage for full-blown heart failure, according to findings of a federally funded study led by scientists at Johns Hopkins.

In a genome-wide association study believed to be the largest of its kind, Johns Hopkins researchers have uncovered four regions in the human genome where changes may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Gemstone Biotherapeutics, a participant in the Johns Hopkins startup accelerator program FastForward East, has been named Best Life Sciences Company at the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year awards. The award recognizes achievements by current biotechnology or life sciences clients and graduates of Maryland incubators.

A cosmetic surgery that uses injections of hyaluronic acid to make lips appear fuller could also improve the lives of people with facial paralysis, according to results of a small study by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Stanford universities.

An amino acid whose role in the body has been all but a mystery appears to act as a potent seizure inhibitor in mice, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins.

Research conducted in fruit flies, rats and monkeys by scientists at Johns Hopkins, UC San Diego, and other institutions reveals that levels of a protein called vinculin increase with age to alter the shape and performance of cardiac muscle cells — a healthy adaptive change that helps sustain heart muscle vitality over many decades.

Brain surgery is famously difficult for good reason: When removing a tumor, for example, neurosurgeons walk a tightrope as they try to take out as much of the cancer as possible while keeping crucial brain tissue intact — and visually distinguishing the two is often impossible. Now Johns Hopkins researchers report they have developed an imaging technology that could provide surgeons with a color-coded map of a patient’s brain showing which areas are and are not cancer.

Baltimore (June 16, 2015) –The Johns Hopkins University and Bayer HealthCare have entered into a five-year collaboration agreement to jointly develop new ophthalmic therapies targeting retinal diseases. The goal of the strategic research alliance is to accelerate the translation of innovative approaches from the laboratory to the clinic, ultimately offering patients new treatment options for several retinal diseases.

Up to one-fifth of human DNA act as dimmer switches for nearby genes, but scientists have long been unable to identify precisely which mutations in these genetic control regions really matter in causing common diseases. Now, a decade of work at Johns Hopkins has yielded a computer formula that predicts with far more accuracy than current methods which mutations are likely to have the largest effect on the activity of the dimmer switches, suggesting new targets for diagnosis and treatment of many diseases.

This year, the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission awarded 21 of its 29 grants to Johns Hopkins researchers. One researcher won two grants. The grants will support projects that study the basic principles of how stem cells work and that develop potential therapies for conditions ranging from traumatic brain injury to heart disease to ALS. This year’s grants will total $9.4 million.

A “look back” study of Medicare fee-for-service claims for more than 1.2 million patients over age 65 has directly affirmed and quantified a long-suspected link between lower rates of coordinated health care services and higher rates of unnecessary medical tests and procedures.

Johns Hopkins infectious disease researcher Sara Cosgrove, M.D., M.S., has been tapped by the White House to help address solutions to the ever-growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Simple steps that include the consistent use of experienced medical teams for a single type of surgery, preemptive antibiotics before the procedure, less reliance on potent opioids during recovery and urging patients to get out of bed and move around sooner can not only prevent infections, blood clots and other serious complications in people undergoing colorectal operations, but can also accelerate recovery and reduce cost of care, according to results of an ongoing program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Reflecting on more than a decade of efforts by hospitals to reduce the rate of so-called never events that kill and injure patients, two leaders in patient safety research at Johns Hopkins conclude that such harms continue at a “troubling frequency.” They recommend changes for improving ways of collecting, analyzing and acting on information about lapses in care.

What’s more, they say in an essay published in the May 26 The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, it remains unclear whether public reporting of such harms and financial penalties on hospitals that have too many of them — known as pay for performance — have influenced the frequency of these events.

Geetha Jayaram, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, is the 2014–15 recipient of the Rotary Foundation Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award.

About one-third of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) will develop delirium, a condition that lengthens hospital stays and substantially increases one’s risk of dying in the hospital, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers appearing in the British Medical Journal.

After reviewing outcomes from thousands of cases, researchers at Johns Hopkins report that patients with blocked neck arteries who undergo carotid stenting to prop open the narrowed blood vessels fare decidedly worse if their surgeons re-inflate a tiny balloon in the vessel after the mesh stent is in place.

Johns Hopkins Medicine was recognized for its efforts to reduce its environmental footprint, winning several sustainability awards during the recent CleanMed 2015 Conference in Portland, Oregon, and at the Maryland Hospital Association’s annual meeting in Baltimore.

Bruce A. Perler, M.D., M.B.A., a Johns Hopkins vascular surgeon; the Julius H. Jacobson II, M.D., Professor of Vascular Surgery; vice chair for clinical operations and financial affairs for the Department of Surgery; and chief emeritus of the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy, will become president of the Society for Vascular Surgery on June 20.

The Johns Hopkins Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation has been selected to receive the 2015 Haim Ring Award in the institutional category.

In a head-to-head clinical trial comparing standard chemotherapy with the immunotherapy drug nivolumab, researchers found that people with squamous-non-small cell lung cancer who received nivolumab lived, on average, 3.2 months longer than those receiving chemotherapy. Squamous non-small cell lung cancer accounts for 25 to 30 percent of all lung malignancies.

In a report of a proof-of-principle study of patients with colon and other cancers for whom standard therapies failed, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say that mistakes in so-called mismatch repair genes, first identified by Johns Hopkins and other scientists two decades ago, may accurately predict who will respond to certain immunotherapy drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors. Such drugs aim to disarm systems developed by cancer cells to evade detection and destruction by immune system cells. 

Lightly stimulating the brain with electricity may improve short-term memory in people with schizophrenia, according to a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

On Wednesday, May 27, Johns Hopkins Medicine announced that the United Way Charity Event, “Dancing with the Hopkins Stars,” held the previous night, raised more than $50,000 to support Maryland Unites, a United Way program that provides humanitarian relief and emergency support to nonprofits in Baltimore neighborhoods. 

Johns Hopkins faculty and staff members show off their dance moves by competing in "Dancing with the Hopkins Stars" in support of United Way. 

Reporting on their study with lab-grown human cells, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland say that blocking a second blood vessel growth protein, along with one that is already well-known, could offer a new way to treat and prevent a blinding eye disease caused by diabetes.

Julie Lange, M.D., an associate professor of surgery, oncology and dermatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and John Fetting, M.D., an associate professor of oncology and medicine, have been inducted into the Miller-Coulson Academy of Clinical Excellence.

A novel two-drug combination has the potential to target and restore a defective protein underlying cystic fibrosis (CF), according to two phase III clinical trials conducted at 187 medical centers around the world, including Johns Hopkins.

A distinguished group of 268 graduates will embark on their future careers as physicians and scientists at the convocation ceremony of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A total of 113 M.D. degrees, 138 Ph.D. degrees, 15 master’s degrees and two postbaccalaureate certificates will be conferred.

A multidisciplinary team led by Johns Hopkins researcher Venu Raman, Ph.D., with notable contributions from Guus Bol, Farhad Vesuna and Phuoc Tran of Johns Hopkins, has identified a new therapy for lung cancer, the most common cancer worldwide.

Sending teen girls periodic text messages reminding them to follow through on their clinic appointments for periodic birth control injections can go a long way toward improving timing and adherence to contraception in an age group that is notoriously noncompliant, according to a small study from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

Modern lifestyles have famously made humans heavier, but, in one particular way, noticeably lighter weight than our hunter-gatherer ancestors: in the bones. Now a new study of the bones of hundreds of humans who lived during the past 33,000 years in Europe finds the rise of agriculture and a corresponding fall in mobility drove the change, rather than urbanization, nutrition or other factors.

Two studies from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers add to preliminary evidence that high-dose radiation treatment, called stereotactic body radiotherapy, appears to be safe and as effective as standard radiation treatment for certain patients with pancreatic cancer whose tumors are advanced but have not spread.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held for 1812 Ashland on Friday, May 15. The building will house Johns Hopkins offices, including FastForward East, a program designed to move academic findings and translational research into the commercial marketplace.

Sahar Soleimanifard, a first-year medical student at The Johns Hopkins University, is among 30 graduate students receiving 2015 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.

Johns Hopkins Medicine announced today the appointment of Robert A. Kasdin to the newly created role of senior vice president and chief operating officer. Kasdin comes to Johns Hopkins Medicine from Columbia University, where he has been senior executive vice president since 2002. He starts on July 1.

Secondhand exposure to cannabis smoke under “extreme conditions,” such as an unventilated room or enclosed vehicle, can cause nonsmokers to feel the effects of the drug, have minor problems with memory and coordination, and in some cases test positive for the drug in a urinalysis. Those are the findings of a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study, reported online this month in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

The culmination of the DreamIt Health Baltimore accelerator program, a four-month intensive boot camp for health information technology entrepreneurs co-sponsored by Johns Hopkins, concludes on Wednesday, May 13, at DreamIt Health Demo Day. This one-day capstone event affords startup companies the opportunity to share their progress and plans for the future with an audience of industry leaders, possible investors and potential customers.

Fundamental research into the causes and cures of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome now has its first home base at a major U.S. medical research center with the launch of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center.

Johns Hopkins Medicine has created and launched Managing Cancer at Work, a new and novel health benefit program offered free of charge for its more than 42,000 combined full-time equivalent employees. Developed by a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine staff members, several of whom are also cancer survivors, the program is designed to aid employees who are at risk for cancer, have cancer, or are caring for someone with the disease. It offers information and guidance as well to supervisors about supporting workers who are managing employees with the disease.

Hear brief presentations about innovative ideas that offer solutions to several health care challenges.

Heart disease has topped mortality charts as the No. 1 killer of men and women for many decades, but a novel analysis of American literary fiction by two physicians finds the disorder’s presence in great novels has remained relatively modest.

Just as most cameras now have an autostabilization feature to compensate for movement during picture taking, our eyes execute an imperceptible reflex that prevents our vision from blurring when we, or our field of vision, are in motion. But before the reflex can work, the wirelike projections, or axons, of specialized nerve cells must find their way from the retina to the correct part of the brain during embryonic development. New research describes how those axons find their way through the brain’s maze of neurons to make the right connection. The finding has implications for treatment of eye movement disorders and regeneration of damaged vision-sensing nerve cells.

Bob Massof, Ph.D., of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, received the 2015 Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research on May 5.

A multidisciplinary team of Johns Hopkins researchers have developed two new strategies to treat depression in young people using the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of medications.

Oxidative stress has been long known to fuel disease, but how exactly it damages various organs has been challenging to sort out. Now scientists from Johns Hopkins say research in mice reveals why oxidation comes to be so corrosive to heart muscle. 

Aravinda Chakravarti, Ph.D., and Donald Geman, Ph.D., have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, an honorary society that advises the government on scientific matters. They are among 84 new members elected on April 28, 2015. Chakravarti is being recognized for his contributions to the field of genomics; Geman, for his achievements in statistics, image analysis and machine learning. They will be inducted at the academy’s annual meeting next spring.

A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers concludes that most U.S. clinical registries that collect data on patient outcomes are substandard and lack critical features necessary to render the information they collect useful for patients, physicians and policy makers.

Brigitte Sullivan, administrative director of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center, has been elected as the board chair of the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland, which encourages state residents to save and enhance lives through organ and tissue donations that honor the legacy of the donors.

Current public health guidelines recommend that only gay men and people with HIV should be routinely screened for extragenital gonorrhea and chlamydia, given the high burden of these sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in this at-risk population.

In the midst of an international campaign to slow the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organization recommends male circumcision (the surgical removal of foreskin from the penis) which reduces HIV acquisition by 50-60%.  However, scientists report that a new study of HIV-infected men in Uganda has identified a temporary, but potentially troublesome unintended consequence of the procedure: a possible increased risk of infecting female sexual partners while circumcision wounds heal.

Two leaders in patient safety from the Johns Hopkins Health System were named to Becker's Hospital Review’s list of 50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety. Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Brigitta Mueller, M.D., M.H.C.M., vice president of medical affairs and chief patient safety officer at All Children’s Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine, were both recognized as top patient safety experts.

Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that neurons are risk takers: They use minor “DNA surgeries” to toggle their activity levels all day, every day. Since these activity levels are important in learning, memory and brain disorders, the researchers think their finding will shed light on a range of important questions.

Jie Xiao, Ph.D., an associate professor of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has won the inaugural Hamilton Smith Award for Innovative Research. The award provides research funds for promising junior researchers at the medical school whose work is laying the foundation for future medical advances. It is named for a Nobel Prize winner whose discovery while he was a young faculty member at Johns Hopkins revolutionized the field of biology.

The Social Innovation Lab at The Johns Hopkins University will host its Impact+Innovation Forum on April 27, featuring talks from a cohort of nine emerging social enterprises on their innovative work addressing challenges in the areas of medicine, food, community and technology in Baltimore and beyond. 

A one-day conference examining the state of the science on post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidality among U.S. military service members and veterans will take place on May 4 at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Join us for "Important Updates in Bladder Cancer Treatment: A Program for Patients and Caregivers."

Researchers from Johns Hopkins performing sophisticated motion studies of heart MRI scans have found that specific altered function in the left atrium — one of the heart’s four chambers — may signal stroke risk in those with a-fib and, possibly, those without it. 

Timothy Pawlik, director of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Johns Hopkins, has been awarded an honorary fellowship in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS).

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, are significantly more likely to have an eating disorder — a loss of control eating syndrome (LOC-ES) — akin to binge eating, a condition more generally diagnosed only in adults,  according to results of a new Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study. The findings suggest a common biological mechanism linking the two disorders, and the potential for developing treatment that works for both.

The immune-boosting properties of breast milk have long been known. Now a team of scientists led by Johns Hopkins pediatric surgeon-in-chief David Hackam, M.D., Ph.D., says experiments in mice reveal how breast milk works to ward off the development of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a devastating intestinal disorder.

Four Johns Hopkins University researchers received monetary awards for translational development of their inventions at the April 20 annual joint meeting of the Johns Hopkins Alliance for Science and Technology Development and the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Commercial Advisory Board.

Kay Redfield Jamison, Dalio Family Professor in Mood Disorders, and co-director of the Mood Disorders Center, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Timothy Pawlik, director of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Johns Hopkins, has been named deputy editor of JAMA Surgery

A bundled intervention focused on evidence-based infection prevention practices, safety culture and teamwork, and scheduled measurement of infection rates considerably reduced central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) across intensive care units (ICUs) in seven Abu Dhabi hospitals, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality report.

In a recent Johns Hopkins study, researchers found that nearly one-quarter of ICU survivors suffer from PTSD. They also identified possible triggers for PTSD and indicated a potential preventive strategy: having patients keep ICU diaries. 

Early data in a preliminary human study show that an experimental immune system drug is generally safe and well tolerated in women with metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer, a persistently difficult form of the disease to treat.

Research at Johns Hopkins suggests hospitals may reach higher safety and quality levels with programs that give physicians real-time feedback about evidence-based care and financial incentives for providing it.

Cell biologists at Johns Hopkins designed several molecular tools that allowed them to watch, measure and manipulate the activity of the enzyme AMPK in individual compartments within the cell. The new tools have confirmed that at least some of AMPK’s ability to multitask comes from variations in its activity level in each cellular compartment.

Gul Dolen, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is one of 15 early career scientists named Searle Scholars this year. She will be awarded $300,000 in flexible funding to support her work over the next three years

In a small study, Johns Hopkins researchers found that DNA from the sperm of men whose children had early signs of autism shows distinct patterns of regulatory tags that could contribute to the condition.

The 38th annual Young Investigators’ Day ceremony at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will recognize 20 junior researchers for their accomplishments in the laboratory. The Young Investigators’ Day celebration is the biggest event of the year honoring trainee researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Gul Dolen, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Eili Y. Klein, Ph.D., an assistant professor of emergency medicine, are among 12 recipients of The Hartwell Foundation’s 2014 Individual Biomedical Research Award competition.

Because the spine is made up of repeating elements that look alike, surgeons can mistakenly operate on the wrong vertebra. To avoid this, Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a software program that works seamlessly with currently available procedures to assist a surgeon’s determination of which vertebra is which. Results from its first clinical evaluation show that the LevelCheck software achieves 100 percent accuracy in just 26 seconds.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have transformed skin cells from patients with Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), into brain cells affected by the progressive, fatal disease and deposited those human-made cells into the first public ALS cell library, enabling scientists to better study the disease.

On April 1, the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network presented one of its two 2015 Metastatic Breast Cancer Research Leadership Awards to Andrew Ewald, Ph.D., associate professor of cell biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The $50,000 award recognizes Ewald’s accomplishments in understanding the basic mechanisms of metastasis and will support his research.

Levi Watkins Jr., a pioneer in both cardiac surgery and civil rights who implanted the first automatic heart defibrillator in a patient and was instrumental in recruiting minority students to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, significantly enhancing the institution’s diversity, died on Saturday, April 11, in The Johns Hopkins Hospital of complications from a stroke. He was 70.

Two types of touch information — the feel of an object and the position of an animal’s limb — have long been thought to flow into the brain via different channels and Be integrated in sophisticated processing regions. Now, with help from a specially devised mechanical exoskeleton that positioned monkeys’ hands in different postures, Johns Hopkins researchers have challenged that view. In a paper published in the April 22 issue of Neuron, they present evidence that the two types of information are integrated as soon as they reach the brain by sense-processing brain cells once thought to be incapable of such higher-order thought.

Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa has been awarded the Cortes de Cadiz Prize in the category of surgery by the city council of Cadiz, Spain.

In a bid to help physicians guide obese and overweight patients who want to try a commercial weight-loss program, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers reviewed 4,200 studies for solid evidence of their effectiveness but concluded only a few dozen of the studies met the scientific gold standard of reliability.

Renowned cardiothoracic and heart-lung transplant surgeon Robert S.D. Higgins, M.D., M.S.H.A., will become the new surgeon-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He will assume his new role July 1 as the William Stewart Halsted Professor of Surgery and director of the Department of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

When managing, assigning each task to a specialist is often the most efficient strategy. Most researchers regard the brain as working similarly, with each region specialized to a given task. But Johns Hopkins neuroscientists have found, in rats, that the brain's primary visual cortex (VC) not only portrays the visual world but can also drive the timing of actions.

Genetic studies in humans, zebrafish and mice have revealed how two different types of genetic variations team up to cause a rare condition called Hirschsprung’s disease. The findings add to an increasingly clear picture of how flaws in early nerve development lead to poor colon function, which must often be surgically corrected. The study also provides a window into normal nerve development and the genes that direct it.

Johns Hopkins media statement regarding the U.S. government study in 1940s Guatemala.

A new genomic analysis of tissue from patients with prostate cancer has added more evidence that cells within metastases from such tumors can migrate to other body parts and form new sites of spread on their own.

Research by Johns Hopkins scientists suggests that having a short series of phone conversations with trained counselors can substantially boost recovery and reduce pain in patients after spinal surgery.

Cholesterol-lowering statins have transformed the treatment of heart disease. But while the decision to use the drugs in patients with a history of heart attacks and strokes is mostly clear-cut, that choice can be a far trickier proposition for the tens of millions of Americans with high cholesterol but no overt disease.

More than 123,000 Americans — more than 3,500 of them in Maryland — are on the transplant waiting list for lifesaving organs, a number that is expected to grow despite great advances in biomedical science, treatment and technology. To bring greater awareness to the plight of people with end-stage organ failure and highlight the need for organ donations, The Johns Hopkins Hospital will fly the Donate Life flag throughout the month of April in celebration of National Donate Life Month.

Each year, more than 60 million Americans fail to get enough sleep at night due to a chronic sleep disorder. Yet few of these patients will be diagnosed and receive the care they need, even if they’re already seeing other doctors, such as a primary care physician

Lung diseases like emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis are common among people with malfunctioning telomeres, the “caps” or ends of chromosomes. Now, researchers from Johns Hopkins say they have discovered what goes wrong and why.

Imaging tests like mammograms or CT scans can detect tumors, but figuring out whether a growth is or isn’t cancer usually requires a biopsy to study cells directly. Now results of a Johns Hopkins study suggest that MRI could one day make biopsies more effective or even replace them altogether by noninvasively detecting telltale sugar molecules shed by the outer membranes of cancerous cells.

A new analysis of surgical outcomes nationwide concludes that more use of minimally invasive surgery for certain common procedures can dramatically reduce post-operative complications and shave hundreds of millions of dollars off the nation’s health care bill.

Using a novel approach that homes in on rare families severely affected by autism, a Johns Hopkins-led team of researchers has identified a new genetic cause of the disease. The rare genetic variant offers important insights into the root causes of autism, the researchers say. And, they suggest, their unconventional method can be used to identify other genetic causes of autism and other complex genetic conditions.

Publicly insured Americans who undergo lung transplantation for cystic fibrosis fare markedly worse in the long run than both publicly insured patients in the United Kingdom and privately insured Americans, according to the results of a study conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and U.K. colleagues working in that nation’s government-funded National Health Service.

Distinguished pediatric surgeon Samuel M. Alaish, M.D., will join the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center to co-lead its newly formed Center for Intestinal Rehab and Cure Using Science (CIRCUS), a multidisciplinary program dedicated to the study and care of children with short bowel syndrome, a condition marked by insufficient gut tissue or poor gut function due to acquired or congenital diseases. 

Both patients and physicians may benefit from a “work flow” system developed at military medical facilities and tested at a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center clinic, according to results of an efficiency study.

A generic version of insulin, the lifesaving diabetes drug used by 6 million people in the United States, has never been available in this country because drug companies have made incremental improvements that kept insulin under patent from 1923 to 2014. As a result, say two Johns Hopkins internist-researchers, many who need insulin to control diabetes can’t afford it, and some end up hospitalized with life-threatening complications, such as kidney failure and diabetic coma.

Working with lab animals and human heart cells, scientists from Johns Hopkins and other institutions have identified what they describe as “the long-sought culprit” in the mystery behind a cell-signaling breakdown that triggers heart failure. 

The wait is almost over for students who will soon graduate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: At noon on Friday, March 20, they will open the envelopes that let them know where they will spend the next chapter of their lives training for careers in the medical field of their choosing.

Anesthetics have been used in surgical procedures for more than 150 years, but the mechanisms by which inhaled anesthesia actually work are poorly understood. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have discovered that anesthetics bind to and interfere with certain proteins in excitatory neurons, which are necessary for these neurons to transmit signals involved in anesthesia and the perception of pain.

Recent years have seen breakneck innovation in the field of radiology, from MRI-guided biopsies, to image-guided stenting, to ways to lower radiation dosage while preserving image quality. Now, a dedicated center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is making those innovations available to our four-legged — and even winged — friends.
 

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have created a 3-D model of a complex protein machine, ORC, which helps prepare DNA to be duplicated. Like an image of a criminal suspect, the intricate model of ORC has helped build a “profile” of the activities of this crucial “protein of interest.” But the new information has uncovered another mystery: ORC’s structure reveals that it is not always “on” as was previously thought, and no one knows how it turns on and off.

The following Johns Hopkins Medicine experts are available for interviews during Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 9-14, 2015:

A team of scientists led by Johns Hopkins cardiologist and biomedical engineer Hiroshi Ashikaga, M.D., Ph.D., has developed a mathematical model to measure and digitally map the beat-sustaining electrical flow between heart cells.

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine retains its ranking as one of the top medical schools in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2016 list of Best Graduate Schools. In addition, The Johns Hopkins University was included in the top tier of specialty rankings.

Using a specially selected library of different hepatitis C viruses, a team of researchers led by Johns Hopkins scientists has identified tiny differences in the pathogens’ outer shell proteins that underpin their resistance to antibodies.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully corrected a genetic error in stem cells from patients with sickle cell disease, and then used those cells to grow mature red blood cells, they report. The study represents an important step toward more effectively treating certain patients with sickle cell disease who need frequent blood transfusions and currently have few options.
 

There are about 48,000 corneal transplants done each year in the U.S., compared to approximately 16,000 kidney transplants, according to the National Kidney Foundation, and 2,100 heart transplants, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Organ Transplantation Network. Out of the 48,000 corneal transplants done, 10 percent of them end up in rejection, largely due to poor medication compliance. This costs the health care system and puts undue strain on clinicians, patients and their families.

A history of psychedelic drug use is associated with less psychological distress and fewer suicidal thoughts, planning and attempts, according to new research from Johns Hopkins and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Rachel Box has joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as director of editorial services for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

For the second year, The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine are co-sponsoring an opportunity that prepares health information technology startups to present their innovative ideas to the world.

Conflicting scores from respected national rating systems may confuse rather than guide consumers’ choices about where to seek quality care, say experts from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have now uncovered how a bacterial molecule controls the body’s response to TB infection and suggest that adjusting the level of this of this molecule may be a new way to treat the disease. The report appears this week as an advance online publication of Nature Medicine.

Analyzing data from 58,000 heart stress tests, Johns Hopkins cardiologists report they have developed a formula that estimates one’s risk of dying over a decade based on a person’s ability to exercise on a treadmill at an increasing speed and incline.

Contrary to previous reports, a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers found that patients’ satisfaction scores only modestly improved based on the newly remodeled design of a hospital.

Competition among doctors’ offices, urgent care centers and retail medical clinics in wealthy areas of the U.S. often leads to an increase in the number of antibiotic prescriptions written per person, a team led by Johns Hopkins researchers has found.

Public health experts have long known that tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) can be harmful for children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a lung disease that often accompanies premature birth.

Working with cells taken from children with a very rare but ferocious form of brain cancer, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have identified a genetic pathway that acts as a master regulator of thousands of other genes and may spur cancer cell growth and resistance to anticancer treatment.

A researcher from Johns Hopkins Medicine helped lead colleagues from across the country in a government-sponsored study by the Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network to discover that three drugs ? Eylea, Avastin and Lucentis ? used to treat diabetic macular edema are all effective. They also discovered that Eylea outperformed the other two drugs when vision loss was moderate to severe.

Like a surgeon separating conjoined twins, cells have to be careful to get everything just right when they divide in two. Otherwise, the resulting daughter cells could be hobbled, particularly if they end up with too many or two few chromosomes. Successful cell division hangs on the formation of a dip called a cleavage furrow, a process that has remained mysterious. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that no single molecular architect directs the cleavage furrow’s formation; rather, it is a robust structure made of a suite of team players.

Four Web-based training modules developed by Johns Hopkins Medicine for emergency department personnel who treat patients with infectious diseases are now available on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s website.

What is happening in the brain of an actor reciting Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy or of the person next to you at lunch saying, “Please pass the salt”? For 150 years, scientists have known that a brain region called Broca’s area plays a key role in speech production, but exactly what it does and how it does it have been a mystery.

Most “risk calculators” used by clinicians to gauge a patient’s chances of suffering a heart attack and guide treatment decisions appear to significantly overestimate the likelihood of a heart attack, according to results of a study by investigators at Johns Hopkins and other institutions.

Just as human relationships are a two-way street, fusion between cells requires two active partners: one to send protrusions into its neighbor, and one to hold its ground and help complete the process.  Researchers have now found that one way the receiving cell plays its role is by having a key structural protein come running in response to pressure on the cell membrane, rather than waiting for chemical signals to tell it that it’s needed. The study, which helps open the curtain on a process relevant to muscle formation and regeneration, fertilization, and immune response, appears in the March 9 issue of the journal Developmental Cell.

For more than a decade, a vial of rare snake venom refused to give up its secret formula for lethality; its toxins had no effect on the proteins that most venoms target. Finally, an international team of researchers figured out its recipe: a toxin that permanently activates a crucial type of nerve cell protein, preventing the cells from resetting and causing deadly seizures in prey.

Applying lessons learned from autism to brain cancer, researchers have discovered why elevated levels of the protein NHE9 add to the lethality of the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. Their discovery suggests that drugs designed to target NHE9 could help to successfully fight the deadly disease.

Henry Brem, M.D., director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, has been selected to receive a Castle Connolly National Physician of the Year Award for Clinical Excellence.

A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers links a well-known cell communication pathway called Notch to one of the most common — but overall still rare — brain tumors found in children.

Despite improvements in the past few decades with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, a predictably curative treatment for glioma does not yet exist. New insights into specific gene mutations that arise in this often deadly form of brain cancer have pointed to the potential of gene therapy, but it’s very difficult to effectively deliver toxic or missing genes to cancer cells in the brain. Now, Johns Hopkins researchers report they have used nanoparticles to successfully deliver a new therapy to glioma cells in the brains of rats, prolonging their lives.

Sublingual immunotherapy is one of several state-of-the-science treatments for allergic rhinitis, or “hay fever,” being recommended by a panel of experts in a new guideline published Feb. 2, 2015, by the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation.

Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have succeeded in peering into the brains of live mice with such precision that they were able to see how the position of specific proteins changed as memories were forged. The technique has broad applications for future studies on learning and on what goes wrong in disorders like autism, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

Felicia Hill-Briggs, Ph.D., a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, has been named to the board of directors of the American Diabetes Association. 

In a bid to improve awareness and care of a relatively rare disorder that inflames blood vessels throughout the body and damages organs, especially the eyes, a team of researchers led by a Johns Hopkins ophthalmologist has analyzed and published detailed information about 132 patients diagnosed and treated over 25 years in Saudi Arabia, where the disorder is not at all rare.

How can states and federal government provide adequate health care to poor people, without overburdening taxpayers or leaving health care providers with billions in unpaid bills? That thorny problem is especially challenging in the aftermath of a recession and congressional mandates expanding Medicaid eligibility.

A team of Johns Hopkins specialists, using a battery of imaging and cognitive tests, has gathered evidence of accumulated brain damage that could be linked to specific memory deficits in former National Football League (NFL) players experienced decades after they stopped playing the game.

Renowned Johns Hopkins Children’s Center pediatrician and former JAMA editor Catherine D. DeAngelis, M.D., M.P.H., will receive the 2015 Howland Medal of the American Pediatric Society, one of the highest awards in pediatric medicine, bestowed annually for distinguished service in the field as a whole.

Existing cancer therapies are geared toward massacring tumor cells, but Johns Hopkins researchers propose a different strategy: subtly hardening cancer cells to prevent them from invading new areas of the body. They devised a way of screening compounds for the desired effect and have identified a compound that shows promise in fighting pancreatic cancer.

An animal study led by Johns Hopkins investigators has uncovered what controls the ability of healthy hearts to speed up in response to circumstances ranging from fear to a jog around the block.

Challenging the long-standing belief that city dwellers suffer disproportionately from asthma, the results of a new Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study of more than 23,000 U.S. children reveal that income, race and ethnic origin may play far more potent roles in asthma risk than kids’ physical surroundings.

Organization is key to an efficient workplace, and cells are no exception to this rule. New evidence from Johns Hopkins researchers suggests that, in addition to membranes, cells have another way to keep their contents and activities separate: with ribbons of spinning proteins.

The flu season started earlier than usual this year, and most states are reporting continued and widespread outbreaks. Johns Hopkins emergency medicine and infectious disease experts are available to inform coverage of the ongoing flu epidemic.

Pamela Paulk, M.S.W., M.B.A., has been named president of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, the division of Johns Hopkins Medicine that develops high-impact international health care collaborations and provides medical concierge services for patients who travel from other regions to receive care at Johns Hopkins. Paulk assumes the role on March 1.

The brains of some Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans who survived blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and died later of other causes show a distinctive honeycomb pattern of broken and swollen nerve fibers throughout critical brain regions, including those that control executive function. The pattern is different from brain damage caused by car crashes, drug overdoses or collision sports, and may be the never-before-reported signature of blast injuries suffered by soldiers as far back as World War I

People hospitalized with certain rare blood cell disorders frequently receive a treatment that is associated with a two- to fivefold increase in death, according to a new study that reviewed hospital records nationwide. The study authors recommend that for these rare disorders, doctors should administer the treatment, a platelet transfusion, only in exceptional circumstances.

Mutations in a gene that helps repair damaged chromosome ends may make smokers — especially female smokers — more susceptible to emphysema, according to results of a new study led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers.

Vernon Mountcastle, one of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s giants of the 20th century, died peacefully at his northern Baltimore home on Sunday, Jan. 11, with Nancy, his wife of seven decades, and family at his bedside. He was 96. Mountcastle was universally acknowledged as the “father of neuroscience” and served Johns Hopkins with extraordinary dedication for nearly 65 years.

A Roman philosopher was the first to note the relationship between a sound mind and a sound body. Now the findings of a new Johns Hopkins study reveal a possible biochemical explanation behind this ancient observation.

Julie Brahmer, M.D., an expert in the use of immunotherapies totreat lung cancer, has been named director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. The medical oncologist will lead a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, researchers and fellows developing new treatments for lung and esophageal cancer and mesothelioma. She will also oversee a $35 million investment in the program and the opening of the new Thoracic Center of Excellence at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, as well as laboratory research and clinical trials.

For the 33rd consecutive year, the Johns Hopkins community gathered to celebrate the legacy and life’s work of Martin Luther King Jr.

In the race to find a safe and effective weight loss drug, much attention has focused on the chemical processes that store and use energy. But a new mouse study from Johns Hopkins suggests that tweaking these processes, even in a targeted way that affects only fat cells, may not yield a silver-bullet obesity cure.

In a pre- and post-evaluation study, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that quality improvement processes for delivering early physical rehabilitation in an intensive care unit (ICU) were sustained five years later — benefiting both patients and the health care facility.

Luring dormant HIV out of hiding and destroying its last cure-defying holdouts has become the holy grail of HIV eradication, but several recent attempts to do so have failed. Now the findings of a Johns Hopkins-led study reveal why that is and offer a strategy that could form a blueprint for a therapeutic vaccine to eradicate lingering virus from the body

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found out how a protein crucial to learning works: by removing a biochemical “clamp” that prevents connections between nerve cells in the brain from growing stronger. The finding moves neuroscientists a step closer to figuring out how learning and memory work, and how problems with them can arise.

In a two-year longitudinal study involving 13 intensive care units in four U.S. hospitals, researchers found that better physical functioning — basic and complex activities considered essential for maintaining independence — is associated with remission of general anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine will celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

In a surprising paradox, the male hormone testosterone, generally thought to be a feeder of prostate cancer, has been found to suppress some advanced prostate cancers and also may reverse resistance to testosterone-blocking drugs used to treat prostate cancer. 

An analysis of the genomes and epigenomes of lean and obese mice and humans has turned up a wealth of clues about how genes and the environment conspire to trigger diabetes, Johns Hopkins researchers say. Their findings reveal that obesity-induced changes to the epigenome — reversible chemical “tags” on DNA — are surprisingly similar in mice and humans, and might provide a new route to prevention and treatment of the disease, which affects hundreds of millions worldwide.

For a skin cell to do its job, it must turn on a completely different set of genes than a liver cell — and keep genes it doesn’t need switched off. One way of turning off large groups of genes at once is to send them to “time-out” at the edge of the nucleus, where they are kept quiet. New research from Johns Hopkins sheds light on how DNA gets sent to the nucleus’ far edge, a process critical to controlling genes and determining cell fate.

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has named James H. Segars, M.D., as the inaugural professor and director of Reproductive Science and Women’s Health Research, a newly established division of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

A powerful “genome editing” technology known as CRISPR has been used by researchers since 2012 to trim, disrupt, replace or add to sequences of an organism’s DNA. Now, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine have shown that the system also precisely and efficiently alters human stem cells.

Clear goals, strong leadership and infrastructure, staff engagement, and transparent reporting methods are key for complex health care systems seeking to establish successful patient safety performance improvements, according to a Johns Hopkins study published in the journal Academic Medicine in December.

Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have created a statistical model that measures the proportion of cancer incidence, across many tissue types, caused mainly by random mutations that occur when stem cells divide. By their measure, two-thirds of adult cancer incidence across tissues can be explained primarily by “bad luck,” when these random mutations occur in genes that can drive cancer growth, while the remaining third are due to environmental factors and inherited genes.