The Nauder Faraday Lab investigates topics within perioperative genetic and molecular medicine. We explore thrombotic, bleeding and infectious surgical complications. Our goal is to uncover the molecular determinants of outcome in surgical patients, which will enable surgeons to better personalize a patient’s care in the perioperative period. Our team is funded by the National Institutes of Health to research platelet phenotypes, the pharmacogenomics of antiplatelet agents for preventing cardiovascular disease, and the genotypic determinants of aspirin response in high-risk families.

HEPIUS stands for Holistic Electrical, ultrasonic and Physiological Interventions Unburdening those with Spinal cord injury. The team unites neurosurgeons, biomedical engineers, scientists, radiologists, and other physicians to diagnose and treat spinal cord injuries.

With a focus on precision medicine, we are dedicated to creating personalized diagnostic and treatment modalities for cardiovascular diseases, integrating cutting-edge research into clinical practice. 

Research in the Quantitative Imaging Technologies lab — a component of the Imaging for Surgery, Therapy and Radiology (I-STAR) Lab — focuses on novel technologies to derive accurate structural and physiological measurements from medical images. Our team works on optimization of imaging systems and algorithms to support a variety of quantitative applications, with recent focus on orthopedics and bone health. For example, we have developed an ultra-high resolution imaging chain for an orthopedic CT system to enable in-vivo measurements of bone microstructure. Our interests also include automated methods to extract quantitative information from images, including anatomical and micro-structural measurements, and shape analysis.

Our group is interested in a broad array of clinical and translational investigations spanning the evaluation of basic pathophysiology in patients undergoing cardiac procedures, development and evaluation of new therapeutic strategies, and improving patient selection and outcomes following interventional procedures. We are comprised of a core group of faculty and dedicated research nurses as well as fellows, residents, and students. Projects range from investigator-initiated single-center observational studies to industry-sponsored multicenter phase 3 randomized controlled trials. We have established a database of all patients who have undergone TAVR at Johns Hopkins, which is providing the basis for several retrospective analyses and will serve as the foundation for future studies of TAVR. We are also engaged in collaborative projects with other groups from the Department of Medicine and other Departments including Cardiac Surgery, Anesthesiology, Radiology, Psychiatry, and Biomedical Engineering. Members of our group are actively involved with the Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID) in the development of novel minimally-invasive cardiovascular devices.

The Marie Hanna Lab conducts research on key topics within the field of anesthesiology. Our interests include both regional and obstetric anesthesia as well as patient-controlled analgesia, pain measurement, post-operative pain and acute pain management. Examples of our work include researching whether a surgery patient’s perception of pain control affects his or her satisfaction level and a comparison of air and liquid for use in the loss-of-resistance technique during labor epidurals.

Epilepsy affects 1-3% of the population and can have a profound impact on general health, employment and quality of life. Medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) develops in some patients following head injury or repeated febrile seizures. Those affected may first suffer spontaneous seizures many years after the initial insult, indicating that the neural circuit undergoes a slow pathologic remodeling over the interim. There are currently no methods of preventing the development of MTLE. It is our goal to better understand the process in order to slow, halt, and ultimately reverse it. Our laboratory draws on electrophysiology, molecular biology, and morphology to study the contribution of dysregulated neurogenesis and newborn neuron connectivity to the development of MTLE. We build on basic research in stem cell biology, hippocampal development, and synaptic plasticity. We work closely with colleagues in the Institute for Cell Engineering, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Biomedical Engineering, and Radiology. As physician neuropathologists our grounding is in tissue alterations underlying human neurologic disease; using human iPSC-derived neurons and surgical specimens we focus on the pathophysiological processes as they occur in patients. By understanding changes in cell populations and morphologies that affect the circuit, and identifying pathologic alterations in gene expression that lead to the cell-level abnormalities, we hope to find treatment targets that can prevent the remodeling and break the feedback loop of abnormal activity > circuit change > abnormal activity.

The Boss Lab's research focus is on patient experience, health disparities, and surgical outcomes and utilization. Studies include shared decision-making, communication, and patient/parent-reported outcomes for elective surgery in children; patient satisfaction metrics, outcomes, and health correlates in surgery and pediatrics; patient and family-centered care and communication in surgery and pediatrics; racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in pediatric surgical care utilization and outcomes; and quality and safety in pediatric surgical care

Research in the Roberto Salvatori Lab focuses on the genetic causes of isolated growth hormone deficiency (GHD), consequences of untreated GHD, and cortisol excess and deficiency. Current work explores GHD’s relation to obesity and indicates that Cushing's syndrome may be under-recognized in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. We recently took part in a retrospective, multicenter, international study to characterize a large series of pituitary gigantism patients, a condition that has not been studied previously in a standardized way.

The Spinal Column Surgical Outcomes Laboratory aims to improve the neurological outcomes and functional capacity of patients undergoing spinal surgery. We collect large-scale retrospective patient databases and prospective patient registries to report high-quality data relating to the outcomes of neurosurgical operations. The laboratory participates in the National neurosurgical Quality and Outcomes Database (N2QOD). This multi-institutional collaboration has set forth a 3-year prospective study to benchmark quality and surgical outcome measures across several academic institutions. The Spinal Column Surgical Outcomes Laboratory specializes in biostatistical analysis of large-scale clinical databases, studying the outcomes of traditional and novel spinal procedures, quality control and cost-effectiveness research and clinical trials relating to spinal surgery outcomes.