For sick or prematurely born babies spending their first days of life in a hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the soothing voice and gentle touch of a loving parent can have a tremendous impact toward a positive outcome — that is, unless mom or dad’s visit leaves the infant with something extra: a dangerous bacterial infection.
One of the wonders of cell biology is its symmetry. Mammalian cells have one nucleus and one cell membrane, and most humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. Trillions of mammalian cells achieve this uniformity — but some consistently break this mold to fulfill unique functions. Now, a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have found how these outliers take shape.
Intermittent fasting has become one of the most popular health and fitness trends over the past 20 years, with promises of weight loss, increased energy and longer life.
Over many years, exposure to the levels of ozone and other forms of pollution found in most U.S. cities and some rural communities can take a toll on a person’s health. Two studies led by Johns Hopkins researchers describe the impact of pollution on lung disease, particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in the U.S.
Ever since humans domesticated the dog, the faithful, obedient and protective animal has provided its owner with companionship and emotional well-being. Now, a study from Johns Hopkins Medicine suggests that being around “man’s best friend” from an early age may have a health benefit as well — lessening the chance of developing schizophrenia as an adult.
Using a targeted gene epigenome editing approach in the developing mouse brain, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers reversed one gene mutation that leads to the genetic disorder WAGR syndrome, which causes intellectual disability and obesity in people. This specific editing was unique in that it changed the epigenome — how the genes are regulated — without changing the actual genetic code of the gene being regulated.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine report they have created a tiny, nanosize container that can slip inside cells and deliver protein-based medicines and gene therapies of any size — even hefty ones attached to the gene-editing tool called CRISPR. If their creation – constructed of a biodegradable polymer — passes more laboratory testing, it could offer a way to efficiently ferry larger medical compounds into specifically selected target cells.
Sticks and stones may break one’s bones, but healing them requires the production of a protein signal that stimulates the generation, growth and spread of vital nerve cells, or neurons, throughout the injured area. That’s the finding of a recent Johns Hopkins Medicine study that used mice to demonstrate what likely takes place during human fracture repair as well.
What do you do when your best friend is diagnosed with a cancer that kills most of its patients within a few months? A few brave dog owners turned to Johns Hopkins, where veterinarians, radiologists and physicists have teamed up to conduct an experimental trial of a therapy they hope will extend the lives of their beloved pets.
On Dec. 10, Johns Hopkins scientist Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., along with William Kaelin Jr., M.D., and Peter Ratcliffe, M.D., will accept the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden, for the groundbreaking discovery of the gene that controls how cells respond to low oxygen levels.
In a recent study using mice, lab-grown human retinal cells and patient samples, Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they found evidence of a new pathway that may contribute to degeneration of the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. The findings, they conclude, bring scientists a step closer to developing new drugs for a central vision-destroying complication of diabetes that affects an estimated 750,000 Americans.
Nearly 40 million people around the world are living with HIV, and experts believe about 20% do not know their status. In the U.S., more than 1 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV.
Imagine not being able to drive, shower alone or even work because you are never quite sure when the next seizure will leave you incapacitated. Hope may be on the horizon for epilepsy patients who have had limited success with seizure drugs. In a study, led by a Johns Hopkins lead investigator, of 437 patients across 107 institutions in 16 countries, researchers found that the investigational drug cenobamate reduced seizures 55% on the two highest doses of this medication that were tested over the entire treatment period.
In the United States, hepatitis C virus kills more people than HIV and 59 other infectious diseases combined. Maryland is one of the states hit hardest by the hepatitis C epidemic.
Experts from 80 medical centers in the U.S., Canada and Norway will convene Nov. 15–17 in Baltimore, Maryland, to share best practices and performance improvement initiatives designed to reduce unnecessary tests, treatments and procedures and improve the overall value of health care.
The success of antiretroviral therapies has extended the lives of people living with HIV, long enough for other chronic health conditions to emerge, including a recently documented uptick in sudden death.
If the saying that two heads are better than one is true, then joining two fields of science may be better than one to spur more advances in medicine. With a $6.7 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers will bring together immunologists, oncologists and biomedical engineers in an effort to build new tools to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.
A compound developed by Johns Hopkins researchers that blocks glutamine metabolism can slow tumor growth, alter the tumor microenvironment and promote the production of durable and highly active anti-tumor T cells.
Natural language processing, the technology that lets computers read, decipher, understand and make sense of human language, is the driving force behind internet search engines, email filters, digital assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, and language-to-language translation apps. Now, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have given this technology a new job as a clinical detective, diagnosing the early and subtle signs of language-associated cognitive impairments in patients with failing livers.
Using cells from human breast cancers and mouse breast cancer models, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have significant new evidence that tumor cells exposed to low-oxygen conditions have an advantage when it comes to invading and surviving in the bloodstream.
In a study of six adults, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report evidence that a single vaping episode of cannabis that is similar in chemical composition to that found in legal hemp products could possibly result in positive results on urine drug screening tests commonly used by many employers and criminal justice or school systems.
Using medical record and survey data collected from more than 3,400 women, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have added to evidence that women who have given birth five or more times were more likely than those who had fewer births to have more risk factors for heart disease, including obesity, high blood pressure and inadequate physical activity.
In what is believed to be the most comprehensive molecular characterization to date of the most common — and often treatment-resistant — form of kidney cancer, researchers at Johns Hopkins’ departments of pathology and oncology, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report evidence for at least three distinct subtypes of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), along with new revelations about the proteins that define them. Their findings could inform overall patient survival and response to treatment.
In a bid to determine factors linked to the most debilitating forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have identified three so-called “complement system” genes that appear to play a role in MS-caused vision loss. The researchers were able to single out these genes — known to be integral in the development of the brain and immune systems — by using DNA from MS patients along with high-tech retinal scanning.
A federally funded study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers shows that wearable accelerometers — mechanical sensors worn like a watch, belt or bracelet to track movement — are a more reliable measure of physical activity and better than patient surveys and other methods used by physicians at assessing five-year risk of death in older adults.
Pediatric and adult cancer patients in the District of Columbia and elsewhere will now have access to one of the most advanced, lifesaving proton technologies offered in the U.S. at the newly opened Johns Hopkins National Proton Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital in collaboration with Children’s National Hospital
Johns Hopkins Medicine has named Christina Tsien, M.D., the clinical director of the new Johns Hopkins National Proton Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital. Curtiland Deville, M.D., will serve as the associate proton director, while retaining his role as the clinical director for the radiation oncology clinic at Sibley Memorial Hospital.
Spine surgeons in the U.S. perform more than 400,000 spinal fusions each year as a way to ease back pain and prevent vertebrae in the spine from wiggling around and doing more damage. However, reports estimate that on average some 30% of these surgeries fail to weld these vertebrae into a single bone, causing continued back pain.
Since its inception in 1995, the mission for A Woman’s Journey has remained the same: to empower women to make the right health care decisions for their families and themselves.
In a novel study comparing healthy cells from people in their 20s with cells from people in their 80s, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have documented that cell division rates appear to consistently and markedly slow down in humans at older ages.
Four faculty members of The Johns Hopkins University have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Announcement of new NAM members (100 total) was made today in conjunction with the academy’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Since its invention during the Second World War for soldiers stationed in countries where malaria transmission rates were high, researchers have worked to pinpoint precisely how DEET actually affects mosquitos. Past studies have analyzed the chemical structure of the repellent, studied the response in easier insects to work with, such as fruit flies, and experimented with genetically engineered mosquito scent receptors grown inside frog eggs. However, the Anopheles mosquito’s neurological response to DEET and other repellents remained largely unknown because directly studying the scent-responsive neurons in the mosquito itself was technically challenging and labor-intensive work.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report that their study of tumor samples from people with the rare genetic syndrome neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) has uncovered novel molecular clues about which tumors are most likely to be aggressive in those with NF1. According to the researchers, the clues could advance the search for more customized and relevant treatments that spare patients exposure to treatments unlikely to work.
When young athletes experiences sudden cardiac death as they run down the playing field, it’s usually due to arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM), an inherited heart disease. Now, Johns Hopkins researchers have shed new light on the role of the immune system in the progression of ACM and, in the process, discovered a new drug that might help prevent ACM disease symptoms and progression to heart failure in some patients.
Researchers say these efforts are believed to be the first demonstrations of success with bilateral sensorimotor intracortical implants, or brain-machine interfaces designed to power movement — but also to sense touch — in people with high spinal cord injuries.
Cases of the flu are already on the rise around the nation as flu season begins. Johns Hopkins Medicine experts say now is the time to fight against the flu as the number of people getting sick from the potentially life-threatening virus will increase in the coming months. Doctors recommend everyone 6 months and older get the flu vaccine each year to prevent the virus or reduce the seriousness if you do get sick.
Gregg L. Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., whose discoveries on how cells respond to low oxygen levels have the potential to result in treatments for a variety of illnesses, today was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet. He shares the award with scientists William G. Kaelin, Jr., M.D. of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Peter J. Ratcliffe of Oxford University.
B-roll and photos are available for download here* WHAT: Press Briefing
After a rigorous vetting process, Johns Hopkins University officials announced today their selection of Vines Architecture to lead the planning stages, known as a feasibility study, for a multidisciplinary building that will honor the legacy of Henrietta Lacks.
In a medical records study covering thousands of children, a U.S.-Canadian team led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine concludes that while surgery to correct congenital heart disease (CHD) within 10 years after birth may restore young hearts to healthy function, it also may be associated with an increased risk of death and kidney failure within a few months or years after surgery.
A research team from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center reports it has discovered a metabolic vulnerability in multiple types of cancer cells that bear a common genetic mutation affecting cellular machines called spliceosomes. In test tube and mouse experiments, the researchers learned that the resulting spliceosome malfunction cripples the cells’ chemical process for generating the amino acid serine, making the cancer cells dependent on external (dietary) sources of the amino acid. When mice were fed a serine-restricted diet, their tumors (myeloid sarcomas, the solid tumor version of acute myeloid leukemia) shrank, suggesting that a similar dietary intervention might be helpful for patients bearing the mutation, the researchers say. Among foods high in serine are soybeans, nuts, eggs, lentils, meat and shellfish.
The Golden Ratio, described by Leonardo da Vinci and Luca Pacioli as the Divine Proportion, is an infinite number often found in nature, art and mathematics. It’s a pattern in pinecones, seashells, galaxies and hurricanes.
As the 2019–20 flu season gets underway, Johns Hopkins Medicine experts will be available throughout the season to talk with your newsroom about the epidemiology of this year’s virus, as well as provide important information about this year’s vaccine. Flu cases have already begun to appear in the U.S. Flu activity tends to increase in October and can run as late as May.
Peter Devreotes, Ph.D., a cell biologist whose research centers on the movement of animal cells, was awarded the 2019 E.B. Wilson Medal from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB).
As part of an $80 million expansion at Green Spring Station, Johns Hopkins Medicine celebrated the official opening of the newly built Pavilion III at Green Spring Station with a private grand opening event on Sept. 27 and a free community health fair on Sept. 28.
Johns Hopkins Medicine welcomes James P. Holland as the new president of Johns Hopkins HealthCare. Holland assumed the role effective Sept. 30, 2019.
In a proof-of-concept experiment, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully used microscopic man-made particles to predict the severity of patients’ chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by measuring how quickly the particles move through mucus samples. The technique, say the researchers, could eventually help doctors deliver more effective treatments sooner.
In experiments with rats, pigs and monkeys, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed a way to deliver sight-saving gene therapy to the retina. If proved safe and effective in humans, the technique could provide a new, more permanent therapeutic option for patients with common diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and it could potentially replace defective genes in patients with inherited retinal disease.
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