Category Archives: News

JULY 2016—IT WAS A REGULAR JANUARY DAY FOR JOHNS HOPKINS STEM CELL BIOLOGIST HONGJUN SONG WHEN THE LIGHT BULB CAME ON. HE WAS IN THE LAB, CHATTING WITH GRADUATE STUDENT XUYU QIAN AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW HA NAM NGUYEN, WHO HAD BEEN TOILING FOR THREE YEARS ON A NEW WAY TO REPLICATE BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN THE LAB. NOW THEY HAD A GOOD SYSTEM GOING AND NEEDED AN INITIAL PROBLEM TO SOLVE.

Aedes Aegypti Mosquito. Credit: CDC/ Dr. Frank Hadley Collins, Center For Global Health And Infectious Diseases, University Of Notre Dame
Photo By: James Gathany

“We could genetically modify the brain cells to mimic inherited developmental disorders,” suggested Song.

“What about Zika virus?” asked Qian, pointing to his computer screen with the big red letters “CNN” on top. Another alarming headline proclaimed a surge in babies born with microcephaly in South America. The group talked about what little they knew about the Zika epidemic and continued to mull it over.  There was a clear association between Zika infection and microcephaly but no hard evidence indicating that the one caused the other. It could be the perfect test case for their new system, but they had no experience working with viruses, so Song started reaching out to collaborators to find someone working on Zika.

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TTEC RESEARCHER HAI-QUAN MAO USES ELECTROSPINNING TO CREATE A WAY TO DELIVER INFECTION-PREVENTING DRUGS AFTER EYE SURGERY. (PAGES 3-5)

Kunal Parikh’s In-House Spinning System Produces A Multifilament Suture That Is Capable Of Releasing Incorporated Drugs Over Long Periods Of Time.

Laura Ensign-Hodges, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Wilmer and a chemical and biomedical engineer like Hanes, helped investigate various electrospinning methods with a team of talented faculty members and students that also included biomedical engineering professor Hai-Quan Mao, Ph.D., and graduate student Kunal Parikh.

Read the full article in Sightline (PDF).

TO MAKE A GOOD FRAMEWORK FOR FILLING IN MISSING BONE, MIX AT LEAST 30 PERCENT PULVERIZED NATURAL BONE WITH SOME SPECIAL MAN-MADE PLASTIC AND CREATE THE NEEDED SHAPE WITH A 3-D PRINTER. THAT’S THE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS REPORTED BY RESEARCHERS AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY IN A PAPER PUBLISHED APRIL 18 ONLINE IN ACS BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING.

A Sample 3-D Printed Scaffold That Matches The Lower Jaw Of A Female Patient.

Each year, the Johns Hopkins scientists say, birth defects, trauma or surgery leave an estimated 200,000 people in need of replacement bones in the head or face. Historically, the best treatment required surgeons to remove part of a patient’s fibula (a leg bone that doesn’t bear much weight), cut it into the general shape needed and implant it in the right location. But, according to Warren Grayson, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the report’s senior author, the procedure not only creates leg trauma but also falls short because the relatively straight fibula can’t be shaped to fit the subtle curves of the face very well.

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“MY WIFE AND I USE IT AS A LITTLE VACATION,” JOHN SMILES, REFERRING TO HIS TRIPS TO THE JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL.

The Complex Airway Clinic Team Composed Of Alexander Hillel, M.D., David Feller-Kopman, M.D., And Richard Battafarano, M.D., Ph.D.

A patient of otolaryngologist Alexander Hillel, M.D., John has traveled to Baltimore from his Peterstown, West Virginia, home seven times. But Baltimore is more than a makeshift vacation spot for John — it’s where he took his first full breath.

Before coming to Johns Hopkins, John wasn’t sleeping well. When he did eventually fall asleep, his wife and children would watch him, counting the seconds between each breath he took — 35, 36, 37, 38. The breathless spells were broken by an eruption of gasps and choking sounds that alarmed John’s family and disrupted his sleep.

Read the full article on https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org.

FOR KEVIN YAREMA, RESEARCH IS SWEET.

Kevin Yarema Has Focused Much Of His Efforts On Metabolic Glycoengineering — The Ability To Manipulate Cells’ Natural Process Of Ingesting Sugars And Converting Them Into Complex Sugar Structures That Cover The Cell Surface.

Yarema, an associate professor in Biomedical Engineering, has focused much of his efforts on metabolic glycoengineering — the ability to manipulate cells’ natural process of ingesting sugars and converting them into complex sugar structures that cover the cell surface.

“Cells can change these sugars depending on what they’re doing,” Yarema says. Similar to how people change clothes for a wedding versus playing rugby, he says, cells constantly change their sugar coatings. Cancer cells, for example, are able to use about 200 times more glucose than normal cells, which often results in different sugars displayed on their surfaces than healthy cells.

Read the full article on https://www.bme.jhu.edu/news-events.