The Johns Hopkins University
Financial Report 1996

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Research

Universities and colleges accounted for more than $22 billion in research and development spending in 1996, about 12 percent of the nation's total. That represents virtually no change from 1995 for universities and colleges, and a 1 percent decrease in the total. The Federal share of support for research and development declined to less than 34 percent in 1996, its lowest share in the 44 years that the National Science Foundation has been publishing such data.

Johns Hopkins both defied and affirmed the national trends. Spending on research increased 3.3 percent in the academic divisions, and declined 10.3 percent in the Applied Physics Laboratory. But Federal monies awarded to the academic divisions increased 8.7 percent, despite the decline in the Federal share of total research. Research revenues exceeded $497 million in the academic divisions and $372 million at the Applied Physics Laboratory. Hopkins' growth in Federal funding was driven by multiyear grants and renewals for work well done, as well as by new grants for outstanding new initiatives. Several major projects attracted competitive national funding based on preliminary results obtained under private awards.

In fiscal 1996, Hopkins achieved several "firsts" and attracted additional funding along the way. The Applied Physics Laboratory was the first space center outside NASA to conduct a planetary mission. Launched on a three-year journey to Eros, one of Earth's nearest asteroids, NEAR will be the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid and the first powered by solar cells to operate beyond the orbit of Mars. The 55th spacecraft built by APL in the past 25 years, NEAR uses several instruments that are derived from designs previously developed by APL for the Department of Defense, demonstrating the value of dual-use technology transferred to the civilian sector.

Similar advances are being made in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, where space research is stronger than ever. The Hubble Space Telescope's wide field planetary camera-2 is being used by investigators involved in an international project called the Medium Deep Survey, which was designed and is headed by Hopkins astronomers to study faint galaxies billions of light-years away. Part of a package of corrective optics installed in December 1993 that Hopkins scientists helped to build, the camera is providing details of the structure of these galaxies that have been observed for almost two decades but could not be studied until now. Other optical phenomena, such as "gravitational lenses," are also being studied for the first time.

Originally funded at $100 million by NASA, the FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer) spacecraft, managed by Hopkins scientists and engineers, is scheduled for a November 1998 launch. Data returned by FUSE will help scientists learn more about how the universe evolved. The findings will be disseminated quickly, thanks to an additional NASA grant to develop the FUSE Outreach Initiative. This program will make space exploration a reality for high school students, including those--women, African Americans, and Hispanics--who have been underrepresented in science.

NASA also awarded multiyear research grants to three faculty in the Whiting School of Engineering to conduct research on different aspects of the behavior of bubbles in weightless space. Matters to be dealt with focus on critical life-support solutions and include the transfer of heat generated by spacecraft and equipment and development of techniques that could be used in water purification systems.

In Earth-bound research, the "unseen" and the secrets of human evolution are as intriguing as the mysteries of space. A Hopkins paleobiologist has attracted both scholarly and popular attention for his theory that the Ice Age and, eventually, the evolution of the human race were triggered when a chance movement of plates in the Earth's crust formed the Isthmus of Panama 3 billion years ago. Investigators in the Biology Department are seeing features of human cell membranes never seen before. Physicists at Hopkins and AT&T Bell Laboratories built a near-field scanning microscope, a device that operates with visible light, and adapted it for biological research, largely with funds provided by the National Institutes of Health. In addition to the crucial basic research advances this new technology permits, it will help in finding ways to reduce tissue rejection in organ and bone marrow transplants. Hopkins is one of a few universities using this instrument to look at living objects. Another grant from the National Science Foundation is supporting work on the "histone fold," a specific three-dimensional arrangement of 65 amino acids, the building blocks of all proteins, that are believed to have been present since the beginning of life on Earth. Research on these structures, which are found in all cellular organisms from simple bacteria to human beings, is producing new insights into various biological functions.

Research in genetics continues to be front-page news, and Hopkins investigators are regularly among the most important contributors. A new technique, serial analysis of gene expression, developed by investigators from the Oncology Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is being used to more rapidly identify genes, measure gene expression, and obtain new insights into the control of normal development that will further understanding of a wide variety of diseases. Indeed, several new genes were discovered in the process of developing the method. Known as SAGE, it is analogous to the bar coding system used on merchandise in stores, in this case counting gene expression patterns. The work has been supported in part by a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Hopkins medical research benefited in a special way last fall when Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played. This feat was marked by establishing the Cal Ripken/Lou Gehrig Fund for Neuromuscular Research, which will underwrite research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Originating with $1 million from the sale of 260 special on-the-field seats at the record-breaking game, additional pledges have created an endowment for the fund worth $2 million.

The collegiality that is possible between business and academe for the benefit of society is embedded in many relationships at the School of Hygiene and Public Health. In an effort to reconcile the Federal government's program of regulatory reform with sound scientific principles, the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute was established with a $1.8 million grant from the CSX Corporation. Researchers in the School of Hygiene and Public Health are especially well placed to undertake such analyses, which assess potential hazards in an environment, consider how they might affect the public and then try to determine if the public is at risk of harm. The natural product of such studies should be more informed decision-making and less unnecessary burden on business. In the tradition of integrating research and education that has been a Hopkins hallmark, the School will also offer a master's degree in risk assessment and management.

Construction began this summer on the School of Nursing's new $17 million building, the first home of its own in 100 years. Scheduled for a fall 1997 opening, the new building will consolidate Nursing's instruction and administrative space, and give fresh expression to its steadily growing research portfolio. This has already begun with the establishment of the Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing, a joint venture of the School of Nursing and the Hospital, to be a resource within the community and to the outside world. Its goal is to provide leadership and consultation on contemporary practice issues, nursing programs, management systems, new technologies, nursing research, and advanced nursing roles.

Despite individual triumphs, no division of the university can afford to rest on its laurels and no division can claim self-sufficiency. Collaborative efforts and strategic alliances are often the keys to vitality. The Applied Physics Laboratory established the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Medicine to capitalize on the success of APL's 30-year collaboration with the Schools of Medicine and Engineering. The Institute's goals will be accomplished through appointments of personnel from both the Laboratory and other university divisions. Potential new funding is considerable.

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