Research in the life sciences is providing the keys to unlocking genetic and biochemical secrets. With funding of more than $2 million from the National Institutes of Health and private sources, researchers in the School of Medicine have developed the first human embryonic stem cell lines. These cells may be grown in the laboratory to replace tissues lost to disease or injury anywhere in the body. In an interdisciplinary project, investigators in the School of Engineering and School of Public Health received $1 million from the National Science Foundation for work designed to extend the life of genetically engineered cells in the laboratory. Longer living cells may be able to help heart attack and stroke victims by keeping more cells alive and may also be able to extend the life of artificial organs made from animal tissue.

Researchers at the School of Public Health have received a $6.2 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to identify molecular biomarkers of environmental carcinogens. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases awarded another $5 million to investigators from the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine to coordinate their thriving projects on the study of epithelial cells, which make up half of the cells in the body and account for 90 percent of all human cancers.

The combination of biology and technology is leading to advances in science with extraordinary implications for human health. Biomedical Engineering investigators received $1.3 million from the National Institutes of Health for a multilevel project to study how the heart works, right down to the subcellular level, using a finely detailed computer model. Cardiac disorders can then be studied and drugs that might cure them tested mathematically. This technique has also spawned a business opportunity. The researchers have formed a company that will pursue commercial applications of the modeling software and promote drug leads discovered by the team.

New technologies that advance knowledge while enhancing individual and societal well-being are under development in Hopkins laboratories. The Center for Language and Speech Processing in the Whiting School of Engineering was one of 15 teams chosen by the National Science Foundation to participate in a project aimed at developing more natural interaction between computers and humans. A grant of $750,000 is supporting the development of speech recognition software that can accommodate a range of differences from regional accents to garbled speech resulting from illness or injury. The NSF's interest in understanding how learning occurs in humans, animals, and artificial systems is also the impetus behind their support for projects in Learning and Intelligent Systems. Hopkins received $1.5 million for two of 28 grants awarded in this field.

A rare U.S. Department of Education Special Project grant of $500,000 was made to the Division of Education in the School of Continuing Studies for the PAR program, a theory of discipline developed in the School which is based on prevention, action, and resolution in the classroom. Researchers in Materials Science and Engineering, previously funded by NASA and the Department of Defense, attracted new funding of $500,000 from the Department of Energy. They are working on the creation of new metallic glasses, metal substances which are not transparent but have an unusual atomic structure that gives them superior mechanical and magnetic properties.

Hopkins research stands at the vanguard of examining and responding to the central human concerns about quality of life. In collaboration with faculty from the School of Public Health, the Department of Emergency Medicine won a three-year $250,000 grant from the Emergency Medicine Foundation to create a first-of-its-kind national emergency medicine research center. Care outcomes, cost-benefit approaches, and health policy will comprise the center's study material. An initial $272,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention establishes Hopkins as one of eight Centers for Excellence in Health Care Epidemiology and Infection Control. Each center will study different aspects of problems involved in improving the control of infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms, especially those resistant to drugs.

At Hopkins, basic and clinical research unite to find cures for the debilitating diseases that burden millions of people. Supported by a grant of $5.6 million from the NIH, oncology researchers will use studies of bone marrow transplantation to devise new approaches to a variety of malignant and inherited diseases. School of Medicine researchers are also probing the complexities surrounding human addictions. The Drug Abuse Research Center, bolstered by $10.3 million from the National Institute for Drug Abuse, will allow neuroscientists to study the effect of drugs on the nervous system.

Cross-cultural currents impacting science, technology, and health care have generated projects that recognize Hopkins' unique talents. The School of Nursing received a grant of $400,000 from the Department of Education and members of the European Community to fund the Global Dimensions in Health Care investigative study. One of only eight chosen from 130 proposals to be the first official educational partnerships of the federal government's New Transatlantic Agenda, it was the only one selected in the health care field. The ability of Johns Hopkins researchers to quickly translate new discoveries from the bench to the bedside was further enriched with the inception of Johns Hopkins Singapore. Following a "center of excellence" model, Hopkins will lead collaborative research, medical education, and clinical trials in Southeast Asia that will have worldwide impact.

Space research has been a mainstay of the Hopkins research portfolio and will continue to gather knowledge and provide jobs well into the 21st century. Last summer, the launch of ACE, the Advanced Composition Explorer, set the pace. The ACE camera, a product of a $34 million NASA contract, will observe the sun from its orbit one million miles above the Earth and return data on the geomagnetic solar storms that can disrupt radio transmissions and telecommunications systems. On the heels of the successful NEAR mission, a joint project between the Applied Physics Laboratory and Cornell University has been selected by NASA as one of two new Discovery Program flights. The $154 million Comet Nucleus Tour, or CONTOUR, mission will study at least three major near-Earth comets at close range and monitor the appearance of any new comets over the next decade. After a one-year study, construction of CONTOUR will begin in February 2000, with launch scheduled for the following July. NASA also announced another project that will occur in a parallel time frame; the Space Telescope Science Institute at Johns Hopkins will oversee the scientific operation of a $500 million successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will be 10 times more powerful.

Special honors are not unusual at Hopkins. But this year four out of only 60 Presidential Early Career Awards in Science and Engineering went to Hopkins researchers. To receive one, faculty must have distinguished themselves in work already funded by a federal agency. Four faculty members from Mechanical Engineering, Neuroscience, Psychology, and Psychiatry will each receive $100,000 a year for the next five years. Given this base of support, they can better concentrate their efforts on the kind of long-term, exciting, innovative work that will be built upon by the next generation of Hopkins researchers.

 
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