"What are we aiming at?" he asked. "The
encouragement of research ...and the advancement of
individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance
the sciences they pursue, and the society where they
dwell."
Today, his philosophy is widely accepted, but Gilman in his
day was a pioneer in suggesting that research and teaching
should occur in the same institution, and that each would
strengthen the other. "The best teachers are
usually those who are free, competent and willing to make
original researches in the library and the
laboratory," Gilman said. "The best investigators
are usually those who have also the responsibilities of
instruction, gaining thus the incitement of colleagues, the
encouragement of pupils, the observation of the
public."
The realization of Gilman's philosophy at Hopkins, and at
other institutions that later attracted Hopkins-trained
scholars, revolutionized higher education in America,
leading to the research university system as it exists
today.
The nation's first research university,
The Johns Hopkins
University opened in Baltimore in 1876. Founding
president Daniel Coit Gilman laid out his vision for this
new type of institution in his inaugural address.
Today,
Hopkins remains a
leader, in both teaching and research. The School of
Medicine is one of the best anywhere, and the School of
Public Health is renowned for contributions to health and
preventive medicine worldwide. The other divisions, though
smaller -- by design -- than similar schools in other
institutions, include eminent scholars and many highly
ranked departments.
From the introduction of surgical gloves to the
identification of the genetic basis of cancers, from laying
the groundwork for the science of spectroscopy to the
invention of the all-plastic battery, Johns Hopkins
research has contributed to the betterment of the human
condition for nearly a century and a quarter.
Here is a sampling of recent
discoveries at Johns Hopkins:
Hospital Patients Welcome Visits from Robotic
Doc
A robotic doctor that visited
hospitalized patients and helped their personal physician monitor
their health was warmly received, a recent study found.
Researchers in Johns Hopkins' Department of Urology introduced
the robot, electronically linked to a physician, to augment the
rounds physicians make routinely to check on their patients.
Vaguely resembling a human torso, in a Star Wars "R2D2" sort of
way, the robot sports a computer screen for a head, a video
camera for eyes and a speaker for a mouth. It "walks," in a
manner of speaking, on three roller balls, talks, and most
importantly, "listens." "Generally, the robot checked up on
patients, asked them how they were feeling, inspected their
surgical sites to ensure proper healing, and answered questions,"
said Louis Kavoussi, professor of urology and lead author of the
study. "Clearly, most patients were very comfortable with this
new technology."
'Exercise Hypertension' Happens When Cells
Can't Relax
So-called
"exercise hypertension," an abnormally
high spike in blood pressure experienced by generally healthy
people during a workout, is a known risk factor for permanent and
serious high blood pressure at rest. But who gets it, and why,
has been largely unknown. Now, Johns Hopkins scientists say the
problem may be rooted in the failure of cells that line the blood
vessels to allow the arteries to expand to accommodate increased
blood flow during exertion. "Our study shows that this impaired
ability of the endothelial cells, which control large blood
vessel relaxation, is a potential cause of exercise
hypertension," said Kerry J. Stewart, director of clinical
exercise physiology. "Because as many as 90 percent of adults are
at risk for developing high blood pressure, knowing this may
point to a cellular target for preventive therapies."
Vest, Harness May Protect 'Fragile' Adults in
Car Crashes
When a car crash occurs, people with osteoporosis and other
brittle bone disorders often suffer more serious injuries. To
better protect these "fragile" motorists, three Johns Hopkins
engineering undergraduates devised a
harness and vest system that significantly
reduced impact forces when tested on a high-tech crash dummy.
Their challenge came from the Center for Injury Research and
Policy in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins.
"We estimate that as many as 13 million people with osteoporosis,
osteogenesis impefecta (brittle bone disorder) and hemophilia
need some additional protection from forces applied to the torso
during a car crash," said Gary S. Sorock, an associate professor
at the center. "The assignment was to design and test a restraint
system that would reduce these forces, protecting the ribs and
the sternum in particular."
Americans Spend More on Health Care But Are
Not Healthier
Despite spending more for health care, Americans do not have the
best medical care in the world, according to researchers from
the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other
institutions. The study is the first to use a universal set of
standards to compare the quality of health care in the five
countries surveyed. The researchers found that no country scored
the best or worst overall and that each country was the best and
worst in at least one area. Peter S. Hussey, lead author of the
study and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Policy
and Management, said, "It is well known that the United States
spends much more on health care per capita than other countries,
and it is commonly assumed that we have the best health care
system in the world. However, the results of our study show that
the United States performs better than other countries in only a
few areas, while performing worse in others. This raises the
question of what Americans receive for all of the money devoted
to health care."
A Ray of Hope for Lupus
Patients
What causes lupus remains a mystery. What's clear is the damage
it wreaks as a patient's immune system attacks the joints,
kidneys, heart, lungs, brain, blood and skin. Current therapy
consists of low doses of the cancer drug cyclophosphomide. But
only about 25 percent of patients respond, and for some, the cure
is worse than the disease. Long-term exposure to cyclophosphomide
causes horrendous bone, bladder and ovarian problems and a high
risk of developing cancer. Yet Johns Hopkins rheumatologist
Michele Petri sees a ray of hope.
Hopkins researchers recently produced
astonishing turnarounds in severe aplastic anemia, an even
more-lethal autoimmune disease. They've also had interesting
results with lupus. The new approach uses a shorter but
higher dose of cyclophosphamide. "The idea," Petri explained, "is
to blast the lupus once and wipe out the abnormal immune system,
and then allow the body to relearn without further therapy."
Satellite Makes Changes on the
Fly
The Adaptive Instrument Module, a satellite computer that can be
reconfigured to perform new tasks as it orbits the Earth, has
shown it can do something else, too: repair itself without human
help — a space first. AIM, developed by The Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physical Laboratory, is one of six
experiments aboard the Australian research satellite FedSat 1,
launched December 2002. Since launch, researchers have been
sending up commands to configure the AIM computer so it can
perform new and different tasks. "AIM is generic by nature and
could be used as front-end electronics for numerous diverse
instruments, from Earth-observing to space science," said AIM
Project Leader Ann Darrin,. "For example, let's say AIM is
supporting a satellite system measuring ocean wave height, but
now we want to measure wave motion. New algorithms can be sent to
reprogram AIM, and we're soon getting reports on wave
motion."
Nursing Student Investigates STD Screening
Among Battered Women
Megan O'Brien Gold, a Johns Hopkins School of Nursing senior, has
researched the
rates of sexually transmitted diseases
among battered women and has proposed improvements in testing
methods. As part of the Provost's Undergraduate Research Award
program, Gold focused on 21 women at the House of Ruth, a shelter
for female victims of domestic violence. Knowing that previous
research has linked abusive relationships with increased rates of
STDs among women, Gold explored changing the protocol for
screening for gonorrhea and chlamydia. "Women with undiagnosed
and untreated infection are at risk for significant gynecologic
problems and increased risk of HIV transmission," Gold says.
"Many of the women we see at the clinic are not receiving medical
attention. Ideally, every one of them should be offered urine
screening for gonorrhea and chlamydia."
Most Household Cleaners Remove Peanut
Allergens
Peanut allergy sufferers and their parents take note: a
Johns Hopkins Children's Center study finds that
most soaps and household cleaners
will remove enough peanut allergen from hands and dining
surfaces at home and in schools to prevent an attack.
Comparing how well assorted cleaners or plain water remove
Ara h 1, the most common peanut allergen, the Johns Hopkins
researchers showed that most products performed well,
although dishwashing liquid left tiny traces of Ara h 1 on
some cafeteria tables, and alcohol-based hand sanitizer
left residual allergen on half of the hands tested. "It's
possible that dish soap creates a film over eating
surfaces, making it difficult to clean underneath," says
pediatric allergist Robert A. Wood, senior author of the
study. "But our results suggest that even if a child licked
the table vigorously after it had been cleaned with dish
soap, he probably still couldn't get enough allergen to
cause a reaction."
Student Builds Micro Biosensor Chip to
Move DNA Molecules
A Johns Hopkins undergraduate has constructed a
new type of microchip that can move and
isolate DNA and protein molecules. He believes that by
linking the chip with analysis equipment, a user could
identify medical ailments, monitor a patient's health or
detect viruses and other biohazards before they spread.
Eric Simone, a senior biomedical engineering major,
fabricated and tested the chip in the lab of Jeff Tza-Huei
Wang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
"This chip gives us a new tool to look into biological
questions," said Wang. "Eric can actually interact with and
manipulate individual DNA molecules."Simone joined Wang's
lab team in January 2003 and used a Provost's Undergraduate
Research Award grant from the university to spend much of
last summer working on his project.
Doctors Identify New Predictor of
Coronary Artery Disease
By more closely scrutinizing levels
of creatinine, a breakdown product of muscle, doctors may
be able to prevent future heart attacks in people who
arrive at hospitals with chest pain, a Johns Hopkins study
reveals. For several years, doctors have known that
individuals with high levels of creatinine, an indication
of kidney failure, are at increased risk of developing
coronary artery disease. A wide range of levels can be
considered normal, however. To see if high-normal levels of
creatinine could predispose a person to poor outcomes,
Johns Hopkins doctors followed 459 patients with ongoing
chest pain who were admitted to the hospital because of a
suspected heart attack. They discovered that among patients
with high-normal creatinine, 22 percent suffered a
subsequent myocardial infarction, revascularization
(surgery to restore blood supply) or death by 120 days, in
comparison with 13 percent of patients with low-normal
levels of the white crystalline compound.
New Pollutant Cleanup Technique Puzzles,
Pleases Chemists
Scientists looking for
ways to clean up a common, persistent
type of organic pollutant have developed an approach
that not only restores the power of a naturally occurring
pollution buster but also boosts it to levels of
effectiveness that they can't currently explain. "It's safe
to say that we don't fully understand why this approach
works so well, but we'll take it and develop it and figure
out the details as we go," Gerald Meyer, professor of
chemistry in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at The
Johns Hopkins University, said with a laugh. The targets of
the new technique, developed by Sherine Obare, a
postdoctoral fellow in Meyer's lab, are organohalides, a
class of compounds used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals and
manufacturing. They pose health risks to humans and have
been linked to environmental problems like ozone depletion
and climate change.
Vitamin Supplement Use May Reduce
Effects of Alzheimer's Disease
Antioxidant vitamin supplements,
particularly vitamins E and C, may protect the aging
brain against damage associated with the pathological
changes of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study
conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health and other institutions. The researchers believe
antioxidant vitamin supplements may be an ideal prevention
strategy for our aging population as they are relatively
nontoxic and are thought to have wide-ranging health
benefits. "These results are extremely exciting," said
Peter P. Zandi, lead author of the study and an assistant
professor in the school's Department of Mental Health. "Our
study suggests that the regular use of vitamin E in
nutritional supplement doses, especially in combination
with vitamin C, may reduce the risk of developing
Alzheimer's disease."
Voyager 1 Approaches Solar System's
Outer Limits
More than 25 years after leaving home, NASA's Voyager 1
spacecraft reached a key checkpoint on its historic journey
toward interstellar space. Analyzing six months of data
from Voyager's Low-Energy Charged Particle instrument, a
team led by Stamatios Krimigis of The Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory determined that the
spacecraft, while nearly 8 billion miles from Earth, passed
through and later returned behind the turbulent zone known
as the solar termination shock. At the termination shock,
streams of electrically charged gas blown from the Sun
— called the solar wind — slow down rapidly
after colliding with gas and magnetic pressure from between
the stars. The shock is also considered the last stop
before the invisible boundary of the heliosphere, the
bubble-like region of space under our Sun's energetic
influence.
"Voyager 1 is giving us our first taste
of interstellar space," said Krimigis.
Team Approach Works Better To Reduce
Blood Pressure in African-American Men
A three-year Johns Hopkins study led by a nurse
investigator has found that
it may take a "village" to
significantly lower the blood pressure of urban
African-American men. "The traditional one-on-one
doctor-patient visit in a doctor's office will simply not
work," said lead author Martha N. Hill, dean of The Johns
Hopkins University School of Nursing. "What our study
suggests is that you need a whole team socially and
culturally linked to this population, including community
members as staff and a vigorous tracing method to assure
compliance with the blood pressure reducing regimen." While
further research is needed to demonstrate the cost
effectiveness of intense team intervention, Hill said, she
suspects it will be a savvy investment.
'Fat Historian' is Obsessed with
Obesity
Call Fred Brancati a fat historian and he's not insulted.
Brancati is a Johns Hopkins internist/epidemiologist who
studies the history of obesity. He can
tell you that extreme corpulence was once solely a
condition of wealthy landowners. He can reveal that 100
years ago the Pima Indians were skinny as rails, yet today
half the tribe has obesity-related diabetes. It's
observations like these that explain why Brancati has been
driven for the past decade to uncover new ways to prevent
and treat what he considers a critical public health
threat. A recent explosion in research within Hopkins helps
Brancati look at obesity from several angles. He studies
the benefits of time-honored behavioral approaches to
weight reduction, but he also knows that such methods lead
to weight loss in about only 7 percent of people who are 40
percent overweight. He's therefore searching for potential
new drugs and investigating environmental causes.
Genetic Master Switch Sends Bacteria Toward
'Seafood Dinner'
Chitin, the Earth's second-most abundant biological material, is
a major component in the flurry of skeletal debris discarded
daily by crustacean creatures in the world's oceans. If left
undisturbed, this tough insoluble material, a cousin to
cellulose, would pile up on the ocean's floor and wreak havoc
with marine ecosystems. Fortunately, armies of bacteria act as
chitin's cleanup crew, and two Johns Hopkins University
biologists have made a key discovery about how and when these
microscopic soldiers launch their search-and-devour missions.
Xibing Li and Saul Roseman reported that they had found
a genetic master switch that reacts to the
presence of nearby chitin and sets off a biological chain
reaction, causing the bacterial feast to begin. "If nothing
happened to this debris, we'd be up to our eyeballs in chitin,
and the carbon and nitrogen cycle upon which marine life depends
would be gone within 50 to 75 years," said Roseman, a professor
of biology in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
Johns Hopkins Technology Will Guide
Hybrid Undersea Robot
The robotic "brain" that will steer a
new remotely operated vehicle through
the deepest parts of the world's oceans will employ
technology devised by Johns Hopkins engineers. The Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution recently received $5 million
in funding to design and construct a self-powered undersea
robot capable of descending 11,000 meters or 36,000 feet,
deeper than any existing research vehicle. The new robot is
described as a hybrid because it will be able to operate
either connected to a fiber-optic umbilical or in a
free-swimming mode. The navigation and control systems will
employ technology developed by Louis Whitcomb, an associate
professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins. "The
new hybrid vehicle project will allow us to build on our
existing knowledge and contribute to an innovative type of
underwater robot that will, we hope, significantly extend
the reach of oceanographic research at extreme depths,"
Whitcomb said.
Inadequate Water and Sanitation
Adversely Affect Child Growth
Peruvian children with inadequate water supplies and
sanitation were found to be shorter and had more episodes
of diarrhea, according to research from the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions.
Past studies have shown that
improvements to water supply and
sanitation benefit health and improve life expectancy in
industrialized countries, but the effect on long-term
growth is less clear. Lead author of the new study, William
Checkley, an associate in the Department of International
Health, said, "The public health challenges of unsafe water
and inadequate sanitation have plagued humanity for
centuries, and will continue to do so unless governments
make water and sanitation infrastructure improvements one
of their first priorities. The poor in most of the
developing world either pay more for their access to water
or have to travel further distances to obtain
water."
Surgeons Improve the Outlook for Liver
Cancer Patients
With an ultrasound probe Michael Choti detects liver
lesions and removes them before they become inoperable.
By using updated technology and new
approaches to treatment, Johns Hopkins surgeons are
prolonging the lives of patients with liver cancer. The
improved outcomes, says surgeon Michael Choti, are due in
part to advances in CT and MRI imaging that show more
precisely which patients are the best candidates for
surgery. But additionally, ultrasound can now be used
aggressively to draw a map to a lesion, and new high-tech
surgical tools can be maneuvered to reach and remove the
tumor. "Our outcomes are getting better and better," Choti
said of patients who have undergone surgery to remove
tumors that have spread from colon cancer. "Historically,
30 percent of these people would have been alive five years
after surgery. In our most recent experience, 50 percent
were still alive at that point."
Special
Reports:
Stories from the Sediment
Johns Hopkins paleoecologist Grace Brush has devoted 25
years of research to uncovering the Chesapeake Bay's past.
By scrutinizing core samples of sediment taken from areas
throughout the estuary, she has been able to show what was
on the land and in the water decades, centuries, millennia
ago. More important, by
reading the history written in the sediment, she has
been able to show that the recent changes wrought by human
land use are not cyclical or temporary, but unprecedented
in 14,000 years. "It turns out," said Brush, a professor in
the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering,
"that the anthropogenic is probably one of the most
extensive and intensive global disturbances that there has
been." For decades, bay managers have sought to understand
how to undo some of that damage. But to do so, they need to
know what the bay was like before Europeans arrived.
Brush's research has been invaluable to that task. Brush,
73, recently received the Mathias Medal, which recognizes
scientists whose lifetime contributions have not only
furthered the public's understanding of the bay but have
informed policy surrounding its management. An profile in
Johns Hopkins Magazine reviews Brush's remarkable
career.
Anatomy of an Epidemic
If there was a single moment when
SARS turned the corner
from frightening mystery to known malady, it came during
the last days of Carlo Urbani's life. SARS didn't even have
a name when the Italian physician with the
World Health Organization (WHO) saw a patient named Johnny
Chen at a hospital in Hanoi. Speculation at that point
about mysterious cases popping up in Asian cities centered
on a rumored outbreak of avian flu in China. After
examining Chen and learning how he'd infected at least 22
hospital workers, Urbani convinced Vietnamese officials
that they likely had a public health emergency on their
hands. "One important thing we've learned here is what an
incredible difference key individuals can make in these
situations," said Neal Halsey, professor of
International Health. "Everything Urbani did — the
way he used his clinical expertise, the way he sounded the
alarm, his willingness to ask for help — proved so,
so important." Emerging from a remote corner of China, SARS
ultimately wreaked havoc in 28 countries — killing
hundreds, infecting thousands, quarantining millions, and
costing billions. What does SARS mean for the future of
public health? A cover story in Johns Hopkins Public Health
magazine addresses this important question.
Learn more about what Johns Hopkins researchers are working on at the following selected sites:
Health and Medicine
Social Sciences, Humanities and the
Arts
Natural Sciences, Engineering and
Technology
