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September 7, 2010
The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University
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H O M E W O O D
A blue-ribbon day for Gilman Hall
NCI grant
launches nanotech cancer center
By Mary Spiro
Institute for NanoBioTechnology
Continued on page 5
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WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU
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aculty members associated with the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology have received a $13.6 million five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to establish a Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence. The new Johns HopCenter of kins center brings excellence to together a multidisciplinary team of scientists, engitap faculty neers and physicians to develop from many nanotechnologybased diagnostic disciplines platforms and therapeutic strategies for comprehensive cancer care. Seventeen faculty members will be involved initially, with pilot projects adding more participants later. The Johns Hopkins Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, which is part of the university’s Institute for NanoBioTechnology, is one of several NCI-supported centers launched through a funding opportunity started in 2005. According to the NCI, the program was established to create “multiinstitutional hubs that integrate nanotechnology across the cancer research continuum to provide new solutions for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.” Peter Searson, who is the Joseph R. and Lynn C. Reynolds Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering and director of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, will serve as the center’s director. The co-director will be Martin Pomper, professor of radiology and oncology at the School of Medicine and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. “A unique feature of the center is the integration of research, education, training and outreach, and technology commercialization,” Searson said.
President Ronald J. Daniels and Katherine S. Newman, the James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, cut the ribbon to open the renovated Gilman Hall, longtime home of the Krieger School’s humanities departments.
Doors officially open to flagship building after three-year renovation By Greg Rienzi
The Gazette
H
undreds of faculty, staff, students and friends of the university gathered on the Keyser Quad on Aug. 30, the first day of the fall semester, to witness the grand reopening of Gilman Hall, the Homewood campus’s flagship building that underwent three years of top-to-bottom renovations.
Guests were welcomed by President Ronald J. Daniels and Katherine S. Newman, the new James B. Knapp Dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Daniels, standing at a podium on the building’s refurbished front portico, heralded a new day for the Krieger School’s Continued on page 7
E V E N T
Provost’s Lecture Series fall lineup announced By Greg Rienzi
The Gazette
C
hina expert and noted author David Lampton will kick off the fall schedule of the new Provost’s Lecture Series, launched this spring to spread the wealth of academic excellence at Johns Hopkins among its campuses. The 2010–2011 academic year will be the first full year for the series, which this fall will feature speakers representing four university
In Brief
JHU-community block party; Jhpiego hosts Christy Turlington documentary; blood drive
12
divisions. The inaugural lecture, held in April, was given at Homewood by Nobel Prize winner Carol Greider, the Daniel Nathans Professor and director of Molecular Biology and Genetics in the Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences in East Baltimore. The fall lineup, in addition to Lampton’s lecture at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, includes sociologist Andrew Cherlin at SAIS, domestic violence expert Jacquelyn Campbell at Homewood and reproductive health authority Ronald Gray at the Carey Business School.
Provost Lloyd B. Minor said that his chief aim for establishing the series was to bring outstanding faculty from one campus to another and make a “geographically distributed” university feel that much smaller. “These lectures, which will traverse multiple campuses, will provide opportunities to share the remarkable talent of Johns Hopkins faculty and professional staff across the divisions of the university,” Minor said. “It is my hope that these opportunities will inspire the Continued on page 3
10 Job Opportunities Laura Lippman; John Waters; ‘Second Sex’ 10 Notices 11 Classifieds lecture; Rosh Hashana services Calendar
2 THE GAZETTE • September 7, 2010
Independent School Fair Sunday, September 19, 2010 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Glass Pavilion, Levering Hall Johns Hopkins University
Participating Schools* Baltimore Actors’ Theatre Conservatory Barrie School Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland The Bryn Mawr School Calvert School Cambridge School The Catholic High School of Baltimore The Day School at Baltimore Hebrew Friends School of Baltimore Garrison Forest School Georgetown Preparatory School Gilman School Glenelg Country School Institute of Notre Dame Jemicy School Krieger Schechter Day School
Loyola Blakefield Maryvale Preparatory School McDonogh School Mercy High School The Montessori School Notre Dame Preparatory School The Park School of Baltimore Roland Park Country School Sandy Spring Friends School Shoshana S. Cardin School St. James Academy St. Paul’s School St. Paul’s School for Girls St. Timothy’s School Waldorf School of Baltimore The Wilkes School at Grace and St. Peter’s
* AIMS member schools are committed to the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of race, color, national and/or ethnic origin.
Please join us!
• Representatives from participating schools will be on hand to answer questions • Brochures and information materials will be available • Adults and prospective students are welcome • Free admission • Small fee to park
Sponsored by
Association of Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS) and Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust (BEST) The Association of Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS), organized in 1967, is an association of more than 112 independent, college-preparatory schools in Maryland and D.C., representing more than 44,000 students.
Directions: From I-695, take I-83 South to Coldspring Lane East. Turn right at Roland Avenue. At next traffic light, the road splits. Stay in the left lane which becomes University Parkway. At the fifth traffic light, turn right onto Charles Street. (stay in right lane). Turn right onto Art Museum Drive. Just past the Baltimore Museum of Art, turn right onto Wyman Park Drive. Signs will be posted to direct you. AIMS • (410) 761-3700 or (301) 858-6311 • www.aimsmd.org • info@aimsmd.org
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Jhpiego to host documentary by filmmaker Christy Turlington
J
hpiego will host supermodel and filmmaker Christy Turlington for the Baltimore premiere of her documentary film, No Woman, No Cry, an up-close look at issues and challenges facing millions of women throughout the world. In her directorial debut, Turlington shares the stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world—including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum of Bangladesh and a prenatal clinic in the United States—in an effort to create a movement working to prevent the needless deaths of women worldwide. On Monday, Oct. 25, attendees will be able to view the film, hear Turlington’s story and learn what Jhpiego is already doing to save women. Turlington will take questions after the screening. All guests are invited to a dessert and coffee reception following the event, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. at MICA’s Brown Center, 1301 W. Mount Royal Ave. Tickets are $200 for a pre-screening reception with the filmmaker, limited to 40 people; $100 for individuals; $75 each for two or more tickets; and $10 for students. For tickets, go to www.jhpiego.org/events/ filmscreening/tickets.htm or call 410-5371813.
Diversity Leadership Council seeks proposals for conference
T
he Johns Hopkins Institutions Diversity Leadership Council has issued a call for presentation proposals for its Seventh Annual Diversity Conference. The event, titled Diversity and Inclusion:
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onvergence—the JHU-community block party that celebrates the relationship between JHU and its Homewood campus neighbor—will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11, in the 3200 block of St. Paul Street. The event, now in its sixth year, offers everyone living in, working in and serving the communities surrounding the Homewood campus an opportunity to enjoy each other’s company, learn about local opportunities from many exhibitors and partake in prize drawings valued at more than $1,000, festival foods and refreshments, carnival games with prizes, a moon bounce, entertainment and more—and all of them free. Convergence is sponsored by the JHU offices of Homewood Student Affairs and Community Affairs, and the Charles Village Business Association, with leadership from Barnes & Noble Johns Hopkins. For information, visit Hopkins Convergence on Facebook, e-mail commrelations@ jhu.edu or call 443-287-9900.
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Fulfilling the Promise of Johns Hopkins, will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4, on the Homewood campus. More than 500 Johns Hopkins leaders, faculty and staff are expected to be on hand to examine questions related to diversity, cultural awareness, disability matters, inclusion and equity in postsecondary education. The luncheon keynote speaker will be Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins. Possible presentation topics include training new leadership for the future, creating a culture of inclusion for individuals with disabilities, recruiting and retaining diverse faculty and staff, race and gender relations, civility in the workplace, bridging the gender gap in higher education, the multigenerational workplace, religious diversity, lesbian/ gay/bisexual/transgender issues, first amendment rights/civility, crucial conversations in the workplace and conflict resolution. Proposals must be submitted as a Word document by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 20. Packets must include a cover sheet with proposal title, date, contact person(s), fax and telephone number(s) and e-mail and mailing addresses; audio/visual requirements (indicate Windows or Mac), an abstract of 100 or less words, a summary of two pages or less and and a biographical sketch of 50 words or less. One copy of the proposal packet should be submitted by e-mail to diversity_ conference@jhu.edu or by mail to Diversity Conference, Johns Hopkins Institutions, 3400 N. Charles St., 130 Garland Hall, Baltimore, MD 21218. Conference questions may be directed to Patrese Frazier at 410-516-8075, TTY: Call 711, or e-mailed to diversity_ conference@jhu.edu.
Sickle cell awareness is focus of Homewood Blood Drive
S
eptember is Sickle Cell Awareness Month, and donors are needed at the Homewood campus blood drive on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 14 and 15. According to the American Red Cross, sickle cell disease affects more than 70,000 people in the U.S., 98 percent of whom are AfricanAmerican. Individuals with this disease are at risk of immense pain, organ and tissue damage, and stroke, and often require regular transfusions, some as often as every four to six weeks. Although sickle cell patients can receive transfusions from any donor, donations from African-Americans are crucial as the best match is often found in a donor with the same ethnic background. The drive runs from 7:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. in the Glass Pavilion. To schedule a donation, go to http://hopkinsworklife.org/ blooddrive.cfm or call 443-997-6060. For more information on upcoming Johns Hopkins blood drives, go to www .hopkinsworklife.org/community/blood_drive .html.
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Production Lynna Bright Copy Editor Ann Stiller Photography Homewood Photography A d v e rt i s i n g The Gazelle Group B u s i n e ss Dianne MacLeod C i r c u l at i o n Lynette Floyd W e bm a s t e r Tim Windsor
Contributing Writers Applied Physics Laboratory Michael Buckley, Paulette Campbell Bloomberg School of Public Health Tim Parsons, Natalie Wood-Wright Carey Business School Andrew Blumberg, Patrick Ercolano Homewood Lisa De Nike, Amy Lunday, Dennis O’Shea, Tracey A. Reeves, Phil Sneiderman Johns Hopkins Medicine Christen Brownlee, Stephanie Desmon, Neil A. Grauer, Audrey Huang, John Lazarou, David March, Vanessa McMains, Katerina Pesheva, Vanessa Wasta, Maryalice Yakutchik Peabody Institute Richard Selden SAIS Felisa Neuringer Klubes School of Education James Campbell, Theresa Norton School of Nursing Kelly Brooks-Staub University Libraries and Museums Brian Shields, Heather Egan Stalfort
The Gazette is published weekly September through May and biweekly June through August for the Johns Hopkins University community by the Office of Government, Community and Public Affairs, Suite 540, 901 S. Bond St., Baltimore, MD 21231, in cooperation with all university divisions. Subscriptions are $26 per year. Deadline for calendar items, notices and classifieds (free to JHU faculty, staff and students) is noon Monday, one week prior to publication date. Phone: 443-287-9900 Fax: 443-287-9920 General e-mail: gazette@jhu.edu Classifieds e-mail: gazads@jhu.edu On the Web: gazette.jhu.edu Paid advertising, which does not represent any endorsement by the university, is handled by the Gazelle Group at 410343-3362 or gazellegrp@comcast.net.
September 7, 2010 • THE GAZETTE
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Nonprofits a surprising bright spot in national jobs picture By Mimi Bilzor
Institute for Policy Studies
N
onprofit employers are providing one of the few bright spots in the country’s dismal employment picture this Labor Day, according to new data released last week by researchers at the Center for Civil Society Studies at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies. Initial analysis of data on 21 states spread broadly across the country reveals that nonprofit employment actually grew by an average of 2.5 percent per year between the second quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2009, the worst part of the recent recession. By contrast, for-profit employment in these states fell during this same period by an average of 3.3 percent per year. And this pattern held for every single state examined. In addition, nonprofit job growth during the recession was actually stronger than it had been from 2001 to 2007, when nonprofit jobs grew by an average of 2.3 percent a year compared to 2.5 percent per year growth during the recession years. During this earlier period, nonprofit job growth easily exceeded for-profit job growth, which limped along at an annual average increase of only 0.2 percent. This pattern held in virtually every state studied.
However, nonprofits in some fields and some states did worse than others. While the average rate of nonprofit job growth during the recession was 2.5 percent per year, it was only 1.8 percent per year in the nursing home field and 1.4 percent per year in social assistance. Viewed by state, nonprofit job growth during the recession was also a much lower 0.7 percent in New Jersey, 1.3 percent in Michigan and Indiana, 1.4 percent in Ohio and 1.5 percent in Illinois. In the key field of social assistance, which is especially important during a recession, some places experienced nonprofit job losses during the recession, among them the District of Columbia (-4.5 percent), Maine (-1.5 percent), Indiana (-.9 percent) and Ohio (-0.8 percent). Also revealing is the evidence these data provide of the increasingly competitive environment in which nonprofits are operating. While overall nonprofit job growth exceeded overall for-profit job growth, there is evidence that this is as much a product of the fields in which nonprofits are active as it is a product of the nature of nonprofit organizations. In many of these fields, in fact, for-profit job growth exceeded nonprofit job growth, at least prior to the current recession. For example, over the period 2001–2007, while nonprofit jobs in the field
of social assistance grew by an average of 2.4 percent per year, for-profit jobs in this field grew by an average of 7 percent per year. In the nursing home field, for-profit jobs grew 2.0 percent per year compared to 1.4 percent for nonprofits. Furthermore, this growth in nonprofit jobs has come in the face of much greater growth in the need for nonprofit assistance. A recent report from the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post Project found, for example, that nearly 40 percent of organizations surveyed currently lack adequate staff to deliver their programs and services. Staff members at surveyed organizations are facing additional job duties (49 percent of responding organizations), salary freezes (39 percent), increased hours (23 percent), reduced benefits (23 percent) and reduced wages (12 percent). “That nonprofit organizations have been able to increase employment in the face of the most severe recession since the Great Depression is a testament to the effectiveness of the federal stimulus program, which channeled assistance to many nonprofit organizations, and to the resilience and determination of nonprofit leaders and those who support them in the public and private sectors,” said Lester M. Salamon, study author and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Stud-
ies. “But this accomplishment, impressive though it is, still leaves many needs unmet and many organizations and regions under severe strain.” Charts and tables with the preliminary findings on nonprofit employment discussed above, including data listed by state and by field of activity, are available at www .ccss.jhu.edu/pdfs/Media/2010.9Media.NP_ employment.pdf. The following additional reports from the Center for Civil Society Studies provide further evidence of the recession’s impact on nonprofit organizations: • “Recession Pressures on Nonprofit Jobs” (July 2010): http://ccss.jhu.edu/pdfs/ LP_Communinques/LP_Communique19_ jobs.pdf. • “Nonprofits and Recessions: New Data From Maryland” (January 2010): http://ccss .jhu.edu/pdfs/NED_Bulletins/States/ MD_33.pdf. • “Texas Nonprofit Employment Update” (August 2010): http://ccss.jhu.edu/pdfs/ NED_Bulletins/States/NED_Bulletin35_ Texas_2010.pdf • “Impact of the 2007–2009 Economic Recession on Nonprofit Organizations” (June 2009): http://ccss.jhu.edu/pdfs/LP_ Communiques/LP_Communique_14.pdf. For more on the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, go to http://ccss.jhu.edu.
Berman Institute scholar calls for regulation of genetic tests By Michael Pena
Berman Institute of Bioethics
A
n opinion piece by a legal scholar from the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in the Aug. 12 issue of Nature calls for the Food and Drug Administration to regulate all health-related genetic tests—whether available directly to consumers or through a health care provider—using an approach that imposes requirements proportionate to a test’s level of risk. “Direct to consumer is simply a delivery method that in itself provides no information about the quality of the test offered,” writes Gail Javitt, a research scholar at the Berman Institute. Instead of treating direct-
Lectures Continued from page 1 creative processes in each of us and encourage the ongoing development of interdisciplinary programs and collaborations.” Lampton, the George and Sadie Hyman Professor and director of China Studies at SAIS, will discuss the prospect of development “failure” in China and its global implications. With so much attention given to China’s growth and David Lampton increasing strength and reach in the world, Lampton said he wants to examine the notion of a China downturn, its probability and consequences. The event will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 19, in the Bloomberg School’s Sheldon Hall. Lampton, also the dean of faculty at SAIS, is one of the country’s leading China scholars. From 1988 to 1997, he was president of the National Committee on United States–China Relations. He also was founding director of the China Policy Program at the American Enterprise Institute and of the
to-consumer (or DTC) genetic testing as a “special case,” Javitt argues that the FDA should implement a regulatory framework that ensures the quality of all health-related genetic tests. “Some genetic tests are likely to be comparable to pregnancy tests,” which the FDA considers to be low-risk medical devices that consumers may purchase over the counter, according to Javitt. She adds that other genetic tests, such as those used to diagnose or guide decisions about the treatment of serious diseases, would be more appropriately offered through a health care practitioner. Javitt also argues that more oversight is needed to ensure the clinical validity of some of the newer, more complex tests offered by clinical laboratories.
“In such a fast-changing landscape, striking the right balance between protecting the public and promoting innovation is crucial,” Javitt concludes. “To get it right, agencies must proceed in small steps, articulate clear goals and rationales for their proposed actions and consider input from all those affected.” Javitt’s article, “Assign Regulation Appropriate to the Level of Risk,” appears in Nature alongside a commentary by Arthur Beaudet, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College. Beaudet’s piece urges the FDA to ban all DTC tests but not to impose new regulations on clinical labs offering genetic testing through health care providers. The two scholars agree that the evolving understanding of the significance of certain
genetic markers—along with the rapid pace of research and discovery—makes the results of genetic tests difficult for both doctors and the public to interpret accurately. The magazine says that it published the expert commentaries in the wake of recent actions by the FDA that signal the agency’s desire to increase oversight of laboratory-developed tests, particularly those offered directly to consumers. According to Javitt, the former law and policy director at the Berman Institute’s Genetics and Public Policy Center, about 30 companies worldwide offer more than 400 genetic tests directly to consumers. In May, the center published several charts listing DTC tests, sorted by company, disease and category. The charts are online at www .dnapolicy.org.
Nixon Center’s Chinese Studies Program. He is currently a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has authored numerous books and articles on Chinese domestic and foreign affairs, testified before congressional committees and is a frequent commentator on national talk shows and news broadcasts. His most recent book, The Three Faces of Chinese Power: Might, Money and Minds, was published in 2008 by the University of California Press and the following year in Chinese by Xinhua Publishing. Andrew Cherlin, the Benjamin Andrew Cherlin H. Griswold III Professor of Sociology and Public Policy in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, will give a lecture titled “The Marriage-GoRound: How and Why Family Life Is Different in the United States Than in Other Wealthy Nations” from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 25, in SAIS’s Kenney Auditorium. Cherlin is a past president of the Population Association of America, the research association of the nation’s demographers. He is also past chair of both the Population and Family sections of the American Socio-
logical Association. His books include The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today (2009) and Public and Private Families: An Introduction (2007). The third lecture will be given by Jacquelyn C. Campbell, the Anna D. Wolf Professor in the School of Nursing with a joint appointment in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Campbell will give a lecture titled “We Must Do Better: Three Decades of Research, Collaboration and Mentorship to Improve the Safety and Health of Abused Women” from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 11, in Hodson Jacquelyn Campbell Hall Auditorium on the Homewood campus. Campbell has been engaged in advocacy policy work and has conducted research in the areas of family violence and health disparities related to trauma since 1980. She has published more than 220 articles and seven books on violence against women and was a member of the congressionally appointed U.S. Department of Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence. She currently chairs the board of directors of the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Ronald Gray, the William G. Robertson
Professor in Population and Family Planning at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, will close out the fall lineup with a lecture titled “Male Circumcision: The Short Cut to Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention” from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 7, in the Carey Business School’s Legg Mason Conference Center. Since 1994, Gray has been co–principal investigator of the Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda, which focuses primarily on HIV prevention and care. He was principal investigator of the trial on male circumcision for HIV prevention that demonstrated efficacy of circumRonald Gray cision for prevention of HIV, herpes virus and human papillomavirus in men. In addition to his research with the Rakai Program, Gray has been principal investigator on numerous international and domestic studies of reproductive and perinatal health, family planning and occupational reproductive hazards. Each lecture will be followed by a Q&A segment and reception. The series will continue this spring with details announced at a later date. G For more information on the series, go to www.jhu.edu/provost/lectures.
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September 7, 2010 • THE GAZETTE
NCI grant To move these new technologies toward use by physicians, a Cancer Nanomedicine Commercialization Working Group will be established and headed by John Fini, director of intellectual property for the university’s Homewood campus. This group will be responsible for managing and coordinating the translational process. Another special feature of the center will be its Validation Core, led by Pomper, who is also associate director of the Johns Hopkins In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center and director of the Johns Hopkins Small Animal Imaging Resource Program. “Validation is about assuring that the experimental products and results we generate are on target and able to measure the biological effects for which they’re intended,” he said. Searson and Pomper said the center will consist of four primary research projects. One project will seek methods to screen bodily fluids such as blood or urine for indicators of cancer found outside of the genetic code, indicators called epigenetic markers. Led by Tza-Huei “Jeff” Wang, associate professor of mechanical engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering; Stephen Baylin, the Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research in the School
WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU
Continued from page 1
Martin Pomper of the School of Medicine will serve as the center’s co-director, and Peter Searson of the Whiting School of Engineering as its director.
of Medicine; and James Herman, a professor of cancer biology in the School of Medicine, this project will use semiconductor nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots, and silica superparamagnetic particles to detect DNA methylation. Methylation adds a chemical group to the exterior of the DNA and is a biomarker frequently associated with cancer. A second project, led by Anirban Maitra, associate professor of pathology and oncology at the School of Medicine and the
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, will focus on curcumin, a substance found in the traditional Indian spice turmeric. In preclinical studies, curcumin has demonstrated anti-cancer properties but, because of its physical size, it is not readily taken up into the bloodstream or into tissues. Engineered curcumin nanoparticles, however, can more easily reach tumors arising in abdominal organs such as the pancreas, Maitra said. This team will try to determine whether
5
nanocurcumin, combined with chemotherapeutic agents, could become a treatment for highly lethal cancers, such as pancreatic cancer. Hyam Levitsky, professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, will lead a third project, which will seek to use a noninvasive method to monitor the effectiveness of vaccines for cancer and infectious diseases. A final project will build on the work of Justin Hanes and Craig Peacock, professors in the School of Medicine, to deliver therapies directly to small cell lung cancer tissue via mucus-penetrating nanoparticles. All research efforts will be supported by a nanoparticle engineering core, led by Searson, which will make and characterize a variety of nanomaterials. Another core, centering on bioinformatics and data sharing, will be led by Rafael Irizarry, professor of biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. G
Related websites Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology:
inbt.jhu.edu
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins:
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/ kimmel_cancer_center
Study: New Parkinson’s gene is linked to immune system By Maryalice Yakutchik
Johns Hopkins Medicine
A
hunt throughout the human genome for variants associated with common late-onset Parkinson’s disease has revealed a new genetic link that implicates the immune system and offers new targets for drug development. The long-term study involved a global consortium, including Johns Hopkins researchers from the Center for Inherited Disease Research, who performed genome wide association studies on more than 4,000 DNA samples, half from unrelated patients with Parkinson’s and half from healthy “controls.” The team confirmed that a gene in the human leukocyte antigen region was
Related websites Johns Hopkins Center for Inherited Disease Research:
www.cidr.jhmi.edu
‘Nature Genetics’:
www.nature.com/ng/index.html
strongly linked with Parkinson’s disease; this region contains a large number of genes related to immune system function. The new data, published Aug. 17 in Nature Genetics, bolster previous studies that hinted about a role for infections, inflammation and autoimmunity in Parkinson’s disease. This genetic finding demonstrates that inflammation isn’t simply a result of having the disease but somehow is involved as a player in its origin. “This is an exciting finding from a genome wide association study which is completely hypothesis-independent and bias-free, based solely on looking at the whole genome and finding out what genes might be related to Parkinson’s,” said Kimberly Doheny, an assistant professor in the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, assistant director of the university’s Center for Inherited Disease Research and director of the CIDR Genotyping Lab. It was long believed that common, lateonset Parkinson’s had no genetic components and that environmental factors were
the exclusive cause. Since genes were first implicated almost two decades ago, Parkinson’s has proved itself a “tough nut to crack,” Doheny said, adding that a handful of genomewide association studies done prior to this one revealed nothing new other than to confirm genes that previously had been found to confer risk. Setting this study apart, Doheny said, was the investigators’ meticulous choosing of patients and care of the DNA samples tested. The study’s principal investigator, Haydeh Payami of the New York State Department of Health, described CIDR’s contribution as “huge.” It took 18 years to build the study, according to Payami, at whose insistence the collection of DNA and clinical information was standardized using the most rigorous research criteria. Patients from whom samples were taken were tracked for at least a dozen years after their initial diagnoses to assure that they indeed had Parkinson’s, Payami said, explaining that about 20 percent of patients are actually misdiagnosed. A neurodegenerative disease affecting between 1 percent and 2 percent of people over the age of 65, Parkinson’s disease can be difficult to diagnose as no definitive test exists. Its symptoms, which include tremors, sluggish movement, muscle stiffness and difficulty with balance, can be caused by many other things, including other neurological disorders, toxins and even medications. The genomewide association study itself took about four months, Doheny said, and cost about $400 per sample tested; wholegenome sequencing costs about $10,000 per sample. Since 1996, CIDR has provided highquality genotyping services and statistical genetics consultation to “gene hunters”: researchers who are working to discover genes that contribute to common diseases by ferreting out variants in the genome. Its role in the Parkinson’s study was to assure that the genotyping dataset was of high quality, that data cleaning was done appropriately and that association analysis was stringent. “We now have another window into what may be going on in Parkinson’s,” Payami said. “This finding anchors the idea of immune system involvement in genetics and brings it out to the forefront in terms of where research should be directed.”
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen are protective against Parkinson’s disease, according to the study, but not everyone benefits from them to the same degree. The amount of risk reduction conferred by these drugs may vary widely depending on genetic differences, the researchers said. Investigating the connection between Parkinson’s disease and inflammation, especially in the context of the variable genetic makeups of individuals, likely would lead to better, more selective medicines for treatment.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease Research, Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, Intramural Research Program of the NIH at National Library of Medicine and Close to the Cure Foundation. The Johns Hopkins researchers involved in the study were Doheny and Elizabeth Pugh, also of the Center for Inherited Disease Research.
Physician/community advocate receives prestigious city award
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altimore Mayor Stephanie RawlingsBlake and Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot announced last week that Barbara Cook, medical director of the Access Partnership, also known as TAP, at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, is the winner of the 2010 Dr. Sebastian Russo Memorial Award. The award was created by the city’s Health Department in 2007 to recognize health care providers who have made significant contributions to their fields by providing dedicated and compassionate service to low-income individuals and families. Sebastian Russo, who died in 1980, was a family physician known for his tireless and devoted service to his patients. He made house calls, learned multiple languages to communicate more effectively, charged only when patients were able to pay and was embraced by his community. Cook, who retired from her role as president of Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, serves as the medical director for TAP, which provides free specialty-care access to uninsured patients who live in the neighborhoods around The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Bayview Medical Center in coordination with their dedicated primary care clinicians. “Dr. Cook has dedicated her life to helping the less fortunate,” Rawlings-Blake
Barbara Cook
said. “In the spirit of Dr. Russo, Dr. Cook established the first Hispanic Clinic at the East Baltimore Medical Center, providing a medical home to those without one and helping improve health outcomes in Baltimore City.” Added Barbot, “By taking steps to improve access to quality health care services, countless Baltimore families have benefited from Dr. Cook’s work at TAP. She is a truly worthy recipient of this prestigious award.”
6 THE GAZETTE • September 7, 2010 R E C O G N I T I O N
Five BME doctoral candidates named 2011 Siebel Scholars By Phil Sneiderman
Homewood
WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU
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ne graduate student is helping to create high-tech prosthetic hands that can be maneuvered by an amputee’s thoughts. Another is trying to convert ordinary skin cells into more useful stem cells. Still another is working to find signs of cancer in a single DNA molecule in a drop of blood. Yet another is making nanoparticles to carry important medicine past sticky barriers inside the human body. These are among the ambitious research projects being undertaken by five Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering doctoral students who were this year named recipients of Siebel Scholars awards. The meritbased program provides $35,000 to each student for use in the final year of graduate studies. The Johns Hopkins recipients were among 80 students from prominent graduate schools in the United States and China to be designated as the Class of 2011 Siebel Scholars. The California-based Siebel Foundation launched the Siebel Scholars program in 2000 to recognize exceptional students at the world’s leading graduate schools of business and computer science. With the Class of 2010, it expanded to include some of the world’s leading bioengineering programs, including those offered at Johns Hopkins. At Johns Hopkins, the Department of Biomedical Engineering is shared by the university’s School of Medicine and its Whiting School of Engineering. Siebel Scholars are selected by the deans of their respective schools on the basis of outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated qualities of leadership. Siebel Scholars also serve as key advisers to the foundation, guiding the development of innovative programs that it initiates. “We are honored to be acknowledged as one of the top bioengineering programs
Siebel Scholars Ying-Ying Wang, Ivy Dick, Vikram Aggarwal, Kelvin Liu and Prashant Mali will each receive $35,000 for use in his or her final year of graduate studies.
and to offer five of our outstanding graduate students entry into a vibrant community of exceptionally talented future leaders,” said Nick Jones, the Benjamin T. Rome Dean of the Whiting School. “The Siebel Scholars program expands our students’ opportunities for entrepreneurship and collaboration, which are themes already integral to our program.” “Today, more than 600 Siebel Scholars are active in a program that fosters leadership, academic achievement and the collaborative search for solutions to critical societal problems. We welcome these talented individuals to the Siebel Scholars Class of 2011,” said Karen Roter Davis, executive director of the Siebel Scholars Foundation. “Our conference on energy and climate this October, as well as this year’s thought-provoking regional events, will provide immediate opportunities for them to join our active, lifelong community of leaders who
are committed to working together with the Siebel Foundation to address critical social issues.” The Johns Hopkins doctoral students selected as 2011 Siebel Scholars in the bioengineering category are: • Vikram Aggarwal of Brampton, Ontario. Under the supervision of Nitish Thakor, a professor of biomedical engineering, Aggarwal is working on a way to translate electrical signals from the brain in order to directly control the mechanical movements of hands and fingers in a prosthetic arm. The research is part of a $30.4 million federal project, managed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, to develop new high-tech and highly dexterous mechanical limbs. • Ivy Dick, of Warren Township, N.J. Under the supervision of David T. Yue, a professor of biomedical engineering, Dick is studying the channels that allow calcium
to enter cells. Precise regulation of these channels is vital to maintaining healthy functions such as heart rhythm, memory and motor control. Dick is looking at what happens when this process goes awry in two variants of a disorder called Timothy syndrome. This research may lead to customized treatment of patients with this disorder. • Kelvin Liu of Arcadia, Calif. Under the supervision of Tza-Huei “Jeff” Wang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, Liu is developing technology capable of zeroing in on a single DNA molecule within a small sample of blood, urine or other bodily fluids. The molecule can then be analyzed for biomarkers linked to cancer and other health disorders. The goal is to produce a less invasive and less expensive way to conduct important medical tests, including cancer diagnostics and prenatal screening. • Prashant Mali of Pune, India. Under the supervision of Linzhao Cheng, an associate professor of hematology and a member of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering, Mali is developing techniques to convert easily obtained cells, such as from blood and skin, directly into stem cells that have the ability to form many different types of tissues and organs. To test the process, he is using cells from patients with sickle-cell disease. In addition, he is developing gene therapy tools to enable efficient correction of the cells’ underlying mutation. The goal is to derive autologous disease-free stem cells that potentially may be used to treat patients without triggering rejection. • Ying-Ying Wang of Northville, Mich. Under the supervision of Justin Hanes, a professor of ophthalmology and nanomedicine, Wang is developing nanoparticles that can quickly carry medications through the sticky mucus secretions that coat many human tissues, including in the lungs, the digestive tract and the reproductive system. Her goal is to produce effective localized treatments and preventive measures for cancer, sexually transmitted diseases and other health problems, with few side effects.
Lower blood pressure may preserve kidney function in some African-Americans appear to benefit from aggressive treatment for hypertension B y S t e p h a n i e D e sm o n
Johns Hopkins Medicine
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ntensively treating hypertension in some African-Americans with kidney disease by pushing blood pressure well below the current recommended goal may significantly decrease the number who lose kidney function and require dialysis, suggests a Johns Hopkins–led study published Sept. 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine. “This is not a panacea. We have a lot more to figure out. But our evidence suggests that we have a way to at least delay or possibly even prevent end-stage kidney disease in some patients,” said Lawrence J. Appel, a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study’s leader. End-stage kidney disease is the point at which patients need to be on dialysis or receive a kidney transplant in order to survive. Still, not everyone in the study was helped by the aggressive blood pressure treatment. Those patients who had little or no protein in their urine—that is, patients who were not as sick—saw their kidney disease progress at roughly the same rate regardless of how low they tried to get their blood pressure. It was the sicker patients—that is, those with protein in their urine—who benefited most from the more-intensive blood pressure therapy,
with roughly a 25 percent reduction in endstage kidney disease, as compared with those who met the standard blood pressure goal. Roughly one-third of the participants had higher amounts of protein in their urine. “This has always been a hot topic: Is a lower blood pressure goal better at preserving kidney function than the standard goal? The answer is a qualified yes, notably in people who have some protein in their urine,” Appel said. In the National Institutes of Health– sponsored African-American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension, or AASK, 1,094 hypertensive African-Americans with chronic kidney disease were randomized to one of two groups, both of which needed to get their blood pressure in check: standard blood pressure goal versus intensive (or lower) blood pressure goal. The first group’s goal was a blood pressure of roughly 140/90 (the standard target of doctors when treating hypertensive patients), while the second’s was approximately 130/80. Researchers lowered blood pressure through a combination of commonly used drugs. The patients were followed between 8.8 and 12.2 years. Chronic kidney disease is a major public health problem and one that is only growing, Appel said. In the United States, roughly one-third of cases of end-stage kidney disease—in which the kidneys no longer function and patients require dialysis or a transplant—are attributed to hypertension. The burden of kidney disease is especially high in African-Americans. Though they constitute only 12 percent of the population, African-Americans make up 32 percent of those with end-stage kidney disease.
African-Americans are four to 20 times more likely to reach end-stage kidney disease, Appel said, though researchers remain unsure of the reasons why. Physicians consider patients with blood pressure over 140/90 to be hypertensive, and they will often put those patients on blood pressure–lowering medication with the goal of getting them back below that hazardous threshold. In recent years, some doctors have suggested that their patients with kidney disease try to get their blood pressure lower than that to stave off the progression of kidney disease, though without much scientific evidence, Appel said. Appel said that his study suggests that physicians should check for protein in the urine before determining the blood pressure goal for African-Americans with kidney disease. If the patient has protein in the urine, a lower goal has the potential to slow the progression of kidney disease. But if the patient has little or no protein in the urine, Appel said, the study suggests that reaching the lower blood pressure goal is not worth the extra effort, and the standard goal is just as good. Getting hypertensive patients down to 130/80 takes more doctor visits and requires more medication—on average, one more blood pressure prescription. However, once the lower blood pressure level is achieved, keeping the blood pressure there is not particularly difficult. Even though the study found a benefit of aggressive blood pressure treatment in one group of hypertensive African-Americans with kidney disease, a significant number of those patients still ended up with end-stage kidney disease or worse. While roughly 90
percent of those who were in the standard blood pressure group saw their disease progress, about 75 percent of those in the aggressive therapy arm of the trial still progressed to a poor outcome. “That’s still pretty high,” Appel said. “The key is preventing early kidney damage in the first place.” More research is necessary, he said, to identify more factors that prevent early kidney damage, as well as factors that delay kidney disease progression among those who already have chronic kidney disease. The study was conducted at 20 medical centers in the United States. Other Johns Hopkins faculty and staff involved in the research were Edgar Miller, Brad Astor, Charalett Diggs, Jeanne Charleston and Charles Harris. The National Institutes of Health was the primary sponsor of the study. In addition, King Pharmaceuticals provided financial support and donated anti-hypertensive medications. Pfizer, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, Forest Laboratories, Pharmacia and Upjohn also donated medication.
Related websites Lawrence Appel:
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gim/ faculty/appel.html
AASK:
www.niddk.nih.gov/patient/aask/ aask.htm
September 7, 2010 • THE GAZETTE A R R A
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R E S E A R C H
Goal: Giving feeling to a damaged hand or prosthetic limb By Lisa De Nike
Homewood This is part of an occasional series on Johns Hopkins research funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. If you have a study you would like to be considered for inclusion, contact Lisa De Nike at lde@jhu .edu.
WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU
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Neuroscientist Steven Hsiao of the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute is leading a team working to decode how the brain processes sensations in hands.
and extract information about the size, shape and texture of objects. How the brain accomplishes this amazing feat is what we want to find out and understand.” Hsiao hypothesizes that our brains do this by transforming the inputs from receptors in our fingers and hands into “neural code” that the brain then matches against a stored central “databank” of memories of those objects. When a match occurs, the brain is able to perceive and recognize what the hand is feeling, experiencing and doing. In recent studies, Hsiao’s team found that neurons in the area of the brain that respond to touch are able to “code for” (understand) orientation of bars pressed against the skin, the speed and direction of motion and curved edges of objects. In
its stimulus-funded study, Hsiao’s team will investigate the detailed neural codes for more complex shapes, and will delve into how the perception of motion in the visual system is integrated with the perception of tactile motion. The team will do this by first investigating how complex shapes are processed in the somatosensory cortex (the part of the brain that responds to touch) and second, by studying the responses of individual neurons in an area that has traditionally been associated with visual motion but appears to also have neurons that respond to tactile motion (motion of things moving across your skin). “The practical goal of all of this is to find ways to restore normal sensory function to patients whose hands have been damaged, or to amputees with prosthetic or robotic arms and hands,” Hsiao said. “It would be fantastic if we could use electric stimulation to activate the same brain pathways and neural codes that are normally used in the
Related websites Steven Hsiao:
krieger.jhu.edu/mbi/research/hsiao
Steven Hsiao’s lab:
krieger.jhu.edu/mbi/hsiaolab
WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU
ack in 1980 when The Empire Strikes Back hit the big screen, it seemed like the most fantastic of science fiction scenarios: Luke Skywalker getting a fully functional bionic arm to replace the one he had lost to arch enemy Darth Vader. Thirty years later, such a device is more the stuff of fact and less of fiction, as increasingly sophisticated artificial limbs are being developed that allow users a startlingly lifelike range of motion and fine motor control. Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Steven Hsiao, however, isn’t satisfied that a prosthetic limb simply allows its user to move. He wants to provide the user the ability to feel what the artificial limb is touching, such as the texture and shape of a quarter, or the comforting perception of holding hands. Accomplishing these goals requires understanding how the brain processes the multitude of sensations that come in daily through our fingers and hands. Using a $600,000 grant administered through the federal stimulus act, Hsiao is leading a team that is working to decode those sensations, which could lead to the development of truly “bionic” hands and arms that use sensitive electronics to activate neurons in the touch centers of the cerebral cortex. “The truth is, it is still a huge mystery how we humans use our hands to move about in the world and interact with our environment,” said Hsiao, of the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute. “How we reach into our pockets and grab our car keys or some change without looking requires that the brain analyze the inputs from our hands
brain. I believe that these neural coding studies will provide a basic understanding of how signals should be fed back into the brain to produce the rich percepts that we normally receive from our hands.” Hsiao’s team’s investigations are among the 451 stimulus-funded research grants and supplements totaling more than $214.3 million that Johns Hopkins has garnered since Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (informally known by the acronym ARRA), bestowing the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation with $12.4 billion in extra money to underwrite research grants by September 2010. The stimulus package—which provided $550 billion in new spending, including the above grant—is part of the federal government’s attempt to bring back a stumbling economy by distributing dollars for transportation projects, infrastructure building, the development of new energy sources and job creation, and financing research that will benefit humankind. Johns Hopkins scientists have submitted about 1,500 proposals for stimulus-funded investigations, ranging from strategies to help recovering addicts stay sober and the role that certain proteins play in the development of muscular dystrophy to mouse studies seeking to understand how men and women differ in their response to the influenza virus. As of Aug. 31, 167 staff jobs have been created at Johns Hopkins directly from ARRA funding, not counting jobs saved when other grants ran out and not counting faculty and grad student positions supported by the ARRA grants.
On the steps of Gilman Hall, the Octopodes, the university’s oldest a cappella group, kicks off the festivities.
History Professor Richard Kagan conducts a seminar, ‘The Spanish Craze in the United States, 1890–1930.’
Guests gather for refreshments in the new atrium.
Gilman Continued from page 1 humanities departments, which are now all housed in what he called the “beating heart of our university.” “Today we understand and we celebrate the central role that the humanities play in exploring, explicating and illuminating society’s most challenging and most important
conundra,” Daniels said. “At a time of rapid change, our moorings in the humanities— who we are, what we value and how we understand beauty and wisdom and express our deepest yearnings—are more, and not less, important.” Newman, who had performed her first official duties as dean just the night before, joked in the opening of her remarks that she wished her office resided in this “beautiful” building. She then spoke of the great scholarship that has transpired within these walls, and of the great scholarship and understanding to come.
“We are here to celebrate the brilliant architecture, the capacious space, the community that will emerge in this building, but first and foremost we are here to celebrate the people,” she said. “The people of the past, the present and generations of students to come who have the extraordinary pleasure of working and learning in this building.” Following their remarks, Daniels and Newman cut a blue ribbon to commemorate the event and then flung open the doors for visitors to walk the gleaming halls. The open house included refreshments in
the building’s new atrium space, tours and seminars. The $73 million renovation has transformed the 1915 building into a modern academic facility while preserving its architectural integrity and historic spaces. The building has new offices, meeting spaces, state-of-the-art classrooms and 14,000 additional feet of usable space that includes a museum for the university’s archaeological collection. G For a slideshow of the evening’s activities, go to gazette.jhu.edu.
8 THE GAZETTE • September 7, 2010
September 7, 2010 • THE GAZETTE
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Scientists discover how chemical repellents trip up insects Better understanding of molecular-behavioral links could reduce feeding frenzy By Maryalice Yakutchik
Johns Hopkins Medicine
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ire up the citronella-scented tiki torches and slather on the DEET: Everybody knows that these simple precautions repel insects, notably mosquitoes, whose bites not only itch and irritate but also transmit diseases such as West Nile virus, malaria and dengue. Now, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered what it is in the bugs’ molecular makeup that enables citronellal (the aromatic liquid used in lotions, sprays and candles) and DEET to deter insects from landing and feeding on you. A better understanding of these molecular-behavioral links already is aiding the team’s search for moreeffective repellents. In separate studies published Aug. 26 in Neuron and Current Biology, the Johns Hopkins researchers reveal how mosquitoes and other insects taste DEET—a man-made compound that’s been the most widely used insect repellent for more than 50 years—and smell citronellal, a commonly used botanical repellent. Three taste receptors on the insects’ tongue and elsewhere are needed to detect DEET. Citronellal detection is enabled by porelike proteins known as TRP (pronounced “trip”) channels. When these molecular receptors are activated by exposure to DEET or citronellal, they send chemical messages to the insect brain, resulting in “an aversion response,” the researchers report. “DEET has low potency and is not as longlasting as desired, so finding the molecules in insects that detect repellents opens the door to identifying more-effective repellents for combating insect-borne disease,” said Craig Montell, a professor of biological chemistry
in the School of Medicine and a member of Johns Hopkins’ Center for Sensory Biology. Scientists have long known that insects could smell DEET, Montell notes, but the new study showing taste molecules also are involved suggests that the repellent deters biting and feeding because it activates taste cells that are present on the insect’s tongue, legs and wing margins. “When a mosquito lands, it tastes your skin with its gustatory receptors before it bites,” Montell said. “We think that one of the reasons DEET is relatively effective is that it causes avoidance responses not only through the sense of smell but also through the sense of taste. That’s pretty important because even if a mosquito lands on you, there’s a chance it won’t bite.” The Johns Hopkins study of the repellents, conducted on fruit flies because they are genetically easier to manipulate than mosquitoes, began with a “food choice assay.” The team filled feeding plates with high and low concentrations of color-coded sugar water (red and blue dyes added to the sugar), allowing the flies to feed at will and taking note of what they ate by the color of their stomachs: red, blue or purple (a combination of red and blue). Wild-type (normal) flies preferred the more-sugary water to the lesssugary water in the absence of DEET. When various concentrations of DEET were mixed in with the more-sugary water, the flies preferred the less-sugary water, almost always avoiding the DEET-laced sugar water. Flies that were genetically engineered to have abnormalities in three different taste receptors showed no aversion to the DEETinfused sugar water, indicating that the receptors were necessary to detect DEET. “We found that the insects were exquisitely sensitive to even tiny concentrations of DEET through the sense of taste,” Montell said. “Levels of DEET as low as fivehundredths of a percent reduced feeding behavior.” To add to the evidence that three taste receptors (Gr66a, Gr33a and Gr32a) are
required for DEET detection, the team attached recording electrodes to tiny taste hairs (sensilla) on the fly tongue and measured the taste-induced spikes of electrical activity resulting from nerve cells responding to DEET. Consistent with the feeding studies, DEET-induced activity was profoundly reduced in flies with abnormal or mutated versions of Gr66a, Gr33a, and Gr32a. In the second study, Montell and colleagues focused on the repellent citronellal. To measure repulsion to the vapors it emits, they applied the botanical compound to the inside bottom of one of two connected test tubes, and introduced about 100 flies into the tubes. After a while, the team counted the flies in the two tubes. As expected, the flies avoided citronellal. The researchers identified two distinct types of cell surface channels that are required in olfactory neurons for avoiding citronellal vapor. The channels let calcium and other small, charged molecules into cells in response to citronellal. One type of channel, called Or83b, was known to be required for avoiding DEET. The second type is a TRP channel. The team tested flies with mutated versions of 11 different insect TRP channels. The responses of 10 were indistinguishable from wild-type flies. However, the repellent reaction to citronellal was reduced greatly in flies lacking TRPA1. Loss of either Or83b or TRPA1 resulted in avoidance of citronellal vapor. The team then “mosquito-ized” the fruit flies by putting into them the gene that makes the mosquito TRP channel (TRPA1) and found that the mosquito TRPA1 substituted for the fly TRPA1. “We found that the mosquito version of TRPA1 was directly activated by citronellal,” said Montell, who discovered TRP channels in the eyes of fruit flies in 1989 and later in humans. Montell’s lab and others have tallied 28 TRP channels in mammals and 13 in flies, broadening understanding about how ani-
mals detect a broad range of sensory stimuli, including smells and tastes. “This discovery now raises the possibility of using TRP channels to find better insect repellents,” Montell said. There is a clear need for improved repellents, Montell said. DEET is not very potent or long-lasting except at very high concentrations, and it cannot be used in conjunction with certain types of fabrics. Additionally, some types of mosquitoes that transmit disease are not repelled effectively by DEET. Citronellal, despite being pleasant-smelling (for humans, anyway), causes a rash when it comes into contact with skin. The DEET research appearing in Neuron was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. The citronellal research appearing in Current Biology was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Authors of the DEET study published in Neuron, in addition to Montell, are Youngseok Lee and Sang Hoon Kim, also of Johns Hopkins. Authors of the citronellal study published in Current Biology, in addition to Montell, are Young Kwon, Kim, Lee, Bradley Akitake, Owen M. Woodward and William B. Guggino, all of Johns Hopkins. Two other authors, David Ronderos and Dean P. Smith, are from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Related websites Craig Montell:
neuroscience.jhu.edu/ CraigMontell.php
‘Neuron’:
www.cell.com/neuron
‘Current Biology’:
www.cell.com/current-biology
Street outreach workers important for violence prevention By Alicia Samuels
Bloomberg School of Public Health
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new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, based at the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, describes how using street outreach workers is an effective strategy for reaching and engaging youth with the goal of violence prevention and intervention. Street outreach workers are typically members of the community who intervene to prevent conflict and retaliation and, in some programs, also connect individuals with needed services, such as housing and job training. While cities across the United States are utilizing such workers as part of their violence prevention programs, including CeaseFire in Chicago and Safe Streets in Baltimore, this is the first peer-reviewed study on a program to be published. It is also the first evaluation of this type of program in a smaller community: The researchers studied the one run by the United Teen Equality Center, or UTEC, in Lowell, Mass., a city of 105,167 residents north of Boston. The results are published in the fall issue of Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action. Analysis of the data collected from interviews with UTEC managers, UTEC street workers and representatives from local community groups yielded five major factors that contribute to the UTEC street outreach workers program’s success: involvement of youth in hiring the street outreach workers, investment in quality training for the workers, providing workers with a comprehensive
benefits package and with team retreats to prevent staff turnover and burnout, establishment of community partnerships and incorporation of peacemaking into outreach. “These features should be considered both by communities with existing street outreach worker programs and by communities in the process of establishing one, as they have demonstrated importance for both program success and sustainability,” said lead author Shannon Frattaroli, an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management. The process of peacemaking—which typically involves engaging gang leaders in con-
flict mediation, convening peace circles, participating in a peace summit and organizing a peace council—is a unique feature of the Lowell program. The UTEC team has invested in peacemaking, it says, because it believes it has helped to reduce conflict among gangs that have participated in the process. Another integral aspect of the UTEC program is an emphasis on providing resources for creating viable alternatives to violence, such as education advancement, skills development and securing employment. “As communities around the country continue to struggle with how to address youth violence, it’s important to recognize that
young people need resources in addition to strategies that help them to negotiate conflict,” said co-author Keshia Pollack, also an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health Policy and Management. “Coupling support with essential services is a key to helping youth make healthy and safe transitions to adulthood.” Additional authors of the study are Karen Jonsberg and Jennifer S. Mendel, both of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy; and Gregg Croteau and JuanCarlos Rivera, both of the United Teen Equality Center. The research was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
School of Nursing welcomes its largest incoming class B y J o n at h a n E i c h b e r g e r
School of Nursing
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he Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing has welcomed its highest enrollment of entering baccalaureate students since it opened in 1984. The new class of 154 traditional baccalaureate students began its academic journey on Aug. 25. Combined with the total students in all baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral programs, the school has 775 students for the 2010–2011 academic year, the largest student body ever. The cohort is also more diverse than previous classes, with Asian, Hispanic,
African-American and Native American ethnicities all represented. The class also boasts 15 male students, the highest number since 2002, representing 10 percent of the incoming class. (The overall national average of male nurses is 6.6 percent.) The students hail from 21 states and 11 countries. “This increased enrollment is an encouraging sign that the nursing demand can be met,” said Sandra Angell, associate dean for student affairs. The school’s traditional baccalaureate program enrolls students entering their junior year who do not have a bachelor’s degree, and those pursuing a second bachelor’s degree. Seventy-six percent of the Class of 2012—118 students—already hold a baccalaureate degree.
Among the new online options the school is offering this academic year are Applied Health Informatics, Clinical Nurse Specialist, CNS-Forensic Focus, Health Systems Management, master’s program and Nurse Educator Certificate. A BS-to-MSN with Clinical Residency option will be offered in January. Angell noted that in addition to increasing numbers of nursing students, the new programs and formats offer a more customized nursing education. “We can now offer more options to our students so that they can pursue whatever professional goals they might have, and perhaps open some new doors they may not have thought of previously,” she said.
10 THE GAZETTE • September 7, 2010 P O S T I N G S
B U L L E T I N
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43084 43833 44899 44976 44290 44672 41388 44067 44737 44939 44555 44848 44648 44488 43425 43361 44554
POSITION
Academic Program Coordinator Grant Writer Maintenance Worker Food Service Worker LAN Administrator III Administrative Secretary Program Officer Research Program Assistant II Sr. Administrative Coordinator Student Affairs Officer Instructional Technologist Sr. Financial Analyst Assay Technician Research Technologist Research Nurse Research Scientist Administrative Specialist
School of Medicine
Office of Human Resources: 98 N. Broadway, 3rd floor, 410-955-2990 JOB#
38035 35677 30501 22150 38064
43015 43041 43060 43087 43115 43152 43244 43245 43250 43403 42291 42755 42771 42861 42942 43341 43395
LAN Administrator II Software Engineer DE Instructor, Center for Talented Youth Assistant Program Manager, Center for Talented Youth Residential Life Administrator Tutor Building Operations Supervisor Building Maintenance Technician Program Manager, Center for Talented Youth Admissions Officer Project Manager LDP Stationary Engineer Programmer Analyst Financial Manager Multimedia Technician Sr. Technical Support Analyst Research Service Analyst
44684 42973 43847 45106 45024 42939 43754 42669 44802 44242 44661 45002 44008 44005 41877 44583 44715 44065 44112 44989 44740 39063 44603
Biostatistician Clinical Outcomes Coordinator Sr. Programmer Analyst Employment Assistant/Receptionist Payroll and HR Services Coordinator Research Data Coordinator Malaria Adviser Data Assistant Budget Specialist Academic Program Administrator Sr. Research Program Coordinator Research Observer Manuscript Editor, American Journal of Epidemiology Research Service Analyst Health Educator Multimedia Production Supervisor Research Program Coordinator Research Data Manager Sr. Laboratory Coordinator Sr. Research Assistant Sr. Administrative Coordinator Research Assistant Budget Analyst
37442 37260 38008 36886 37890
Sr. Administrative Coordinator Sr. Administrative Coordinator Sponsored Project Specialist Program Administrator Sr. Research Program Coordinator
POSITION
Assistant Administrator Sr. Financial Analyst Nurse Midwife Physician Assistant Administrative Specialist
This is a partial listing of jobs currently available. A complete list with descriptions can be found on the Web at jobs.jhu.edu.
Woodcliffe Manor Apartments
S PA C I O U S
G A R D E N A PA RT M E N T L I V I N G I N
R O L A N D PA R K
• Large airy rooms • Hardwood Floors • Private balcony or terrace • Beautiful garden setting • Private parking available • University Parkway at West 39th St. 2 & 3 bedroom apartments located in a private park setting. Adjacent to Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus and minutes from downtown Baltimore.
410-243-1216
105 West 39th St. • Baltimore, MD 21210 Managed by The Broadview at Roland Park BroadviewApartments.com
Notices Professional Clothing Drive — The
Office of Work, Life and Engagement invites the Johns Hopkins community to donate new and gently used professional men and women’s clothing and handbags to formerly homeless, disabled and underprivileged individuals just entering or re-entering the workforce. Donations will be collected through Sept. 21 in support of the employment programs and services of the League for People with Disabilities, Million Dollar Man, Bea Gaddy’s Women and Children’s Center, Success in Style and Project PLASE. To locate a university drop-off site or to volunteer to coordinate the professional
B O A R D
clothing drive at the White Marsh, SAIS or Bayview campuses, contact Brandi MonroePayton at 443-997-6060 or bmonroe6@jhu .edu. For general information, go to www .hopkinsworklife.org/community/clothing_ drive.html. Hopkins Toastmasters — Individuals
who would like to polish their speaking skills before a seminar or scientific presentation, or to prepare for formal or extemporaneous speeches, are invited to join the Hopkins Toastmasters Club. The club meets every second or fourth Monday at alternating times: 1:15 to 2:15 p.m. (second Monday) or 5:30 to 7 p.m. (fourth Monday), in the Radiology Library, at 600 N. Wolfe St., Johns Hopkins Hospital. For more information, contact Mona Mohamed at 410-614-3431 or e-mail mnoureL1@jhmi.edu.
How to subscribe to Homewood information services
T
he Office of Communication and Public Affairs at Homewood offers e-mail news and other e-mail information services for interested members of the Johns Hopkins community. Here are details on what is available and how to subscribe: • Today’s News. A summary of news coverage about Johns Hopkins. An e-mail message each business day directs you to a Web page where the day’s news is compiled. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to sympa@lists .johnshopkins.edu. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the e-mail message, type the command: subscribe Todays Your Name (example: subscribe Todays John Doe). • Johns Hopkins news releases on science, health, medicine and engineering research. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to sympa@lists.johnshopkins.edu. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the e-mail message, type the command: sub-
Classifieds
scribe JHU_News Your Name (example: subscribe JHU_News Jane Doe). • Homewood Academic Council meeting minutes. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to sympa@lists.johnshopkins.edu. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the e-mail message, type the command: subscribe council_minutes Your Name (example: subscribe council_minutes John Doe). Homewood Academic Council minutes are also posted online at http://sites.jhu.edu/council/minutes. Campus Safety and Security also offers e-mail delivery of daily crime reports and periodic bulletins about crime, safety or security issues on or near the Homewood campus. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to sympa@lists.johnshopkins.edu. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the message, type the command: subscribe campussafety Your Name (example: subscribe campussafety Jane Doe). The reports are also posted online at www.jhu .edu/security/campus_crime.html.
Loving, trustworthy dog walker avail day/ eve, overnight sitting w/complimentary house-sitting services, impeccable references. 443-801-7487 or alwayshomepc@gmail.com.
Continued from page 11 etc, transcripts proofed, customized to your specifications. 410-374-3561 or silverdune@ hotmail.com.
Tutor available: all subjects/levels; remedial, gifted and talented; can also help w/college counseling, speech and essay writing, editing, proofreading, database design and programming. 410-337-9877 or i1__@hotmail.com.
Graduate student w/master’s degree in piano performance from Peabody is offering piano and harpsichord lessons; call for an interview. 425-890-1327.
Multi-platform application development/ debug, website/service deployment, IT consulting, rates as low as $40/hr. cathinfotec@ gmail.com.
Great photos: headshots for interviews/ auditions, family pictures, production shots, events. Edward S Davis photography and videography. 443-695-9988 or eddaviswrite@ comcast.net.
Absolutely flawless detailing; family-owned business for 10 yrs. Jason, 410-630-3311.
Affordable landscaper/certified horticulturist available to maintain existing gardens, also designing, planting or masonry; free consultations. David, 410-683-7373 or grogan .family@hotmail.com. Horse boarding and horses for lease, beautiful trails from farm; stall board, $500/mo or field board, $250/mo. 410-812-6716 or argye .hillis@gmail.com.
Need help with your JHU retirement plan investments portfolio? Free, confidential consultation. 410-435-5939 or treilly1@aol .com. Friday Night Swing Dance Club, open to public, no partners necessary, great bands. 410-663-0010 or www.fridaynightswing .com. Piano lessons w/Peabody doctorate, patient instruction, all levels/ages welcome. 410662-7951.
GIVE BLOOD A JHU Blood Drive is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 14, and Wednesday, Sept. 15, at the Glass Pavilion, Levering Hall, on the Homewood campus. Schedule a donation online at http://hopkinsworklife.org/community/blood_drive.html or call 443-997-6060.
September 7, 2010 • THE GAZETTE
Classifieds APARTMENTS/HOUSES FOR RENT
Baltimore City (Old Pimlico Rd), spacious, furn’d 2BR, 2BA condo in secure community, nr light rail and Summit Park ES, free prkng, swimming, tennis. $950/mo incl utils. Tinghuai, 443-846-8750 or tinghwu@ gmail.com. Baltimore City, updated 1BR condo in secure gated community, assigned prkng, swimming, tennis, nr hospital and university; option to own ($135,000). $1,200/mo incl utils. 410-951-4750. Canton, rehabbed 2BR, 2.5BA TH, second BR good size office or child’s rm, great location nr JHH. Courtney, 410-340-6762. Cedonia, 1BR apt w/new kitchen and BA, walk-in closet, W/D, priv entrance, deck, landscaped fenced yd, free prkng, nr JHH/ Homewood/Morgan State and public transportation, pets welcome. $710/mo + utils. 410-493-2435 or aprede1@yahoo.com. Charles Village, spacious 1BR apt, close to Homewood/JHMI shuttle, avail Oct 1. $782/mo + utils. 410-484-4224. Charles Village/Guilford, 1BR, 1BA apt w/ patio and priv entry, spacious living rm, full kitchen, dining area, safe neighborhood. $900/mo + elec. 410-529-3343. E Belvedere Ave, 2BR, 1.5BA apt, hdwd flrs, balcony, fp, kitchen, powder rm, living and dining areas, W/D in bsmt, 10 mins to Homewood campus, 15 mins to JHMI, 5-min walk to Belvedere Square. $875/mo + utils. 410-435-6417 or ankumar1120@ yahoo.com. Glen Burnie/Pasadena, waterfront w/boatlift, 2 lg BRs, 1BA, open flr plan. $1,800/mo. Frank, 410-980-0686. Hampden, 4BR, 1BA TH, 3 blks to the Avenue, walk to JHU, 2-car prkng pad. $1,600/mo. 410-303-2630. Hampden, 3BR, 2BA TH, dw, W/D, fenced yd, nr light rail. $1,100/mo + utils. 410-3782393. Hampden/Medfield, efficiency bsmt apt, walk to Cold Spring light rail. $650/mo incl utils. 443-600-7330. Hampden/Medfield, 4BR house, furn’d/ unfurn’d, laundry, priv prkng, walk to campus/shopping/public transit. $1,400/mo + utils. adecker001@yahoo.com. Lauraville, beautiful, sunny rm in historic neighborhood, nr JHH/JHU. $500/mo + utils. Melissa, 443-844-4094. Little Italy, 3BR, 2.5BA house. $2,000/mo. Marlena, rigatomarlena@gmail.com or www .postlets.com/rts/4252578. Mays Chapel/Timonium, 3- or 4BR EOG TH, 3.5BAs, family rm, deck, patio, fenced yd, nr good schools, pleasant green area great for walking/jogging, 5 mins to 695 via I-83, 5 mins to light rail. $1,600/mo + utils. 410-321-8889. Owings Mills, nice 3BR EOG TH, 2 full and 2 half-BAs, backs to trees on quiet street, 2 assigned prkng spaces, 5 mins to metro station. 410-258-5338. Owings Mills, 2BR, 2BA condo, W/D, walkin closets, storage, prkng, pool/tennis court privileges, backs to woods, conv to metro, walk to grocery, sm pets negotiable ($250 WYMAN COURT HICKORY HEIGHTS Beech Ave. adj. to JHU!
Studio from $570 1 BD Apt. from $675 2 BD from $785
Hickory Ave. in Hampden, lovely Hilltop setting!
2 BD units from $750, or, with Balcony - $785!
Shown by appointment - 410-764-7776
www.BrooksManagementCompany.com
11
M A R K E T P L A C E
nonrefundable deposit), pics avail, 1-yr lease. $1,100/mo (reduced). 410-336-7952 or ljohnsto@mail.roanoke.edu. Roland Park, spacious, furn’d 2BR, 2BA condo in secure area, W/D, walk-in closet, pool, cardio equipment, .5 mi to Homewood campus. $1,600/mo. 410-218-3547 or khassani@ gmail.com. Roland Park/Village of Cross Keys, totally renov’d 2BR, 1.5BA apt in secure gated community, W/D in unit, stainless steel appls, 2 garage prkng spots, swimming pool, tennis, 15 mins to JHH/JHU. $1,580/mo incl utils. Maxine, 410-580-1961 or 443-824-0190. Union Square, upscale and modern 1BR suite in Victorian TH in historic district, furn’d, flexible terms. $750/wk. 410-9883137, richardson1886@gmail.com or http:// therichardsonhouse.vflyer.com/home/flyer/ home/1931153. Upper Fells Point (Wolfe St), 3BR, 2.5BA RH, renov’d kitchen w/all appls, W/D, CAC, loft space, balcony, walk to JHMI. $1,800/ mo. anantmurthy@yahoo.com. Waverly (E 33rd St at Westerwald Ave), spacious, remodeled 4BR, 1.5BA, partly furn’d, W/D, CAC/heat, alarm, storage, new deck, garage, no smokers/no pets, 2 blks to YMCA/Giant. $1,450/mo + sec dep. e33rdstreet@gmail.com. 2BR luxury sublet in historic bldg, 1,000 sq ft, furn’d, 5 mins to Homewood campus, avail Oct 1 to July 31. $1,450/mo incl all utils. imonette@hotmail.com. New studios (8) avail in secure historic bldg, nr JHU shuttle. $675/mo-$800/mo. ecolib@ verizon.net. 4BR, 2.5BA house, kitchen, living rm, dining rm, utility rm, full front porch, nr hiking/ biking trails, 15 mins west of campus. $2,000/ mo. dogwood5300@yahoo.com (pics/info).
HOUSES FOR SALE
Arcadia/Beverly Hills (3019 Iona Terrace), spacious, renov’d 4BR, 2.5BA detached house in beautiful neighborhood, open kitchen/dining area, deck, landscaped, mins to Homewood campus. $229,900. 410-294-9220. Baltimore County, 2BR, 1BA single-family house on hillside overlooking city skyline, hdwd flrs, off-street prkng, nr public transit. $156,500. 443-604-2797 or lexisweetheart@ yahoo.com. Bayview area, 3BR, 1.5BA house on 1/3 acre, gorgeous new kitchen and BA, 2-car+ garage, 12 mins to Bayview. $253,000. hamptonhand@aol.com. Canton area, 2BR, 2.5BA house. Price reduced. www.715miltonave.com. Gardenville, 3BR, 1.5BA RH in quiet neighborhood, new kitchen and BA, CAC, hdwd flrs, club bsmt w/cedar closet, fenced, maintenance-free yd w/carport, 15 mins to JHH. $142,000. 443-610-0236 or tziporachai@ juno.com. Old Greenbelt (suburban DC), quiet 1BR, co-op handles most maintenance. $122,000. www.39hridge.com. White Marsh (Baltimore County), renov’d 4BR, 2.5BA house nr mall, 2,900 sq ft, must see. $229,000. 410-241-8936. Charming 3BR, 2BA condo, separate garage, Buying, Selling or Renting? “Leave all your worries to me.” Maria E. Avellaneda Realtor & MD Certified Interpreter
www.mariaismyagent.com
410-672-3699 908-240-7792
walking distance to university, great buy, low $200s. 443-848-6392 or sue.rzep2@verizon .net. Lg 1BR condo in luxury high-rise nr Guilford/JHU, W/D, CAC/heat, swimming pool, exercise rm, secure bldg w/doorman. $180,000. 757-773-7830. 3BR, 2BA Victorian shingle-style house, office, fp, AC, garage, nr Eddie’s (Roland Park), schools; buyer’s agent fine. 443-5620595. Beautiful craftsmanship can be yours, very close to all JH campuses; price reduced. 302981-6947 or www.3402mountpleasantavenue .canbyours.com.
ROOMMATES WANTED
Lg BR in 2BR, 2BA apt in Baltimore City, own BA, flexible terms. 410-624-8062 or klae23@hotmail.com. F nonsmoker wanted to share spacious 4BR, 4.5BA TH in Canton, prking space provided, no pets. $660/mo + 1/2 utils. mdodds687@gmail.com. F nonsmoker wanted for 1BR in 2BR apt at 505 W University Pkwy, AC, heat, hot water and gas incl’d, no pets, starting in September. $515/mo + 1/2 elec. gwxts5@gmail.com. Rm in Canton (S Streeper St), great area, lots to do, share w/1 respectful roommate. $675/mo + utils. 970-576-5476 or navitatl@ hotmail.com. F grad student/young prof’l wanted for furn’d 2-flr loft apt, 24-hr security, gym, laundry, nr University of Maryland/JHU/UB, nr JHU shuttle/metro, walk to Inner Harbor/Lexington Market, pref nonsmoker. $850/mo. 443-310-3450.
CARS FOR SALE
’99 BMW 328i, maroon w/beige leather, premium sound, new battery and tires, excel cond, 42K mi. $10,000/best offer. alvin.stuff .for.sale@gmail.com. ’05 Jeep Liberty Renegade, 4x4, tan/beige, all options, dependable, 55K mi. $11,500/ best offer. 240-401-6602. ’99 Toyota Camry LE, 4-cyl, automatic, in good cond, insp’d, 135K mi. $3,300. 410916-5858. ’97 Lincoln Town Car, loaded, garage-kept, nice and clean. $3,900. 410-980-0686.
ITEMS FOR SALE
3-step ladders (2), printer, reciprocating saw, beach chairs (2), digital piano, dresser w/ shelves. 410-455-5858 or iricse.its@verizon .net. Queen-size Ikea futon, $149; queen bed w/mattress, $159; poang chair, $55; Ikea “Billy” bookshelves, $15/ea; oak dining table w/2 chairs, extendable, $129; square oak coffee table, $49; lg vintage oak desk, $129. 443-248-1169 or mckeightley@hotmail.com (pics/info).
both in lightly worn cond. $50/ea or best offer. Joyce, 410-493-1045. Comic collection, 300+, mid-80s to mid2000s, Marvel, DC and Image, kept in bags/ boards, $300; Nintendo 32-bit game sys, w/ console, controllers (2), gun, games (2), great cond, $100; ESP M-155 guitar, gunmetal blue, barely used, 15W Squier amp incl’d, $150; best offers accepted. cavergas@gmail.com. 3-pc full-size bedroom set, headboard w/drawers, bedframe, dresser w/mirror, chest; mattress not incl’d. $150. balt.furniture4sale@ hotmail.com. Desk lamp, $10; iron, $13; tabletop ironing board, $10. 310-409-7692 or andrea.hobby@ gmail.com. Old cabinet Singer sewing machines (2); new JVC VCR, never used; HP computer, monitor and printer w/Windows XP; children’s hamper and toy chest; Baby Einstein Exersaucer; blue Bumbo baby seat w/ tray; Bright Stars baby bouncer; best offers accepted. Chris, 443-326-7717. Werner aluminum ladders: $133 for 40' or $56 for 24'; Craftsman 10" radial arm saw, model# 22010, $300. 410-207-5467. Kawai upright piano, made of pecan wood, excel tone. $1,100. 410-235-2522. Exercise rowing machine, $50; Conn alto saxophone, best offer; both in excel cond. 410-488-1886. Desk, like new, $20; TV, $40; Ikea bed and mattress w/2 pillows, $120. ngc7135@yahoo .it. Lg collection of books, both old and new, fiction or nonfiction. $50. 443-912-3690.
SERVICES/ITEMS OFFERED OR WANTED
Reliable afterschool nanny needed in Towson, 5 days/wk, 2:45-6pm, for kids 3 and 6, must have own car; job requires picking up kids from school. stephanie.desmon@gmail .com. Careful, experienced, warm-hearted babysitter needed for 14-mo-old boy, pref Chinese living nr Homewood campus. $40-$50 per day (based on experience). 443-845-5987. Patterson Park family is looking for help w/2-yr-old and 4-yr-old children, afterschool childcare and occasional wknds. 917-3095792 or dr.mosley@alumni.upenn.edu. Mature, reliable babysitter available, loves kids, has excel refs. 443-653-1908 or acc7802@hotmail.com. Weekend help wanted for fall planting in Reisterstown—planting sm trees/shrubs, spreading mulch; you provide references, I’ll provide transportation/food/drinks. $50 per day. jchris1@umbc.edu. Need papers typed? Editing help? Prof’l creative writer will assist. Alonzo, 443-6833023 or adljr@comcast.net. Housecleaning at reasonable rates, petfriendly, detailed, dependable. 443-528-3637 or www.goldencleaningservice.com. Transcription service by JHU staff member: lectures, panel discussions, oral histories,
Two pairs of Dansko shoes: size 40, dk brown suede leather, and size 39, black leather,
Continued on page 10
PLACING ADS Classified listings are a free service for current, full-time Hopkins faculty, staff and students only. Ads should adhere to these general guidelines: • One ad per person per week. A new request must be submitted for each issue. • Ads are limited to 20 words, including phone, fax and e-mail.
• We cannot use Johns Hopkins business phone numbers or e-mail addresses. • Submissions will be condensed at the editor’s discretion. • Deadline is at noon Monday, one week prior to the edition in which the ad is to be run. • Real estate listings may be offered only by a Hopkins-affiliated seller not by Realtors or Agents.
(Boxed ads in this section are paid advertisements.) Classified ads may be faxed to 443-287-9920; e-mailed in the body of a message (no attachments) to gazads@jhu.edu; or mailed to Gazette Classifieds, Suite 540, 901 S. Bond St., Baltimore, MD 21231. To purchase a boxed display ad, contact the Gazelle Group at 410-343-3362.
12 THE GAZETTE • September 7, 2010 S E P T .
7
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1 3
Calendar “Elections Review: Rwanda and Burundi,” a SAIS African Studies Program discussion with Nancy Welch, National Endowment for Democracy. Co-sponsored by Search for Common Ground. For information and to RSVP, e-mail rokun@ sfcg.org. Kenney Auditorium, Nitze Bldg. SAIS
Wed., Sept. 8, 9 a.m.
Sept.
8,
12:15
EB
“The New Face of Rural Poverty in China,” a SAIS China Studies Program discussion with Alan Piazza, World Bank. To RSVP, e-mail zji@jhu .edu. Kenney Auditorium, Nitze Bldg. SAIS
Wed., Sept. 8, 5 p.m.
“Overcoming the Odds: Learning From the Lives of Youth Affected by HIV,” an International Health discussion with three young people affected by HIV. Co-sponsored by Catholic Relief Services. W1020 SPH. EB
Fri., Sept. 10, noon.
G RA N D ROU N D S
“Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism—The Johns Hopkins VTE Collaborative 2010,” Pathology Grand Rounds with Michael Streiff, SoM. Hurd Hall. EB
Mon., Sept. 13, 8:30 a.m.
I N FOR M AT I O N SESSIONS
Tour of MSE Library and Introduction to Research, a guide to locating journals, books and DVDs; generating quick bibliographies; accessing databases and journals from off-campus; and other timesaving strategies. Electronic Resource Center, M-level, MSE Library. HW Thurs., Sept. 9, 4:30 p.m.
LE C TURE S
“The Second Sex,” a Humanities lecture by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, whose new translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s book by the same name was recently released. Co-sponsored by the Women, Gender and Sexuality Program and the Centre Louis Marin. 208 Gilman. HW
Wed., Sept. 8, noon.
MUSIC
Organ recital by Russian-born virtuoso Daniel Zaretsky. (See story, this page.) $15 general admission, $10 for senior citizens and $5 for students with ID. Griswold Hall.
Baltimore author Laura Lippman will read from and sign copies of her latest book, I’d Know You Anywhere. Barnes & Noble Johns Hopkins.
Tues., Sept. 7, 7 p.m.
HW
Daniel Zeretsky
Benjamin Verdery
Peabody season opens Sunday with organ and guitar recitals
Film director and Baltimore icon John Waters will sign copies of his latest book, Role Models. Barnes & Noble Johns Hopkins. HW
Sat., Sept. 11, 1 p.m.
Wed. to Fri., Sept. 8 to 10.
Peabody Institute
T
he 2010–2011 concert season at the Peabody Institute will open on Sunday, Sept. 12, with two recitals by guest artists, each a virtuoso on his instrument. The weeks that follow will offer concertgoers the first public performance at Peabody on a recently acquired 17th-century violin, the season’s first orchestral concert and the first recital in Peabody’s distinguished Adalman series. Daniel Zaretsky will give an organ recital at 4 p.m. on Sept. 12 featuring works by J.S. Bach, Ernst Kohler, Eugene Gigout, Louis Vierne and others. Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, Zaretsky studied at the Leningrad and Kazan state conservatories and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In 1991, he won the Russian National Organ Competition and received the third prize in the Speyer International Organ Competition in Germany. He currently serves as organist of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall. Also on Sept. 12, Benjamin Verdery, professor of guitar at the Yale School of Music, will perform at 6:30 p.m. at the Towson campus of the Peabody Preparatory. The recital, a benefit for the Preparatory’s Guitar Department, is part of the 2010 Fret Festival, a daylong celebration of the guitar. At 3 p.m. on the following Sunday, Sept. 19, the chair of the Peabody Conservatory’s Strings Department, Keng-Yuen Tseng, will give the first public performance at Peabody on the Kostoff Maggini, a 17th-century violin made by Brescian master Giovanni Paolo Maggini and recently donated to Peabody by Karl Kostoff, a one-time professional musician and former staff member at the university’s Applied Physics Laboratory. The first orchestral concert of the Peabody season will take place at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 28, when the Peabody Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major and Duo Ye No. 2 by contemporary Chinese composer Chen Yi. The soloist for the Mozart concerto will be junior Gleb Kanasevich, winner of the Peggy & Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. Hajime Teri Murai, the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Director of Orchestral Activities, will conduct. There will be eight concerts in the Sylvia Adalman Artist Recital Series this season, starting on Tuesday, Oct. 5, with a performance by Conservatory faculty artist Alexander Shtarkman, piano. The program includes Mozart’s Sonata No. 12 in F major, Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales and Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Petrouchka, an arrangement for piano by the composer of music from the ballet. The Sylvia Adalman Artist Recital Series is available as an eight-concert subscription. Adalman subscribers also receive discounted parking and may attend the Sept. 19 recital by Keng-Yuen Tseng as a free bonus concert. More information about this subscription option and others is available at www.peabody.jhu.edu/subscribe. Most tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for students with ID. Tickets for the Verdery benefit concert are $20; admission to the Fret Festival workshops and concert is $35 ($30 for Preparatory students and parents). For more information, call the Box Office at 410-234-4800. For the complete Peabody calendar of events, go to www.peabody.jhu.edu/events.
Rosh Hashana services. For more information, call 410-516-0333 (Conservative and Reform) or 410-243-3700 (Orthodox). HW Conservative. Led by Jewish Theological Seminary student Rabbi Ravid Tilles, sponsored by Hopkins Hillel; Glass Pavilion, Levering Hall, unless otherwise noted. Wed., 7 p.m.; Thurs., 9:15 a.m. ; Tashlich, following lunch, meet at Levering; and 7 p.m. (evening service, Smokler Center). Lunches and dinners for students follow all services. Advance registration requested: www.hopkinshillel.org. (Thursday and Friday lunches in Levering, free for students; other meals in the Smokler Center, $17 per dinner for students with advance reservations). Reform. Led by Rabbi Debbie Pine, sponsored by Hopkins Hillel; evening service only. Wed., 7 p.m. , Smokler Center. Orthodox. Led by Rabbi Zev Gopin, sponsored by Chabad of Central Baltimore and JHU; Inn at the Colonnade, 4 W. University Parkway. Wed., 7:30 p.m.; Thurs. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. Dinner follows Wednesday evening services; $10 for students, $25 for community members; reservations required; www.chabadhopkins.org. S E M I N AR S
“Controlled Cellular Microenvironments,” a Geography and Environmental Engineering seminar with Javier Atencia, National Institute of Standards and Technology. 234 Ames. HW
Tues., Sept. 7, 3 p.m.
Tues., Sept. 7, 4:30 p.m. “Lifted Message Passing,” a Center for Language and Speech Processing seminar with Kristian Kersting, Fraunhofer IAIS. B17 CSEB. HW
“Inference for Dynamic Treatment Regimes,” a Biostatistics seminar with Susan Murphy, University of Michigan. W2030 SPH. EB
Wed., Sept. 8, 4 p.m. Sun., Sept. 12, 6:30 p.m. Benefit concert by Benjamin Verdery, professor of guitar, Yale School of Music. The recital benefits Peabody Preparatory’s guitar department and is part of the 2010 Fret
Festival, a daylong celebration of the guitar. (See story, this page.) $20 (admission to festival workshops and the benefit concert is $35 general admission and $30 for Preparatory students
ogy seminar with Bruce Goode, Brandeis University. Suite 2-200, 1830 Bldg. EB Thurs., Sept. 9, 1 p.m. “Hippocampal Memory Reactivation,” a Neuroscience seminar with Matthew Wilson, MIT. West Lecture Hall (ground floor), WBSB. EB Thurs.,
Sept.
9,
1:30
p.m.
“Genetic Controls of Inflammatory Marker Levels in Families With Early Onset Coronary Artery Disease,” an Epidemiology thesis defense seminar with Bhoom Suktitipat. W2017 SPH. EB Fri., Sept. 10, 2 p.m. “Evaluation of Respondent-Drive Sampling (RDS) to Recruit Illicit Drug Users in New York City, 2006–2009,” an Epidemiology thesis defense seminar with Abby Rudolph. W3030 SPH. EB Fri., Sept. 10, 4 p.m. “Characterizing Unexpected Inhibitors of HIV-1 Replication,” a Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences thesis defense seminar with Moira McMahon. 303 WBSB. EB
“Molecular Recognition of Chromatin: Crystal Structure of the Chromatin Factor RCC1 in Complex With the Nucleosome Core Particle,” a Biophysics seminar with Song Tan, Penn State University. 111 Mergenthaler. HW
Mon., Sept. 13, noon.
REL I G I O N
By Richard Selden
Sun., Sept. 12, 4 p.m.
Peabody
Mon., Sept. 13, 6:25 to 8 p.m. Open house and reception
READ I N G S / B OO K TAL K S
p.m.
“Process and Update: Faculty, Research and Public Health Practice,” a Mental Health departmental self-study panel discussion with George Rebok, SPH; Peter Zandi, SPH; and Pierre Alexandre, SPH. B14B Hampton House.
O P E N HOU S E S
for the Certificate on Aging program. RSVP to 410-516-4842 or odyssey@jhu.edu. Sponsored by Advanced Academic Programs. 3 Shaffer. HW
D I S C U S S I O N / TAL K S
Wed.,
and parents). For more information, go to www.peabody.jhu.edu/ fretfestival. Peabody Prep Towson, 949 Dulaney Valley Rd.
Thurs., Sept. 9, noon. “Rise of the Actin Machines,” a Cell Biol-
“SUMOTargeted Ubiquitin Ligases as Molecular Selectors,” a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology seminar with Amir Orian, TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology. W1020 SPH. EB
Mon., Sept. 13, noon.
W OR K S HO P S The Center for Educational Resources presents a series of
information sessions on the Blackboard 9.1 interface. The training is open to anyone who will be accessing a Blackboard site as an administrator or TA. To register, go to www.cer.jhu.edu. Garrett Room, MSE Library. HW •
Tues., Sept. 7, and Thurs., Sept. 9, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.; Mon., Sept. 13, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. “Getting
Started With Blackboard.” •
Wed., Sept. 8, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. “Blackboard
Communication and Collaboration.” •
Fri., Sept. 10, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. “Assessing
Student Knowledge and Managing Grades in Blackboard.”
Calendar Key APL BRB CRB CSEB
(Events are free and open to the public except where indicated.)
Applied Physics Laboratory Broadway Research Building Cancer Research Building Computational Science and Engineering Building EB East Baltimore HW Homewood KSAS Krieger School of Arts and Sciences PCTB Preclinical Teaching Building SAIS School of Advanced International Studies SoM School of Medicine SoN School of Nursing SPH School of Public Health WBSB Wood Basic Science Building WSE Whiting School of Engineering