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January 9, 2012

The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University

T E A C H I N G

Volume 41 No. 17

A D M I N I S T R A T I O N

A new leader for Johns Hopkins Medicine

Inaugural GSI grants announced

By Greg Rienzi

The Gazette

Continued on page 9

2

will kirk / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

H

ow do you improve on a good thing? Johns Hopkins science faculty and staff have plenty of ideas and next week will show the JHU community what they have in mind.

As part of the university’s Gateway Sciences Initiative, the President’s 10 pilot and Provost’s programs to offices sponsored a grant program to identify and fund be unveiled a set of pilot projects that will both at Jan. 20 improve current gateway science symposium courses and point the way to potentially larger changes in pedagogy, course and program design, and instructional methodologies.

The Provost’s Office announced the 10 winners of the inaugural Gateway Sciences Initiative grants on Jan. 5, and the recipients will be spotlighted in the upcoming institutionwide Symposium on Teaching Excellence in the Sciences (see box).

The winning proposals include a major redesign of the yearlong general physics courses, a new course called Applied Chemical Equilibrium and Reactivity With Laboratory to target incoming freshmen, the development of hundreds of Khan Academy–like math education videos to illustrate examples from textbooks, a new introductory statistics course that uses a case-study approach, a spatial reasoning assessment for incoming freshmen and an activelearning eStudio project that will provide a shared space for gateway science courses offered across the curriculum.

The eStudio will feature a cluster of movable multistudent pods, each with a tablet PC, a large flat-panel display and a whiteboard. At the center of the eStudio, an instructor’s station will be able to control audio capability, all room monitors and projection screens to highlight student work. Students will be able to share information across pods, and

Preparing to introduce Paul Rothman, second from left, to the East Baltimore campus community are President Ron Daniels, JHM board chair Frank Burch, Provost Lloyd Minor, Dean of Medicine/JHM CEO Ed MIller, Johns Hopkins Hospital President Ron Peterson and JHU board chair Pam Flaherty.

By Dennis O’Shea

University Administration

D

octor, scientist, teacher, mentor, administrator, leader.

The incoming dean of the School of Medicine and chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine is all of these.

But which came first?

“My love of science developed first, in high school,” Paul Rothman said. “It was during college that the idea of being a physician first developed, as a mechanism to pursue discovery in a way that might be more directly applicable to curing diseases.”

From there, Rothman, 53, has added new role after new role to his resume, culminating in his appointment Dec. 19 to what he says is “my dream job.”

“I’m thrilled, humbled and honored to have

been chosen,” said Rothman, currently dean of the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa and leader of that university’s clinical practice plan.

Rothman, a rheumatologist and molecular immunologist, will join Johns Hopkins on July 1, succeeding Edward D. Miller, who will retire after 15 years as both the School of Medicine’s 13th dean Continued on page 6

C O L L A B O R A T I O N S

Moving new medical devices from labs to patients

By Phil Sneiderman

Homewood

T

he Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering has received a Coulter Foundation Translational Partnership Award that will result in $5 million in funding over the next five years to speed the movement of new medical devices out of the university’s labs and into hospitals and doctor’s offices.

In Brief

Mediation program; cancer immune therapies licensed; JHM International inks Kuwaiti deal

12

The money will support collaborations between Johns Hopkins physicians and biomedical engineering faculty in designing and developing innovative medical devices and diagnostics that can significantly improve the testing and treatment of medical patients and reduce health care costs. The program’s goal is to identify and fund projects annually and guide them from the lab through early commercial development. Student researchers can participate in developing these projects.

“Johns Hopkins already has a reputation for

C ALE N D AR

Intro to Blackboard; Community Forum on Violence Prevention; Carey programs

delivering first-rate clinical care to patients,” said Elliot McVeigh, director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “This grant will allow us to similarly showcase our skills in developing and sharing wonderful new devices that can help enhance the medical care that patients receive.”

To support this goal, the Miami-based Wallace H. Coulter Foundation has agreed to provide $667,000 annually over each of Continued on page 3

10 Job Opportunities 10 Notices 11 Classifieds

2 9, 2012 2 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• January August 15, 2011

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I N B R I E F

Mediation program to resolve workplace conflicts is launched

T

he university has introduced a voluntary mediation process to eligible staff as a form of alternative dispute resolution to resolve workplace conflicts. The program aims to bring people together with trained mediators in an informal setting to enhance communication and understanding.

Examples of conflicts are communication problems with a supervisor or co-worker, a disagreement of how things should be done or frustration that your input is being ignored.

The program’s mediators—trained university staff who volunteer their time—help identify the issues that need to be resolved, generate alternatives for resolution, pinpoint areas of agreement and, if participants desire, help create a written agreement of their proposed resolution agreement. The sessions are held in a private and neutral setting.

Johns Hopkins has previously offered mediation services but not in a structured and universitywide program. To learn more or to request a session, go to mediation.jhu .edu or contact mediation@jhu.edu.

JHM International agrees to collaboration with Kuwait

J

ohns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) and the Ministry of Health of Kuwait have signed a five-year agreement that calls for JHI to assist Kuwait in improving health care delivery at four of Kuwait’s five secondary-care public hospitals and in developing in-country talent in hospital administration and clinical care.

The agreement was signed Dec. 25 by His Excellency Mustafa Gasim Al Shamali, Kuwait’s minister of finance and of health, and Steve Thompson, CEO of JHI. According to the terms of the agreement, JHI will transfer knowledge in clinical and ancillary departmental protocols, continuing medical education, patient safety, preventive medicine, nursing and health care policy; help inaugurate management and clinical certificate programs for health care providers; and work with clinicians, nurses, hospital managers and administrators to better address medical issues and share innovations in the fields of trauma, orthopedics, rehabilitation, diabetes and obstetrics, pediatrics and telemedicine.

Technology for cancer immune therapies licensed to NexImmune

J

ohns Hopkins Technology Transfer has granted a license for Artificial Immune nanotechnology to NexImmune, a startup company formed in part by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty members who are also involved in the development of the technology. AIM, which involves engineering artificial cells

Editor Lois Perschetz Writer Greg Rienzi P r od u c t i o n Lynna Bright C op y E d i t o r Ann Stiller P h o t og r a p h y Homewood Photography

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to stimulate specific immune responses, represents a potentially important advance in the development of immunotherapies for a variety of cancers and other diseases.

Central to AIM technology is the artificial antigen–presenting cell developed in the laboratory of Jonathan Schneck, a professor of pathology, oncology and medicine, and director of the Human Immunology Program at the Institute for Cellular Engineering. Natural antigen–presenting cells direct the immune system cells in attacks on targeted antigens and cells. However, under certain disease conditions, APCs can be damaged, absent or inactive. The AIM technology holds potential for use in immunotherapy because artificial APCs can be engineered to orchestrate the immune system in a highly specific attack.

NexImmune was founded by the faculty inventors of the AIM technology at Johns Hopkins and a team of entrepreneurs affiliated with Noble Life Sciences in Gaithersburg, Md., where the company is located.

HIV treatment discovery is called Breakthrough of the Year

T

he finding of a team of researchers that HIV treatment with antiretroviral drugs can actually prevent transmission of the virus from an infected person to his or her uninfected partner has been named Breakthrough of the Year for 2011 by the journal Science.

The clinical trial, known as HPTN 052, demonstrated that early initiation of ARV therapy in people infected with HIV reduces transmission of the virus to their partners by 96 percent. The findings end a long-standing debate over whether ARV treatment of HIV-infected individuals can provide a double benefit by treating the virus in individual patients while simultaneously cutting transmission rates, according to the journal.

It’s now clear that ARV treatment can also reduce HIV transmission.

The results were called “astounding” by Anthony Fauci, the government’s top HIV researcher.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins provided oversight and support for all the laboratory testing in the trial, and also performed quality assurance testing and other specialized testing for samples coming from study sites.

“This research moves the field of HIV prevention science forward, leading us on a path toward curbing the HIV epidemic,” said Susan H. Eshleman, a professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and head of the Network Laboratory for the HIV Prevention Trials Network, which supported the trial.

Four other Hopkins researchers were among the authors of the study, the results of which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in August. They are Estelle Piwowar-Manning, Taha E. Taha, David Celentano and Joel Gallant.

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, Ekaterina 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 Communications 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.

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January 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

3

I D E A S

Time for a change? Scholars say calendar needs serious overhaul

By Lisa De Nike

Homewood

R

esearchers at The Johns Hopkins University have discovered a way to make time stand still—at least when it comes to the yearly calendar.

Using computer programs and mathematical formulas, Richard Conn Henry, an astrophysicist in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Steve H. Hanke, an applied economist in the Whiting School of Engineering, have created a new calendar in which each 12-month period is identical to the one that came before, and remains that way in perpetuity.

Under the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, for instance, if Christmas fell on a Sunday in 2012 (and it would), it would also fall on a Sunday in 2013, 2014 and beyond.

In addition, under the new calendar, the rhyme “30 days hath September, April, June and November” would no longer apply because September would have 31 days, as would March, June and December. All the rest would have 30. (Try creating a rhyme using that.)

“Our plan offers a stable calendar that

is absolutely identical from year to year and which allows the permanent, rational planning of annual activities, from school to work holidays,” said Henry, who is also director of the Maryland Space Grant Consortium. “Think about how much time and effort are expended each year in redesigning the calendar of every single organization in the world, and it becomes obvious that our calendar would make life much simpler and would have noteworthy benefits.”

Among the practical advantages would be the convenience afforded by birthdays and holidays (as well as work holidays) falling on the same day of the week every year. But the economic benefits are even more profound, according to Hanke, an expert in international economics, including monetary policy.

“Our calendar would simplify financial calculations and eliminate what we call the ‘rip-off’ factor,” explained Hanke. “Determining how much interest accrues on mortgages, bonds, forward rate agreements, swaps and others, day counts are required. Our current calendar is full of anomalies that have led to the establishment of a wide range of conventions that attempt to simplify interest calculations. Our proposed permanent calendar has a predictable 91-day quarterly

pattern of two months of 30 days and a third month of 31 days, which does away with the need for artificial day count conventions.”

According to Hanke and Henry, their calendar is an improvement on the dozens of rival reform calendars proffered by individuals and institutions over the last century.

“Attempts at reform have failed in the past because all of the major ones have involved breaking the seven-day cycle of the week, which is not acceptable to many people because it violates the Fourth Commandment about keeping the Sabbath Day,” Henry said. “Our version never breaks that cycle.”

Henry posits that his team’s version is far more convenient, sensible and easier to use than the current Gregorian calendar, which has been in place for four centuries—ever since 1582, when Pope Gregory altered a calendar that was instituted in 46 B.C. by Julius Caesar.

In an effort to bring Caesar’s calendar in sync with the seasons, the pope’s team removed 11 days from the calendar in October so that Oct. 4 was followed immediately

by Oct. 15. This adjustment was necessary in order to deal with the same knotty problem that makes designing an effective and practical new calendar such a challenge: the fact

that each Earth year is 365.2422 days long.

Hanke and Henry deal with those extra “pieces” of days by dropping leap years entirely in favor of an extra week added at the end of December every five or six years.

This brings the calendar in sync with the seasonal changes as the Earth circles the sun.

In addition to advocating the adoption of this new calendar, Hanke and Henry encourage the abolition of world time zones and the adoption of Universal Time rather than Greenwich Mean Time in order to synchronize dates and times worldwide, streamlining international business.

“One time throughout the world, one date throughout the world,” they write in a January Global Asia article about their proposals. “Business meetings, sports schedules and school calendars would be identical every year. Today’s cacophony of time zones, daylight savings times and calendar fluctuations, year after year, would be over. The economy—that’s all of us—would receive a permanent ‘harmonization’ dividend.”

For more on the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, go to henry.pha.jhu.edu/calendar .html. To read Hanke and Henry’s Global Asia article about calendar reform, go to www.cato .org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13940.

Costly diagnostic MRIs unnecessary for many back pain patients

By Stephanie Desmon

Johns Hopkins Medicine

J

ohns Hopkins–led research suggests that routine MRI imaging does nothing to improve the treatment of patients who need injections of steroids into their spinal columns to relieve pain. Moreover, MRI plays only a small role in a doctor’s decision to give these epidural steroid injections, or ESIs, the most common procedure performed at pain clinics in the United States.

With greater focus on runaway health care costs, the study’s findings, appearing online in the Archives of Internal Medicine, highlight one element of the problem: the indiscriminate use of an expensive imaging tool that shows little clinical benefit.

“Our results suggest that MRI is unlikely to avert a procedure, diminish complications or improve outcomes,” said study leader Steven P. Cohen, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Considering how frequently these epidural injections are performed, not routinely ordering an MRI before giving one may save significant time and resources.

“If we’re trying to cut back on unnecessary medical costs,” Cohen added, “we should

Devices Continued from page 1 the next five years. The schools of Engineering and Medicine also will contribute a combined $333,000 annually, resulting in a total of $1 million available each year to support new biomedical projects.

Nicholas P. Jones, the Benjamin T. Rome Dean of the Whiting School of Engineering, said, “We are thrilled that the Coulter Foundation has recognized the potential within Johns Hopkins to effectively commercialize innovation in the critical area of biomedical research.”

Preliminary proposals for the first set of projects are due Jan. 15. Each project must be led jointly by one faculty member from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and one from the School of Medicine.

stop routinely doing MRIs on almost everyone who comes to us needing ESIs.” A single MRI costs roughly $1,500.

The patients in Cohen’s study were treated at one of several pain clinics in the United States for sciatica, a condition in which the roots of the sciatic nerve that branches out from the bottom of the spinal column are pinched or compressed, causing severe pain and tingling in the lower back that shoots down the leg. The most common treatment worldwide is an epidural steroid injection, which puts cortisone directly into the outermost part of the spinal canal in the lower back, delivering its anti-inflammatory benefits as close as possible to the source of pain.

Cohen and his colleagues treated 132 patients divided into two groups. All received MRIs, but the treating doctor reviewed only the films in one group. The first group received epidural steroids with the placement of the needle based solely on a physical exam and how and where the patient described his or her pain. The doctors who examined these patients did not review the MRI before giving the injections, but a physician not involved in the exams or treatments later did. In the second group, physicians determined treatment based on both an examination and imaging results, looking at the MRI to determine where to place the needle, or whether to give an injection at all.

After three months, researchers reported no difference in how patients in both groups said they felt. In the group whose doctors didn’t see the MRI, 23 patients (35 percent) reported “overall success.” In the group whose doctors saw the MRI results before administering an injection, 24 patients (41 percent) reported a positive outcome.

In the first group, whose doctors were not privy to the MRI results, the independent evaluator agreed with the treating doctor in 66 percent of patients. In 18 of the other 22 cases, the independent evaluator believed that an ESI was warranted, only in a different location along the bottom of the spine. Cohen says that this discrepancy probably didn’t change the outcome because research has shown that the steroid medication reaches across many levels as long as it is injected in the general vicinity. In every case, the doctor opted for some type of injection.

In the second group, the treating doctor, who had seen the MRI results, decided not to perform an epidural steroid injection in only five cases, only to have three of those patients get an ESI within the following six months anyway.

All in all, Cohen says, the treatment barely varied whether or not MRI was used to guide decision making.

Cohen says that part of the problem in using MRI to diagnose lower back pain is

that there is not a good correlation between abnormal findings and symptoms.

“If you look at 100 middle-aged people who have never had back pain, two-thirds of them would have abnormalities on MRI,” he said. “This makes it difficult to use imaging to guide injections.”

People who complain about back and leg pain but have a normal finding on an MRI, and who go on to get an ESI anyway, may not get relief because the pain may have originated somewhere besides the spine.

Patients with abnormal MRIs who get ESI also may not receive benefit because their abnormal findings have nothing to do with their pain. In these cases, the abnormal findings are what doctors call a red herring.

Overall, Cohen emphasizes, ESIs are not a magic bullet. Many studies affirm that they provide only short-term benefit to only a subset of people who get them.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved with this study are Paul J. Christo, Michael A. Erdek and David Cornblath.

The process of building on basic science discoveries to produce practical applications in medicine and other fields is often called translational research. Because most academic research is not focused on translation and commercialization, smaller seed grants will be available to enable faculty members to develop more detailed plans and prepare full proposals to the Coulter Program Oversight Committee.

In May, this committee, made up of 10 members from Johns Hopkins, the Coulter Foundation and experienced commercial medical technology professionals, will award five $100,000 grants and up to four $25,000 seed grants. The key criteria for selection are high potential to benefit patients and high potential for commercial success. Program administrators said that the second provision is important because to be commercially successful today, innovation must not only improve outcomes but also reduce cost.

Similar university programs funded earlier

by Coulter have resulted in inventions that have led to dozens of commercial licensing agreements and startup companies, Johns Hopkins program administrators said, and to a sevenfold return on the grants in the form of new research and investment to the host institutions.

Johns Hopkins’ Biomedical Engineering Department, which is shared between the School of Medicine and the Whiting School of Engineering, is widely acknowledged to be one of the world’s top programs in its field. In recent years, it has directed additional attention to encouraging students and faculty members to apply their skills to developing new diagnostic tools and treatments that can quickly address urgent medical problems identified in partnership with Johns Hopkins physicians.

The department’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, for example, requires master’s degree students to work closely with physicians to identify tools

needed to improve the care they provide to patients. The students then design and build prototypes of such devices and prepare business plans for their invention. Some have launched startup companies or licensed their technologies to existing firms.

Youseph Yazdi, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is executive director of CBID and has also been named director of the Coulter Translational Research Program at Johns Hopkins.

“The combination of CBID and the new Coulter Partnership, plus other strong translational work ongoing here, will give Johns Hopkins’ BME Department the critical mass needed to be a global leader in academic-based medtech innovation,” Yazdi said. “Students, clinicians and faculty all benefit from the experience of creating and developing something that goes into commercial use, but the true beneficiaries are the patients who receive better care that also reduces costs.” G

Related website Steven P. Cohen:

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/pain/ blaustein_pain_center/physicians/ cohen.html

4 9, 2012 4 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• January August 15, 2011 O B I T U A R Y

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ark Rossberg, a pediatric anesthesiologist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, died Dec. 15 of complications from prostate cancer. He was 50.

Rossberg was known for his skill in handling some of the most challenging cases in pediatric anesthesia, including the management of transplant patients and children with congenital heart disease.

“Mark was a superbly talented anesthesiologist and a masterful clinician-educator, but above all he was the consummate pediatrician,” said Edward D. Miller, the Frances Watt Baker, M.D., and Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. “We will miss him dearly.”

“Mark was universally loved by patients, respected and admired by colleagues and a sought-after mentor to anesthesiologists in training,” said John Ulatowski, chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins.

“If there is one word that captures Mark’s essence, it is ‘beloved,’” said colleague and friend Myron Yaster, a pediatric anesthesiologist and pain specialist at Hopkins Children’s. “Everyone loved him, from the surgeons he worked with to the people who changed the light bulbs.”

Colleagues describe Rossberg as an oldschool physician with traditional values and a relentless work ethic. He understood that being a doctor was a privilege that came with great responsibilities, a philosophy he imbued into a generation of house staff residents and fellows. That will be one of his most lasting legacies.

“Mark was a doctor’s doctor of the classic

kind and a deeply religious person and a devoted family man,” Yaster said. “He sacrificed for his work. He was always the first one in and the last one out.”

Rossberg always wanted to be a pediatrician, but he was also fascinated by the complexities of anesthesiology, so the combination of the two was a natural choice for him.

He was born and raised in the Bronx borough of New York and received his medical degree from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan. He completed residencies in pediatrics and anesthesiology at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, followed by a fellowship in pediatric anesthesia and critical care medicine at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

In the mid1990s, Rossberg came to Johns Hopkins at the behest of Dean Mark Rossberg Miller, an anesthesiologist himself, and found a new home in Baltimore, colleagues said.

At Johns Hopkins, Rossberg quickly discovered that he had a talent for teaching and working with residents, and the mentoring became one of his passions.

“He bonded with residents like no one else I’ve seen,” said colleague Dolores Njoku, a pediatric anesthesiologist.

Rossberg’s research interests and expertise included pediatric transplant anesthesia, anesthesia for children with congenital heart disease, mechanisms of neurological protection and fiber-optic intubation.

He was considered a master of airway management in children and taught pediatric residents the intricacies of handling the airway during stabilization of critically ill and injured patients.

“Mark was one of the go-to people when

it came to airway management, and surgeons trusted and wanted him to handle the most challenging cases,” Njoku said.

True to his nature, Rossberg continued to teach with unwavering dedication throughout his illness and well after his cancer had spread.

“Mark continued to teach even after he was physically no longer able to and long after another person might have given up,” Yaster said. “That was Mark.”

Known for his gregarious personality, Rossberg simply lit up the room for colleagues and patients alike, those who knew him said.

Rossberg would often tell patients stories to distract them during the prep for surgery. He had a special gift for making children laugh in the often terrifying few minutes before they fell asleep on the operating table.

“Mark was uniquely capable of making a scared child smile on the way to the OR,” said Susan Ziegfeld, pediatric trauma coordinator at Hopkins Children’s and a longtime friend and colleague. Rossberg was the anesthesiologist for Ziegfeld’s daughter’s ear surgery and, several years ago, the anesthesiologist for Ziegfeld’s thyroid removal surgery.

A few days before his death, Rossberg asked Ziegfeld about the welfare of a patient they had both cared for—an extremely complicated case.

“A pediatrician’s pediatrician, Mark wanted to know how this patient was doing,” Ziegfeld said. “He had such passion for caring.”

Rossberg was named Teacher of the Year in 2010 by the anesthesiology house staff and fellows.

Rossberg is survived by his wife, Esti, and their five children.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to an educational fund for Rossberg’s children, which was established by his colleagues. Checks should be sent to Caitlin Garner, Fidelity Investments, 610 York Rd., Towson, MD 21204 (529 Education Fund Acct# 620219606, with “Rossberg” in the memo section).

January 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

5

Babies remember even as they seem to forget, psychologist finds

By Lisa De Nike

Homewood

F

ifteen years ago, textbooks on human development stated that babies of six months of age or younger had no sense of “object permanence,” the psychological term that describes an infant’s belief that an object still exists even when it is out of sight. That meant that if mom or dad wasn’t in the same room with junior, junior didn’t have the sense that his parents were still in the world.

These days, psychologists know that isn’t true: For young babies, out of sight doesn’t automatically mean out of mind. But how much do babies remember about the world around them, and what details do their brains need to absorb in order to help them keep track of those things?

A new study led by a Johns Hopkins psychologist and child development expert has added a few pieces to this puzzle. Published in a recent issue of the journal Psychological Science, the study reveals that even though very young babies can’t remember the details of an object that they were shown

and which then was hidden, the infants’ brains have a set of built-in “pointers” that help them retain a notion that something they saw remains in existence even when they can’t see it anymore.

“This study addresses one of the classic problems in the study of infant development: What information do infants need to remember about an object in order to remember that it still exists once it is out of their view?” said Melissa Kibbe, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins, who collaborated with colleague Alan Leslie, of Rutgers University, on the study. “The answer is, very little.”

The team found that even though infants cannot remember the shapes of two hidden objects, they are surprised when those objects disappear completely. The conclusion? Infants do, indeed, remember an object’s existence without remembering what that object is.

This is important, Kibbe explains, because it sheds light on the brain mechanisms that support memory in infancy and beyond.

“Our results seem to indicate that the

brain has a set of ‘pointers’ that it uses to pick out the things in the world that we need to keep track of,” explained Kibbe, who did the majority of the work on this study while pursuing her doctorate in Leslie’s laboratory at Rutgers. “The pointer itself doesn’t give us any information about what it is pointing to, but it does tell us something is there. Infants use this sense to keep track of objects without having to remember what those objects are.”

In addition, the study may help researchers establish a more-accurate timeline of the mental milestones of infancy and childhood.

In the study, 6-month-olds watched as a triangle was placed behind a screen and then as a second object, a disk, was placed behind a second screen. Researchers then removed the first screen to reveal either the expected original triangle, the unexpected disk or nothing at all, as if the triangle had vanished completely.

The team then observed the infants’ reactions, measuring how long they looked at expected versus unexpected outcomes.

In the situation where the objects were swapped, the babies seemed to hardly notice a difference, Kibbe says, indicating that

they didn’t retain a memory of that object’s shape. In their minds, a triangle and a disk were virtually interchangeable.

However, when one of the objects had disappeared, the babies were surprised and gazed longer at the empty space, indicating that they expected something to be where something was before.

“In short, they retained an inkling of the object,” Leslie said.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Related websites ‘Psychological Science’ article:

pss.sagepub.com/content/22/12/ 1500

Melissa Kibbe:

www.psy.jhu.edu/ ~labforchilddevelopment/pages/ people.html Alan Leslie:

ruccs.rutgers.edu/~aleslie

Scientists engineer mosquito immune system to block malaria

By Tim Parsons

Bloomberg School of Public Health

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esearchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have demonstrated for the first time that the Anopheles mosquito’s innate immune system could be genetically engineered to block the transmission of the malaria-causing parasite to humans. In addition, they showed that the genetic modification had little impact on the mosquito’s fitness under laboratory conditions. The researchers’ findings were published Dec. 22 in the online journal PLoS Pathogens.

“The immune system of the Anopheles mosquito is capable of killing a large proportion—but not all—of the disease-causing parasites that are ingested when the mosquito feeds on an infected human,” said George Dimopoulos, senior author of the study and an associate professor in the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We’ve genetically engineered this immune system to create mosquitoes that

are better at blocking the transmission of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.”

For the study, Dimopoulos and his team genetically engineered Anopheles mosquitoes to produce higher than normal levels of an immune system protein, Rel2, when they feed on blood. Rel2 acts against the malaria parasite in the mosquito by launching an immune attack involving a variety of antiparasitic molecules. Through this approach, instead of introducing a new gene into the mosquito DNA, the researchers used one of the insect’s own genes to strengthen its parasite-fighting capabilities. According to the researchers, this type of genetically modified mosquito could be further developed and used to convert mosquito populations from malaria-transmitting to Plasmodiumresistant.

One possible obstacle for this approach is the fitness of the genetically modified malaria-resistant mosquitoes, since they would have to compete with the natural malaria-transmitting mosquitoes. The researchers showed with their study that the Rel2 genetically modified mosquito strain lived as long, and laid as many eggs, as the

Marsha Wills-Karp to chair SPH’s Environmental Health Sciences

By Tim Parsons

Bloomberg School of Public Health

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arsha Wills-Karp, a leader in the study of the molecular mechanisms of asthma, has been selected to chair the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Wills-Karp joined the Bloomberg School on Jan. 1 and will assume her full duties as department chair on March 1.

“Marsha is an outstanding scientist and leader, and we are very Marsha fortunate to recruit her to this position,” said Michael J. Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School.

Wills-Karp was most recently a professor and the founding director of the Division of Immunobiology in the Department of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where she also directed the Immunobiology Graduate Program. She pre-

viously was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins from 1990 to 2000, and was a postdoctoral fellow here from 1987 to 1990.

Wills-Karp is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University. She earned her doctorate from the University of California, Santa Barbara and completed postdoctoral training at Yale University.

Wills-Karp succeeds John Groopman, who led Environmental Health Sciences for 19 years and will now lead the department’s new Center in Epigenetics and Public Health.

“John has been a superb chair Wills-Karp and a great colleague,” Klag said.

“He has a broad and deep vision.

Under his leadership, the Department of Environmental Health Sciences has had an impact in Baltimore and around the world.”

Wills-Karp was selected following a nationwide search led by Pierre Coulombe, the E.V. McCollum Professor and Chair of the Bloomberg School’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

nonmodified wild-type mosquitoes, thereby suggesting that their fitness had not become significantly impaired.

“Malaria is one of world’s most serious public health problems. Mosquitoes and the malaria parasite are becoming more resistant to insecticides and drugs, and new control methods are urgently needed. We’ve taken a giant step toward the development of new mosquito strains that could be released to limit malaria transmission, but further studies are needed to render this approach safe

and fail proof,” said Dimopoulos.

Worldwide, malaria afflicts more than 225 million people. Each year, the disease kills approximately 800,000, many of whom are children living in Africa.

Authors of the study, in addition to Dimopoulos, are Yuemei Dong, Suchismita Das, Chris Cirimotich, Jayme A. Souza-Neto and Kyle J. McLean, all of Johns Hopkins.

Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health and the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.

6 9, 2012 6 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• January August 15, 2011 R E S E A R C H

$9.5 mill federal grant to support ‘asthma genome’ project B y D av i d M a r c h

Johns Hopkins Medicine

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Johns Hopkins–led team of experts in genetics, immunology, epidemiology and allergic disease has embarked on a four-year effort to map the genetic code, or whole genome, of 1,000 people of African descent, including men and women from Baltimore.

Researchers say that their initial goal is to find genetic variations underlying asthma and to explain why the disease disproportionately afflicts blacks. As many as 20 percent of African-Americans have asthma, a disease often associated with allergies and marked by difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing and tightness in the chest.

Chronic asthma can lead to serious lung damage, and blacks are three times more likely than other American adults to be hospitalized or die from the condition.

Rothman Continued from page 1 and the first CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Two prominent members of the search committee who have followed Rothman’s work for years say that he has brilliantly managed his evolving career and multiple, increasingly responsible roles.

Myron “Mike” Weisfeldt, the William Osler Professor and director of the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, was chair of Medicine at Columbia University early in the young Rothman’s faculty tenure there and was impressed with his work as a physician, researcher and educator.

“I saw young, talented people flock to his laboratory, publish and progress in their careers,” Weisfeldt said. “I also saw his clinical commitment to excellence and heard reports of a flair for teaching. I knew he had it all, including leadership and administration.”

Weisfeldt appointed Rothman to a divisional leadership post at Columbia and later nominated him for the Department of Medicine chairmanship he held at Iowa before stepping up to the Dean’s Office there.

“His becoming dean at Iowa three years ago clearly occurred because of his excellence as chair,” Weisfeldt said. “His characteristic traits throughout have been a commitment to excellence, charisma, hard work and collegiality.”

As a researcher at Columbia, Rothman investigated the signaling pathways required for allergic immune responses and cancer, a focus he has maintained while at Iowa.

“Paul is an outstanding basic scientist.

He is as rooted in basic science as he is in clinical medicine,” said search committee member Carol Greider, the Daniel Nathans Professor and director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins and a winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2009.

“Paul’s work in the late ’80s laid a foundation for our understanding of cell-to-cell communication in the immune system and its role in allergic diseases,” Greider said.

In 1992, Greider noted, Rothman was appointed a Pew Scholar, recognition given to “the very top young biomedical investigators in the country.” In that role, she said, he “developed molecular methods for dissecting the pathways that become dysfunctional in asthma and other inflammatory diseases.

“As a clinician,” Greider added, “Paul has been able to translate his fundamental studies of cell signaling to models for modulation of the immune response to treat patients

Study principal investigator and immunogeneticist Kathleen Barnes says that the effort to sequence the genetic code of 500 asthmatics and 500 nonasthmatics “represents an exciting opportunity to disentangle the genetic basis of a host of other diseases, not just asthma, which have a hereditary component and uniquely or disproportionately affect minorities.”

Barnes, a professor in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and in the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her team say that they will make their findings freely available to other researchers through the dbGAP national database of genomewide association studies, maintained by the National Library of Medicine, a member of the National Institutes of Health. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, also part of the NIH, has provided the Johns Hopkins team with $9.5 million in study funding.

For part of the initiative, the researchers have contracted with Illumina Inc. of San Diego to create a commercially available customized gene chip, or DNA microarray test, dubbed the “African power chip,” to

with severe allergic reactions. Paul personifies the goal of translational medicine; he has a true, deep understanding of the molecules and their subtle interactions that govern the immune system, while at the same time maintaining an overview of how these interactions play out in diseases such as asthma.”

Now, with that “dream job” at Johns Hopkins Medicine before him, Rothman is coming to an institution he has long admired and where he has many professional friends.

“Johns Hopkins leads the world in research and discovery, and in innovations in teaching and in the delivery of health care,” he said. “It’s the leader because of the outstanding faculty, students and staff who work there. It has recruited the best and brightest from around the world for years and continues to do so. There’s a culture of collaboration and a culture of excellence in everything they do.”

Rothman also greatly admires Miller, who took Johns Hopkins Medicine from a mid1990s concept for joint governance of the School of Medicine and health system and turned it into a global health care brand name.

“He’s been an outstanding leader. I’m honored to be his successor. I hope I can be as successful as he has been.”

The man who made the appointment believes he can.

“Paul Rothman is a visionary leader with a deep and highly sophisticated understanding of the challenges facing health care and academic medicine today,” said Ronald J. Daniels, president of The Johns Hopkins University. Daniels recommended Rothman’s name to the trustee boards of the university, Johns Hopkins Medicine, The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Health System.

“Instead of being daunted by those challenges, he sees them as opportunities to do better, to serve our patients in ways that improve clinical outcomes while also improving our employment of scarce health care resources and enhancing the education of the next generation of physicians and researchers,” Daniels said.

As dean, Rothman will lead a School of Medicine with more than 2,500 full-time faculty members, nearly 1,300 part-time faculty, more than 1,400 medical and graduate students, and more federal research support than any other U.S. medical school. As CEO, he also will govern—in partnership with Ronald R. Peterson, executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine and president of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System—a system of six hospitals in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Florida. Johns Hopkins Medicine also comprises several suburban health care and surgery centers, more than 30 outpatient primary health care sites, a full-service home

quickly find single mutations in genetic materials from blacks that may be associated with heightened disease risk.

Barnes says that her team’s findings should fill in serious gaps in the hunt for genetic variations posed by Illumina’s existing genotyping chip and a similar gene chip by Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. Both chips were developed from whole genome sequencing of predominantly white European men and women and do not represent potential variations found mostly or only in minority groups.

“One of our biggest barriers as researchers trying to find the underlying genetic roots of disease in minority groups has been the persistent lack of microarray testing tools relevant to each racial profile, especially African-Americans,” said Barnes, who is director of Johns Hopkins’ Genetics Research Facility and its Lowe Family Genomics Core laboratory.

“Asthma is exacerbated by social factors, such as poverty, and inadequate education and access to medical care,” she said, “so separating out the genetic component is particularly complex but scientifically doable.”

Barnes is also the Mary Beryl Patch Turnbull Scholar at Johns Hopkins.

Researchers plan to sequence the genomes of blacks selected from among an international group of people participating in existing genetic studies who have already been clinically diagnosed with asthma, or without, or who have other kinds of compromised lung function, and whose family histories are well-documented. The participants will be selected from 15 academic research centers across the United States, the Caribbean and South America, as well as from four additional research sites in Western Africa.

An estimated 20 million Americans have asthma, the most common chronic condition among American children. Each year, more than 4,000 Americans die from the condition, which also accounts for one-quarter of trips (some 2 million) to hospital emergency rooms for breathing problems.

Related website Kathleen Barnes:

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/allergy/ faculty/barnes.html

will kirk / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

Search is on for genetic roots of diseases that afflict blacks disproportionately

Paul Rothman and his wife, Frances Jane Meyer, on the Homewood campus.

care provider, managed care plans, and hospital management, consulting and clinical education services in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Together, the components of Johns Hopkins Medicine—the School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Health System—employ more than 34,000 full-time faculty and staff.

Rothman became dean at the University of Iowa in 2008 and since then has recruited new leadership for nine departments, stabilized the medical college’s finances despite cuts in state support, begun an overhaul of the medical curriculum and opened a branch campus in Des Moines. He also has helped establish a strategic new administrative structure for University of Iowa Healthcare, developed interdisciplinary research programs and solidified the clinical practice plan.

“Dr. Rothman has been a great institution builder at Iowa, recruiting outstanding departmental leaders and strengthening the college in patient care, research and teaching,” said Lloyd B. Minor, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Johns Hopkins and co-chair of the search committee that brought Rothman’s candidacy to Daniels. “He’s been an outstanding university citizen, working with other deans and the university leadership at Iowa to advance the interests of the entire university.”

“Dr. Rothman possesses the experience, imagination, energy and temperament that make him ideally suited to lead Johns Hopkins Medicine in a time of great change and great opportunity,” added search co-chair Francis B. “Frank” Burch, chair of the Johns Hopkins Medicine board of trustees.

Rothman first joined Iowa in 2004 as head of Internal Medicine, substantially growing the department’s reserves while recruiting new divisional leaders, increasing the faculty

to a record 230, adding clinical programs, initiating programs in diversity and mentoring for young faculty members and overseeing the launches of an interdepartmental heart and vascular center and an organ transplant center.

Previously, at Columbia, Rothman rose from instructor to vice chairman for research in the Department of Medicine. While at Columbia, from 1986 to 2004, he was founding chief of its Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, building new clinical programs, growing the faculty from 12 to 40 and increasing clinical revenues and research funding 15-fold in six years.

Rothman is an elected member or fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Council of the Association of American Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum.

He is a 1980 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned his medical degree from Yale University in 1984, going on to train at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and to accept a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University.

Rothman is married to physician Frances Jane Meyer, a clinical gastroenterologist on the faculty of the Carver College of Medicine since 2005. She also trained at Columbia-Presbyterian and later also served as a faculty member at Columbia University.

They have three children: Alissa, 18, a freshman at Amherst College; Daniel, 17, a senior in high school; and Eric, 13, an eighth-grade student. G This story was posted online at gazette.jhu .edu on Dec. 19, when the print version of The Gazette was not being published because of the university’s holiday break.

January 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

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O B I T U A R Y

Wm. Polk Carey, whose gift launched business school, dies at 81 B y P at r i c k E r c o l a n o

Carey Business School

W.P. CAREY & Co.

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t the turn of the 21st century, Johns Hopkins was one of only three topranked U.S. universities without a full-time business school. JHU had offered business courses since the early 1900s, but in a part-time format. Then, on Jan. 1, 2007, a sea change: The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School was launched with Wm. Polk Carey’s gift of $50 million.

This remarkable gesture by Carey, who died Jan. 2 at age 81, transformed business education at JHU. Just as importantly, it provided a much-needed model for how business could be taught—and, by extension, practiced—in the 21st century. The gift establishing the Carey Business School, the largest ever given in support of business education at Johns Hopkins, reflected the benefactor’s faith in an entrepreneurial approach rooted in the idea that business can be a force for positive change in a troubled world.

After his death was announced, many in the Johns Hopkins community and beyond noted his influence on the university he served as a trustee, as well as his influence on his native city of Baltimore, where Carey family members have made major contributions since the late 1700s.

“I have gotten to know Bill Carey well since I arrived at Johns Hopkins nearly three years ago,” university President Ronald J. Daniels said in a statement. “I discussed with him often his vision for lifting the study of business at Johns Hopkins to a prominence commensurate with our strength in so many other disciplines. With his endowment of our undergraduate program in entrepreneurship and management, and then the establishment of the Carey Business School in 2007, he made the investments that have launched Johns Hopkins toward realizing that aspiration.

Wm. Polk Carey

“Bill Carey saw clearly the potential impact of a Johns Hopkins business school not only on the university but also on Baltimore and Maryland,” Daniels said. “The depth of his devotion to our city and state was legendary. He demonstrated that devotion in ways that will be felt here for many, many years to come.”

Phillip H. Phan, interim dean of the business school, said in a letter to faculty, staff and students, “The vital work that all of us do here … would not be possible without the generosity and the transformative vision of Mr. Carey. To continue building on that vision will be the most fitting tribute we can offer.”

Phan added that school officials had begun to discuss plans for a formal recognition of Carey’s contributions.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley told The Baltimore Sun that Carey “was just a remarkable talent and a visionary, and a generous man. He was a person who under-

stood that the world of business, the world of education, the world of art and the world of politics are not separate worlds. They are very much connected and need each other.”

At the time of his death, Carey was the chairman of W.P. Carey & Co., a leading real estate investment banking firm headquartered in New York City. He began his career in international corporate finance in 1959 and brought the first foreign direct investment into Australia in 1960. He moved into the net leasing of corporate real estate in 1964 as chairman of the executive committee of Hubbard, Westervelt & Mottelay (later Merrill Lynch Hubbard). Before starting W.P. Carey & Co. in 1973, he served as head of real estate and equipment financing at Loeb, Rhoades & Co. and vice

chairman and director of corporate finance of DuPont Glore Forgan Inc. Carey founded W.P. Carey & Co. primarily to structure single-asset private investments.

Over the years, it has evolved into one of the world’s largest publicly traded limited liability companies and currently owns and/ or manages nearly 1,000 commercial and industrial properties on three continents, representing more than 120 million square feet and valued at approximately $12 billion.

Carey was educated at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, and also received an ScD honoris causa from Arizona State University. In 1999, he served as the executive in residence at Harvard Business School.

The W.P. Carey Foundation, which Carey founded in 1988, has made substantial gifts to various educational institutions across the country, at both the secondary and collegiate levels. These include Baltimore’s Gilman School, founded in 1897 by his grandmother Anne Galbraith Carey, and the University of Maryland, where a Carey Foundation gift of $30 million in April 2011 established a law school named for Wm. Carey’s grandfather, Francis King Carey, an 1880 graduate of Maryland.

The business school at Johns Hopkins was named for Carey’s great-great-great-grandfather, James Carey of Loudon (1751–1834), a prominent Baltimore businessman of his era, a member of Baltimore’s first city council, a chairman of the Bank of Maryland and a kinsman of university founder Johns Hopkins.

Wm. Polk Carey is survived by his brother, Francis J. Carey of Ambler, Pa., and by numerous nieces and nephews. A memorial service is to be held this month in New York.

B y L e a h R a m s ay

Berman Institute of Bioethics

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n a report released Dec. 15 on the use of chimpanzees in biomedical and behavioral research, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science called for a dramatic shift away from federally funded experimentation on humanity’s closest relative in the animal kingdom.

The report concludes that scientific advances now provide effective alternatives to the use of chimpanzees, and that “most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary.” The IOM studied the use of the animals in research in collaboration with the National Research Council and at the request of the National Institutes of Health, which has financed the majority of federally supported experimentation with chimps.

“We were charged with determining if chimpanzees are necessary for the success of current and future research, and we set a high bar for determining that necessity with uniform criteria,” said the IOM committee chair, Jeffrey Kahn, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. “In almost all cases, we found that research on chimpanzees was not necessary.”

The committee stopped short of recommending an end to all research on chimpanzees, finding sufficient cause for continued work in three specific areas: comparative studies of chimpanzee and human brain function; studies, in the short term, on monoclonal antibodies which precisely target viruses and bacteria, until recombinant technologies

can fully replace the need for chimpanzee models; and development of a prophylactic hepatitis C vaccine, an issue that evenly split the committee over whether a challenge study is necessary in such vaccine development since such research could not ethically be performed in humans. The hepatitis C virus infects only humans and chimpanzees.

The United States and Gabon are the only countries known to allow invasive research on chimpanzees. Though the European Union has an exception for using the animals in the event of “a serious pandemic,” no EU nation keeps chimpanzees in captivity or conducts research on them.

Ruth Faden, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, said, “The IOM’s recommendations bring us closer to the ethically correct policy of not allowing any invasive research on chimpanzees. With these new criteria, the government can begin phasing out its support of this research.”

Kahn, the only bioethicist on the IOM committee, notes the challenge of chimpanzee research.

“Chimpanzees are attractive research subjects for the same reason that conducting research on them is ethically troubling,” he said. “They are humans’ closest genetic relative, with immune systems that are nearly indistinguishable from ours. However, this close relationship also creates a high moral cost, which the committee agrees must be factored into the assessment of the necessity of any research involving chimpanzees.”

The full report is available online at iom.edu/ Reports/2011/Chimpanzees-in-Biomedical-andBehavioral-Research-Assessing-the-Necessity .aspx.

SHIV GANDHI / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

IOM committee calls for end to most research on chimpanzees

Tom Nealis (in blue jacket) of Annual Giving stands at the foot of Johns Hopkins’ tombstone with his childdren, Fiona and Ronan.

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Remembering Mr. Hopkins

aculty, staff, retirees, alumni and other friends and supporters gathered at Green Mount Cemetery on Dec. 24, 2011, to honor the man who left his fortune and his name to launch The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Mr. Hopkins died the morning of Dec. 24, 1873, leaving $7 million in his will to establish the university and hospital that bear his name. It was, to that time, the nation’s largest philanthropic bequest.

“We gather at his grave to remember a great man and a great act of generosity,” said Ross Jones, vice president and secretary emeritus of the university. Jones arranged the first graveside commemoration in 1973, the centennial of Mr. Hopkins’ demise, and has organized similar events annually since 1998, the 125th anniversary.

“What this one man did has meant so

much for the world,” Jones said. “More personally, his legacy also means so much to all of us who have had the privilege to work, study or be healed at the institutions he founded. It seems only right to set aside a few minutes every Dec. 24 to remember him and thank him.”

Also addressing the group was Stephen C. Achuff, a professor of cardiology at the School of Medicine, who provided a brief history lesson on the role of Mary Elizabeth Garrett—who is buried with her family just steps from the Hopkins family graves—in the founding of the medical school. Garrett helped raise the necessary funds with the stipulations that women be admitted on the same terms as men, and that it be exclusively a rigorous graduate school, unlike other institutions that had few requirements. “Hopkins became the place for medical education because of that,” Achuff said.

8 9, 2012 8 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• January August 15, 2011 R E C O G N I T I O N

Six Johns Hopkins researchers elected to 2011 AAAS

By Lisa DeNike, Audrey Huang, Tim Parsons and V a n e s s a W a s ta

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ix Johns Hopkins researchers have been elected by their peers as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Barry Zirkin of the Bloomberg School of Public Health; Kit Hansell Bowen and Sarah Woodson of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences; and Andrew Feinberg, Min Li and Paula Pitha-Rowe of the School of Medicine are among 539 new fellows from around the world. Election as an AAAS fellow honors scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

The names of the awardees were published Dec. 23 in the “AAAS News and Notes” section of Science. The newly elected fellows will be awarded a certificate and a rosette pin during the AAAS Fellows Forum at the 2012 AAAS annual meeting, to be held Feb. 18 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

As part of the section on biological sciences, Barry Zirkin, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, was recognized for his studies of the molecular regulation of Leydig cell aging and the hormonal regulation of spermatogenesis. With regard to aging, Zirkin has investigated the role of oxidative stress resulting from increased production of reactive oxygen and decreases in cellular antioxidant defenses in the reduced testosterone formation that characterizes aging Leydig

cells. In his studies of spermatogenesis, he has investigated the role of testosterone in maintaining and restoring spermatogenesis. Zirkin is the principal investigator of a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development–funded Specialized Cooperative Center in Reproduction and Infertility Research at Johns Hopkins University. He also is a recipient of a prestigious Merit Award from the National Institute on Aging, and has garnered several awards for his teaching and research accomplishments.

Zirkin earned his bachelor of arts in biology from the State University of New York, Binghamton in 1963 and his doctorate in cell biology from the University of Rochester in 1969. He was a postdoctoral fellow in cell biology at the University of California, Davis from 1969 to 1971.

As part of the section on chemistry, Kit Hansell Bowen, the E. Emmet Reid Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, was recognized for seminal contributions to the study of gas-phase cluster anions by utilizing the negative ion photoelectron (photodetachment) spectroscopic technique. Bowen’s research focuses on clusters and nanoparticles. Clusters are aggregates of atoms and/ or molecules held together by some of the same interatomic or intermolecular forces that are responsible for cohesion in solids and liquids. Clusters are thus finite-size microcosms of the condensed phase, the realm in which most chemistry occurs. A major objective of Bowen’s research is to provide a molecule’s eye view of many-body, condensed phase interactions. The study of size- and composition-specific clusters provides an incisive means of addressing this

Reminder about university textbook policy

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ith a new semester set to commence, Johns Hopkins officials are reminding faculty, staff and students of the universitywide textbook affordability policy in compliance with new state and federal laws. The intent is to lower the cost of textbooks by ensuring that people have appropriate options and pertinent and timely information when selecting and purchasing course materials.

The policy came in response to the Maryland College Textbook Competition and Affordability Act and the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act. Before selecting a textbook, faculty should consider such factors as price, available formats (hardcover, paperback and online editions) and the difference in content between current and previous editions. Also, the university must post certain textbook-related informa-

tion for all courses—such as a book’s ISBN identifier, whether a previous edition will suffice and anticipated class enrollment—within three weeks after selection of class materials by a faculty member.

The university is encouraging early selection and adoption of textbooks and course materials so that students have an opportunity to explore budget-sensitive options.

Faculty teaching in upcoming terms may expect to be contacted by their program or dean’s office and provided additional information or instructions about compliance with state and federal regulations.

The policy, a letter from Provost Lloyd Minor, a list of divisional contacts and a FAQ sheet can be found at webapps.jhu .edu/jhuniverse/administration/councils_ committees_programs/textbook_taskforce.

fundamental and long-standing problem in physical chemistry.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Mississippi in 1970 and his doctorate at Harvard University in 1978. Bowen has served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins since 1980. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the recipient of a Senior Humboldt Research Award. He was named Maryland Chemist of the Year in 2005 by the Maryland Section of the American Chemical Society.

In the section on chemistry, Sarah Woodson, a professor in the Thomas C. Jenkins Department of Biophysics at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, was recognized for distinguished contributions to the field of biophysical chemistry, particularly for elucidation of RNA folding pathways and structural dynamics. Her research focuses on how RNA folds into biologically active structures by developing new methods for visualizing how the shape of the RNA changes in real time. RNA molecules play essential roles in nearly every stage of gene expression, controlling how cells respond to growth signals or environmental stress. Understanding how RNAs fold helps us understand why these control mechanisms fail in certain chronic diseases or cancers.

Woodson earned her bachelor’s degree from Kalamazoo College in 1982 and her doctorate from Yale University in 1987.

In the section on biological sciences, Andrew P. Feinberg was elected for seminal contributions to our understanding of epigenetics and the role it plays in cancer and other human diseases. He is the King Fahd Professor of Medicine, Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Oncology, and director of the Center for Epigenetics in the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A pioneer in epigenetics, a field that encompasses the study of non-DNA sequence–related heredity, Feinberg studies how such information is maintained by cells through cell divisions and generations. In 2004, Feinberg founded the IBBS Center for Epigenetics to study the role of epigenetics in cancer and in aging and common disease.

Feinberg received his bachelor’s degree in biology in 1973, his medical degree in 1976 and his master of public health degree in 1981, all from Johns Hopkins. In 1983, he became an assistant professor of oncology and medicine at Johns Hopkins. In 1986, he moved to the University of Michigan Medical School as an assistant professor of internal medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute assistant investigator and in 1989 became an associate professor with tenure and an HHMI associate investigator.

He returned to Johns Hopkins in 1994. He has authored more than 150 research articles and sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals.

As part of the section on biological sciences, Min Li, a professor of neuroscience and co-director of the High Throughput

Biology Center in the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, was recognized for distinguished contributions in both research to the field of ion channel physiology and training graduate students in the United States and China. Li is also director of the Johns Hopkins Ion Channel Center. His research focuses on the physiology and pharmacology of the ion channel, proteins that allow small, charged molecules in and out of cells. His work has contributed to the fundamental understanding of how brain cells communicate through tiny but complex electrical signals. Currently, Li is identifying and developing chemical probes to investigate and manipulate electrical signaling in brain and other systems. These chemical probes and technologies are expected to lead to the development of therapeutics to treat brain and heart diseases.

Li received his doctorate in molecular biology and genetics from Johns Hopkins and carried out his postdoctoral training in neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco. After working at Affymax Research Institute, he returned Baltimore to join the Johns Hopkins faculty. He has been author or inventor of more than 70 research articles and 12 patents on ion channels, for which he has received a number of scientific awards. He has co-founded biotech companies and served on advisory boards to companies and government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

In the section on medical sciences, Paula Pitha-Rowe, a professor of oncology, molecular biology and genetics, and biology, was recognized for her work as a basic scientist in the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Krieger School’s Department of Biology. Her work is focused on the molecular mechanisms of natural immune responses to infection and the role of antiviral responses in HIV and Kaposi’s sarcoma as well as other cancers. Her research has revealed a crucial role by a family of genes called IRF involving antiviral responses and inflammation, which appears to be involved in the initiation of cancer. Using genetically modified mice that are missing a critical component of the immune response, she has developed mouse models to further study IRF mechanisms. This work is leading to clinical advances in vaccines and drug modulation of viral infections associated with cancer.

Pitha-Rowe received her doctorate in 1964 from the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic. Her training included fellowships at the National Research Council in Canada, Curie Institute in Paris and the Salk Institute. She joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1971.

Among her many honors, Pitha-Rowe was the 2005 recipient of the G.J. Mendel Honorary Medal for Merit in Biological Sciences.

January 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

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Commission calls for better oversight of human subjects research B y L e a h R a m s ay

Berman Institute of Bioethics

T

he Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues has released its report “Moral Science: Protecting Participants in Human Subjects Research,” recommending changes to better protect research volunteers.

Primary among the commission’s recommendations was to organize and make public the data on federally funded human subject research. The commission reports that in fiscal year 2010, the government funded more than 55,000 projects involving human subjects across 18 agencies and departments but was unable to readily access comprehensive information about this type of research.

“The commission’s work in mapping the type of research supported by the federal government is unprecedented and was an important initial step in conducting its

work,” said Jeremy Sugarman, senior adviser to the commission and the deputy director for medicine at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

President Barack Obama requested the report in response to the discovery in October 2010 that, from 1946 to 1948, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted experiments in Guatemala that intentionally exposed thousands of people to sexually transmitted diseases. The president asked the commission to “determine if federal regulations and international standards adequately guard the health and well-being of participants in scientific studies supported by the federal government,” as well as to conduct a thorough investigation of the experiments in Guatemala. The findings of the investigation were published in September 2011 in the report “Ethically Impossible: STD Research in Guatemala 1946 to 1948.”

“Although serious human rights abuses

like the Guatemala and human radiation experiments are unlikely to occur today, the government must continue to be held accountable for the ethics of the research it funds on human subjects,” said Ruth Faden, director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Human Radiation Experiments, which led to the first presidential apology for unethical human subjects research, by President Bill Clinton in 1995.

“The government can’t be held accountable for what it can’t count, which is why this report’s findings that there are major gaps in the extent and nature of the landscape of federally funded human research are of singular importance,” Faden said.

The commission also made recommendations regarding compensation for injuries sustained during research, the appropriate design of research and the need for education about the ethical underpinnings of the current regulations.

“The commission’s recommendations for a publicly accessible database of federally funded human subjects research is an important acknowledgment of the real lesson from Guatemala, which is that transparency and oversight are essential to the acceptable conduct of medical research,” noted Dan O’Connor, a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, who specializes in the history of medicine and bioethics.

The commission also recommended that the federal government take steps to assess the effectiveness of the current systems used to protect human subjects. Sugarman notes that “such assessments will be essential going forward so that we can continue to improve how valuable research is conducted while maximally attending to the rights and welfare of those who volunteer to participate as research subjects.”

The full report is available online at bioethics .gov/cms/node/558.

Discovery warns of catastrophic failure of lithium-ion batteries B y P a u l e t t e C a m pb e l l

Applied Physics Laboratory

S

cientists at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory have developed an inexpensive sensor that can warn of impending catastrophic failure in lithium-ion batteries. The sensor is based on the researchers’ discovery of an intrinsic relationship between the internal temperature of lithium-ion cells and an easily measured electrical parameter of the cell.

Due to their high energy density, lithiumion batteries power millions of consumer electronic devices and are the most common type of battery used in hybrid and electric vehicles. They are also growing in popularity for power grid, military and aerospace applications.

But safety concerns remain a challenge to the industry. Battery malfunction and fires in electric vehicles, mobile phones and

GSI grants Continued from page 1 the instructor will be able to project the whiteboard content to large room screens or pod display screens.

The first round of grants attracted 29 proposals that were voted on by the 21-member GSI faculty steering committee, formed last summer by Provost Lloyd B. Minor. The committee—co-chaired by Steven David, vice dean for undergraduate education and a professor of political science in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Marie Diener-West, director of the Master of Public Health program and professor of biostatistics in the Bloomberg School of Public Health— was charged with working throughout the year to identify and promote best practices and to develop recommendations for a strategic approach to continuous improvement in gateway science courses in all divisions.

The initiative defines gateway science courses as those that establish the necessary fundamental knowledge base for subsequent or more specialized subject area study and research. These courses include introductory classes in biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, statistics, bioinformatics and others with a basic natural science or quantitative focus in fields such as medicine, nursing and public health.

Several proposals stressed the importance of active learning and engaging students in a new way. Julian Krolik, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and one of the grant recipients, said there is a national trend in his field toward this learning approach.

laptop computers have been reported in the media. Such failures typically result from thermal runaway, a self-perpetuating condition that occurs once a cell reaches a critical temperature.

“An abnormally high internal cell temperature is a nearly universal manifestation of something going awry with the cell,” said Rengaswamy Srinivasan, a chemist in APL’s Research and Exploratory Development Department and one of the inventors.

“These changes can occur within seconds, leading to a potentially catastrophic event if corrective measures are not taken immediately. When things start to go wrong inside the cell, time is not on your side.”

Srinivasan and his colleagues discovered that a very small alternating current, when applied to a lithium-ion battery at specific frequencies, is modified by the cell in a way that is directly related to the temperature of the critical electrochemical interface between the electrodes and the electrolyte.

“We discovered that we can measure the temperature of the protective layers between the electrodes and the electrolyte of the battery during normal operation,” Srinivasan said. “These layers are where the conditions that lead to thermal runaway and catastrophic cell failure begin. This discovery enables us to detect potentially unsafe thermal conditions before surface-mounted temperature sensors— which are the current state of the art—are able to register that any change has taken place.”

The sensor operates through a simple electrical connection at the positive and negative terminals of the cell and can operate using power from the battery it is monitoring. With multiplexing circuitry, a single sensor can monitor multiple cells in a battery pack.

“Ultimately, the new sensor enables battery management systems to more closely manage battery performance and, more importantly, detect unsafe thermal conditions at the critical moment when they

Symposium on Teaching Excellence in the Sciences

A

group of nationally renowned science education leaders will speak at Johns Hopkins on Friday, Jan. 20, in an effort to advance the Gateway Sciences Initiative.

The symposium is designed to demonstrate the university’s commitment to promoting significant, positive improvement in gateway science education, and to encourage innovation in course, program or curricular design.

The event, which is open to all faculty, students and staff, will feature

“There has been a lot of research into physics education in recent years, and a major conclusion is that students do much better when they are directly engaged in learning, as opposed to just traditional lectures,” said Krolik, who will spearhead the redesign of the general physics courses.

“There are many different ways to engage the students, and we will be looking into best practices.”

The 10 winners were selected and funded for amounts ranging from $30,000 to $200,000, which will allow the proposal authors and their collaborators to undertake research and spend time developing their ideas. The first pilot projects will be implemented in fall 2012.

The winning proposals in the 2011 Gateway Sciences Initiative and their grant recipients are: “Active Learning in General Physics”: Julian Krolik, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

keynote talks, discussions, presentations and interactive workshops to highlight pedagogical priorities at Johns Hopkins.

It will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Hodson Hall on the Homewood campus.

The four keynote speakers are Jo Handelsman from Yale, David Botstein from Princeton, Eric Mazur from Harvard and Freeman Hrabowski from UMBC. For more information on the Gateway Sciences Initiative, and to register for the symposium, go to www.jhu.edu/provost.

“Applied Chemical Equilibrium and Reactivity, a New Course for Students with AP Chemistry Credit”: Jane Greco, senior lecturer, Department of Chemistry, KSAS. “Epidemiology, Pedagogy and Innovation”: Stephen J. Gange, professor, and David D. Celentano, chairman, Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“Online Self-Paced Learning”: W. Stephen Wilson, professor, Department of Mathematics, KSAS. “Peer-Led Team Learning for Introductory Chemistry”: Paul J. Dagdigian, professor, and Louise Pasternack, senior lecturer, Department of Chemistry, KSAS. “Proposed Curricular Enhancements for

occur and before the cell vents or sets itself and the battery on fire,” Srinivasan explained. “By integrating this technology into their products, manufacturers of batteries, battery management systems and battery solution providers can increase both the safety and performance of their products.”

APL has applied for U.S. and international patents for the sensor and is pursuing licensing opportunities.

Michael Hickman, APL’s technology commercialization manager for the sensor, said, “At the heart of lithium battery safety is not only the development of safer battery chemistries but also the availability of accurate and reliable technologies that measure the actual battery cell temperature. This technology provides the most accurate and immediate method available for measuring the true temperature of a lithium-ion cell,” he said, “and, it is the only method for measuring a cell’s temperature where it counts: inside the cell where temperature changes originate.”

Biology and Biological Sciences: Revamping the Freshman Experience”: Joel F. Schildbach, professor, Department of Biology, KSAS. “Spatial Reasoning Assessment and Course”: Ed Scheinerman, professor, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and vice dean for education, Whiting School of Engineering.

“Statistics Through Case Study: Gateway Science Proposal for Introductory Statistics”: Avanti Athreya, assistant research professor; Donniell Fishkind, associate research professor; Bruno Jedynak, associate research professor; Daniel Q. Naiman, chair; and Fred Torcaso, senior lecturer, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, WSE. “The Active Learning eStudio Project: An Experimental Teaching and Learning Environment for Gateway Science Courses at Homewood”: Candice Dalrymple, associate dean of university libraries and director of the Center for Educational Resources.

“Using Technology to Enhance Understanding in Gateway Sciences Courses”: Kristina Obom, program director and senior lecturer; Thomas Koval, senior lecturer; Robert Lessick, associate director and senior lecturer; Sherry Ogg, senior lecturer; and Patrick Cummings, senior lecturer, Advanced Academic Programs. Cummings is also director of the Center for Biotechnology Education. G

Use The Gazette Classified Ads online submission form www.jhu.edu/gazette/adform.html

10 9, 2012 10 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• January August 15, 2011 H U M A N

R E S O U R C E S

B U L L E T I N

Notices

Hot Jobs

No notices were submitted for publication this week.

Listed below are some of the university’s newest openings for indemand jobs that we most urgently need to fill.

In addition to considering these opportunities, candidates are invited to search a complete listing of openings and apply for positions online at jobs.jhu.edu.

Will there be blood? Yes, if donors are compensated, research shows

Homewood Office of Human Resources Wyman Park Building, Suite W600 410-516-7196 Critical postings within our Homewood Division include the following; applications are being accepted for these immediate opportunities. For more detailed job descriptions and to apply, go to jobs.jhu.edu.

University Disability Services Officer Director, Instructional Resource Center Senior Research Service Analyst Research Programmer Analyst

CAREY BUSINESS SCHOOL

50722 50948 50718 50702

School of Medicine Office of Human Resources 98 N. Broadway, Suite 300 410-955-2990

Mario Macis

The Department of Ophthalmology is seeking experienced technicians and assistants who are team players with outstanding customer service attitudes. For detailed job descriptions and to apply, go to jobs.jhu.edu.

48725 48755 49137 49138 49687 50401

Ophthalmic Technician Ophthalmic Technician Ophthalmic Ultrasound Technician Ophthalmic Ultrasound Specialist Ophthalmic Technician Assistant Ophthalmic Clinical Supervisor

Schools of Public Health and Nursing Office of Human Resources 2021 E. Monument St. 410-955-3006 The Bloomberg School of Public Health is seeking skilled and dynamic applicants for part- and full-time positions. For detailed job descriptions and to apply, go to jobs.jhu. edu.

50715 50514 50882 50846 50783

Senior Research Program Supervisor Project Administrator Communications Coordinator Admissions Officer Administrative Manager

Johns Hopkins University is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, other legally protected characteristics or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria.

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

B O A R D

R O L A N D PA R K

• Large airy rooms • Hardwood Floors

B y P at r i c k E r c o l a n o

Carey Business School

W

hile U.S. hospitals struggle to maintain adequate blood supplies, a new study co-authored by a Johns Hopkins University business professor shows that economic incentives can significantly increase donations from the public.

In addition, the findings suggest that similar methods could be used to build up lifesaving supplies of human bone marrow, organs and body parts for transplantation.

Incentives could be strategically employed to attract blood donations at times when blood supplies are particularly low, such as holidays and summer months, according to the working research paper by Mario Macis of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and two co-authors, Nicola Lacetera of the University of Toronto and Robert Slonim of the University of Sydney.

“Because of the big gap between supply and demand, as an economist I wanted to know whether economic incentives could be introduced into this market that would stimulate people to donate blood. We learned that this was indeed the case,” Macis said in an interview.

The study found that an advertised offer of a $5 gift card increased the likelihood of giving among people with a history of donating by 26 percent, a $10 gift card produced a 52 percent rise, and a $15 card caused an uptick of 72 percent. The offer of gift cards even caused people to motivate others to donate, including people who previously had never given blood.

The study examined individual data from nearly 100,000 donors at 72 American Red Cross blood drives in northern Ohio from September 2009 through August 2010. Gift cards were offered at half the blood-drive

sites; no incentives were provided at the other sites, which served as controls for the study.

Macis said that the research has implications beyond blood reserves. It suggests that some form of compensation, though on a greater scale, could bring a much-needed boost to the supplies of organs, body parts and bone marrow for transplants.

Selling blood, organs and body parts for cash is illegal in the United States. However, donors of blood plasma can be paid.

Also, a federal appellate court ruled Dec. 1 that most donors of bone marrow can receive compensation, overturning a law that had made such arrangements punishable by up to five years in prison.

“There’s this feeling among many people that organs, for example, must be donated freely and without any compensation. But as the need becomes more severe, it may be time to reconsider this view and look at how shortages in a number of categories can be reduced by offering some form of compensation for donations,” Macis said.

“We believe that our study contributes the kind of hard data with sound, thorough, empirical analysis that can shift this debate away from the emotional reactions that tend to dominate it. Of course, the type and amount of compensation, and product quality, would have to be very highly regulated, but the result could be a huge payoff for society.

“Doctors and other medical professionals are financially rewarded for saving lives,” he said. “Why not do the same for ordinary citizens who save lives by donating their blood or organs or marrow?”

The research further reveals that many of the donors with advance notice of a giftcard offer switched the locations and dates of their usual blood donations to sites where the rewards would be available. As the authors note, this process of “displacement” signals a potential way to increase donations in areas and at times of the year that see the worst shortages.

Another noteworthy finding is the decreased rate of subsequent donations by people who had no advance notice of the rewards and who were surprised with gift cards just after they gave blood. The researchers theorize that these donors might have seen the unexpected gifts as an affront to their intrinsic motivation to commit a social-minded act, and consequently, many chose not to donate again. All of them, however, accepted and subsequently spent their gift cards.

The paper, which received funding from the National Science Foundation, is titled “Rewarding Altruism? A Natural Field Experiment.” It was circulated as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper (papers.nber.org/papers/w17636) and as a Milton Friedman Institute working paper (jshare.johnshopkins.edu/mmacis1/ public_html/w/SSRN-id1969506.pdf).

• 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

The JHU Weather Emergency Line The fastest and most accurate source for Johns Hopkins weather emergency information at the university is the weather emergency phone line.

Call 410-516-7781 or, from areas where Baltimore is a long-distance call, 800-548-9004.

The same information is also posted online at webapps.jhu.edu/ emergencynotices.

The hospital’s weather emergency policy is also online, at www .insidehopkinsmedicine.org/operations_integration/OPS/weather.cfm.

January 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

Classifieds APARTMENTS/HOUSES FOR RENT

Ashland (Hunt Valley/Cockeysville), 4BR, 3.5BA TH w/hot tub, AC, front loading W/D, 2 fps, fenced patio w/storage. $1,975/ mo. 410-790-6903.

Brewers Hill, rehabbed 2BR, 2.5BA TH, gourmet kitchen, fin’d bsmt, no pets, avail Feb 1. $1,850/mo. 410-303-1214 or hudsonstreetrental@hotmail.com.

Charles Village, newly renov’d 1BR apt in safe, quiet neighborhood, 1st flr, hdwd flrs, new cabinets. $900/mo incl heat, water. murilo_silvia@hotmail.com.

Charles Village/Waverly, furn’d 1BR apt, avail Feb through summer, off-street prkng. $700/mo. 530-263-8257.

Deep Creek Lake/Wisp, cozy 2BR cabin w/ full kitchen; call for wkly/wknd rentals. 410638-9417 or jzpics@yahoo.com (for pics).

Ellicott City, spacious 3BR, 2.5BA TH on corner, new windows, kitchen/dining area, fin’d walkout bsmt, deck/patio, Centennial high school zone. $1,875/mo. 410-979-9065 or rashmachaudhry@yahoo.com.

Glen Burnie, studio apt w/own laundry (W/D), BA, kitchenette, 13 mi from campus, must be a car owner. 433-799-7530.

Homeland, renov’d 2BR, 2BA in quiet bldg, new kitchen, dw, gas stove, CAC, W/D and storage in bsmt, balcony w/stream view, nr Belvedere shops, gated community has pool and exercise rm. $1,225/mo incl heat, prkng. 410-243-0007 or tinyurl.com/ c46vd4q (for pics).

Mt Washington, sublet 2BR apt in beautiful wooded area nr campus, conv to downtown, avail end of Jan to May, meditative energy, lots of light, W/D, dw, microwave, DSL, WiFi, Netflix, community fitness center, rent discounted in exchange for cat care. $850/mo + utils. 410-764-3494.

M A R K E T P L A C E

5BR executive home avail, furn’d or unfurn’d, rent or rent to own, convenient to Baltimore. 410-259-8879.

HOUSES FOR SALE

Fells Point (300 blk S Durham St), 3 stories, new front and rear masonry work, nice yd, nr JHH. $175,000. Dorothy, 410-419-3902.

Greenway (steps from Homewood campus), Manhattan-style efficiency condo in owneroccupied, elegant and secure bldg. $98,500.

443-414-6282.

Naples, FL, 2BR, 2BA condo in private 55+ community w/clubhouse and swimming pool, 26-ft dock, no bridges to Gulf, heated pool. $249,000. sticks@maine.edu.

Owings Mills New Town, 2BR condo nr metro station. www.4409silverbrook.info.

Rodgers Forge (74 Dunkirk Rd), 3BR, 2BA EOG, thoroughly updated, to be listed in February. $309,000. 443-691-6014.

ROOMMATES WANTED

F grad/staff person wanted to share furn’d 3BR, 2BA house, short-term OK, avail Jan 21. $550/mo incl utils (sec dep req’d). skbzok@verizon.net.

F nonsmoker wanted for 1BR in 2BR W University Pkwy apt, share w/Hopkins alumna, AC, heat, hot water, 5 mins to campus, no pets, start January. $540/mo + 1/2 elec. gwxts5@gmail.com.

Washington Hill, F nonsmoker wanted as bedspacer to share condo w/grad student, adjacent to Church Professional Bldg (98 N Broadway), walk to JHH/shuttle. $450/mo + utils. retzcare@yahoo.com.

Share 2BR, 2BA at Hopkins House Apartments, 1,120 sq ft. $770/mo. ginger750@ yahoo.com.

Parkville, 3BR+, 1.5BA house w/laundry, lots of storage, lg yd. $1,400/mo + utils. Rick, 410-627-7788 or rhserra@comcast.net.

Fully furn’d rm avail, queen bed, 2 lg dressers, closet, CD player, TV, cable, equipped kitchen, laundry rm, nr JHU on Stonewood Rd. $800/mo + sec dep ($450, one-time payment). jackie.nunnally@gmail.com.

Patterson Park/Highlandtown, 3BR, 1.5BA RH, huge kitchen w/new stainless steel appls, hdwd flrs, updated master BA, backyd w/privacy fence, CAC, blks to shuttle stop, no pets allowed, refs req’d. $1,400/mo. 410218-4708 or ky_helfrich@hotmail.com.

Nonsmoker/mature prof’l wanted for fully furn’d 2BR, 1BA condo in Tuscany/Canterbury area, nr JHH shuttle, hdwd flrs, stacked W/D, balcony, pref 1-yr lease. $800/mo + utils (flat monthly rate of $50 for Internet, AC, heat, water, gas and elec). 202-957-6094.

M nonsmoker wanted for 2BR apt in Towson (695 at exit 28), quiet and safe, 1BR and HICKORY HEIGHTS WYMAN COURT 1BA avail. $535/mo incl water (elec, Inter Just Renovated! A lovely hilltop setting net not incl’d). ernest6359@gmail.com. on Hickory Avenue Beech Ave. adj. to JHU!

Studios - $595 - $630 1 BD Apts. - $710-740 2 BD from $795

in Hampden!

2 BD units from $760 w/Balcony - $790!

Shown by appointment 410.764.7776 www.BrooksManagementCompany.com

11

CARS FOR SALE

rior, 4 new tires and new brakes (summer 2011), in great cond, 72K mi. $13,000.

Chris, 410-991-7910. ’07 VW Passat, black, leather, DVD, Navi, CD, MP3, clean, up-to-date on maintenance, 115K mi (highway). $9,500. 804504-1202 or louis.alexjr@gmail.com. ’03 VW Passat GLX wagon, manual V6, silver w/black leather, heated seats, sun/ moonroof, alloy wheels, Md insp’d, orig owner. $4,500. 410-502-4822. ’89 Chevy Silverado pickup, 4x4, rebuilt motor, new tires. $2,000. John, 443-7507750.

SERVICES/ITEMS OFFERED OR WANTED

European family (2 postdocs + infant) needs 2BR apt, furn’d/unfurn’d, in Mt Vernon, Charles Village or Fells Point, mid-Jan or Feb 2012 for 2-3 yrs. 410-236-9840 or sarahlpoynton@yahoo.com.

Looking for a carpool from Homewood to Bayview campus, wkday mornings from now to March, reaching Bayview between 7 and 9am (depending on your schedule), nonsmoker, passenger only. hylin402@gmail.com.

Pet-sitting/dogwalking offered, experienced w/animals, refs avail. Seema, 240-377-6416.

’05 Mazda 6 sedan, just serviced, new tires, in excel shape, 48K mi. $8,850. 410-948-0789.

Certified personal and career coach committed to helping young professionals achieve their potential. 410-375-4042 or mmolten1@yahoo.com.

ITEMS FOR SALE

Chemistry tutor needed for high school student (G/T level), 1 hour per wk on Saturday, rate negotiable. shihie@yahoo.com.

Wurlitzer Americana 1967 jukebox, model 3100, w/over 100 45s, $450; oak entertainment center, $400; Fender acoustic guitar, $150. Chris, 443-326-7717.

Infant porta-crib w/mattress, sheets, like new, $35; McClaren toddler rocker chair w/ safety harness, activity bar, $25; best offers accepted. 410-377-7354.

Oil-filled heaters (3), inkjet printer, portable canvas chair, sand beach chairs (2), keyboard case, 100W amplifier. 410-4555858 or iricse.its@verizon.net.

MCAT study guides, $45; Ikea bed and mattress, in good cond, $180; Ikea chair and ottoman, $35; green onyx jewelry box, $50; enameled wood jewelry box, $15; trash bins ($15 and $5), orange purse from Madagascar, $20; heart rate monitor, $30; lg bag of yarn, $10; iron, $5. krbrignole@gmail.com.

New Alfred Dunner elastic waist dress pants, no tags, black, size 10 regular, $25.

410-522-7546.

Mattress, box spring and frame, like new. $100. 443-804-1927 or royallwhitaker@ gmail.com.

Fundraising product, get 20% of all sales of fashionable jewelry w/lifetime guarantee.

646-441-1534 (eve).

Affordable and professional landscaper/certified horticulturist available to maintain existing gardens, also designing, planting or masonry; free consultations. David, 410683-7373 or grogan.family@hotmail.com.

Piano lessons offered by Peabody doctorate, great teaching experience, all levels/ages welcome. 410-662-7951.

Licensed landscaper avail for fall/winter lawn maintenance, yard cleanup, leaf/snow removal, trash hauling. Taylor Landscaping LLC. 410-812-6090 or romilacapers@ comcast.net.

Tutor: all subjects/levels; remedial, gifted; help w/college counseling, speech and essay writing, editing, proofreading. 410-3379877 (after 8pm) or i1__@hotmail.com.

Friday Night Swing Dance Club, open to public, great bands, no partners necessary.

410-663-0010 or www.fridaynightswing.com.

Glass-top table, 36"W x 36"L x 15"H. $50. chuckandgini@comcast.net.

Looking for a tutor for 10-yr-old focusing on spelling and reading. Tracy at tkdeemer@ msn.com.

Hotpoint refrigerator/freezer w/automatic icemaker and defrost, white, 18 cu ft, 4 yrs old; buyer picks up. $225. 443-803-7401 or beaadd@aol.com.

Transmission repairs, rebuilt or used, 20% discount for all JHU faculty, staff, students and employees, free estimate, 8am-10pm.

Bob, 410-574-8820.

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 443-275-2687.

’06 Honda Accord, silver, 4-dr, cloth inte-

Scientists chart gene expression in the brain across lifespan

T

he expression, or “switching on,” of specific genes in the human genome is what makes each human tissue and each human being unique. A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and the National Institute of Mental Health found that many gene expression changes that occur during fetal development are reversed immediately after birth. Reversals of fetal expression changes are also seen again much later in life during normal aging of the brain.

Additionally, the team observed the reversal of fetal expression changes in Alzheimer’s disease findings reported in other studies.

The researchers also found that gene expression change is fastest in human brain tissue during fetal development, slows down through childhood and adolescence, stabilizes in adulthood and then speeds up again after age 50, with distinct redirections of expression changes before birth and in early adulthood.

Their findings are published in the Oct. 27 edition of Nature. All the data are available to the public as a Web-based resource at www.libd.org/braincloud.

Using a number of genomic analysis technologies, the research team conducted genomewide genetic (DNA) and gene expression (RNA) analyses of brain tissue samples

from the prefrontal cortex. Tissue represented the various stages of the human lifespan.

“We think that these coordinated changes in gene expression connecting fetal development with aging and neurodegeneration are central to how the genome constructs the human brain and how the brain ages,” said Carlo Colantuoni, one of the lead authors of the study and a former research associate in the Department of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Colantuoni recently joined the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, located near Johns Hopkins’ East Baltimore campus.

The research also showed that brain gene expression differences between genetically

diverse individuals (of different races, for example) are no greater than the differences between individuals sharing many more genetic traits.

“Our findings highlight the fact that current technologies and analysis methods can address the effects of individual genetic traits in isolation, but we have virtually no understanding of how our many millions of genetic traits work in concert with one another,” Colantuoni said.

Funding for the research was provided by the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and the Intramural Research Program in the National Institute of Mental Health.

—Tim Parsons

12 THE GAZETTE • January 9, 2012

Gunshot, stabbing victims recovering without exploratory surgery ‘Nonoperative management’ works most of time but isn’t for all patients

By Stephanie Desmon

Johns Hopkins Medicine

A

lthough more patients with abdominal gunshot and stab wounds can successfully forgo emergency “exploratory” surgery and its potential complications, new Johns Hopkins research suggests that choosing the wrong patients for this “watchful waiting” approach substantially increases their risk of death from these injuries.

“Managing gunshot and stab wounds without exploratory surgery prevents complications, saves money and keeps 80 percent of patients from getting operations that end up being unnecessary,” said trauma surgeon Adil H. Haider, an associate professor of surgery, anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and senior author of the study published in BJS, the British Journal of Surgery. “But not every hospital should pursue this course because if physicians make a mistake, the patient pays. It’s not a slamdunk decision.”

Haider says that management of penetrating abdominal injury has undergone a major paradigm shift in the last century. Until the early 1900s, surgery was avoided because the

lack of infection control killed many injured patients. During World War I, mandatory exploratory surgery for such wounds led to better survival rates and soon became the standard of care. For generations, surgeons have been taught to open the abdomen rapidly following nearly all gunshot and most deep stab wounds with the idea that failing to identify severe intestinal injury or bleeding is far worse than doing an abdominal exploration that turns up nothing.

More recently, however, some clinicians have sought ways to reduce these unnecessary “negative” surgeries with improved diagnostic imaging and careful monitoring, according to Haider and his team, which included researchers from Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan.

Studying records from the United States’ National Trauma Data Bank from 2002 to 2008, the researchers identified 25,737 patients who survived long enough with abdominal gunshot or stab wounds to be admitted to a trauma center. Just over half had been stabbed. For the seven-year period, more than 22 percent of the gunshot wounds and more than one-third of stab wounds were treated without immediate surgery.

The remaining patients received immediate exploratory abdominal surgery.

Over the study period, the rate of socalled selective nonoperative management, or SNOM, of these trauma patients rose 50 percent for stab wounds and 28 percent for gunshot wounds, numbers that Haider says point to a growing acceptance of this watchJ A N .

ful waiting approach. During the same time period, the rate of negative or unnecessary abdominal operations decreased by about 10 percent.

Ultimately, some patients chosen for SNOM needed surgery—21 percent of gunshot victims and 15 percent of stabbing victims—even though doctors initially believed that their injuries did not require operations. Such patients, called SNOM failures, were 4.5 times more likely to die than those who were successfully managed without surgery. It is unclear whether those patients would have died from their wounds if they had undergone surgery immediately, the team reported.

SNOM failure was more common in patients with severe injuries requiring blood transfusions and those with damaged spleens.

The payoff for successful SNOM is big, Haider notes. The average hospital stay for successful SNOM patients with gunshot wounds was approximately six days, compared with 13 days for those who underwent immediate exploratory surgery and 14 for those who underwent SNOM but ended up needing surgery later. For stabbing victims, the average hospital stay for those who successfully underwent SNOM was four days, compared with seven days for those who had immediate surgery and eight for those who failed SNOM and needed surgery.

“For hospitals that are practicing selective nonoperative management for abdominal wounds, it seems to be working well, with 9

–

Fri., Jan. 13, 2 p.m. “Medical Robotics and Computer-Integrated Interventional Medicine,” an Applied Physics Laboratory colloquium with Russell Taylor, WSE and SoM. Parsons Auditorium.

APL

DISCUSSION/ T ALK S Mon., Jan. 9, noon. “Does Drinking Tube Well Water Cause Diarrheal Disease in Bangladesh?” a Global Water Program panel discussion with Alexander van Geen, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University; Brian Mailloux, Barnard College, Columbia University; and Alice Layton, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. W2030 SPH. EB

FORU M S Thurs., Jan. 12, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Community Forum

on Violence Prevention, with Edward Cornwell III, surgeon-inchief, Howard University Hospital, and chair of the Department of Surgery, Howard University.

RSVP to odcc@jhmi.edu. For special accommodations or dietary restrictions, phone 410-955-2941 or email dperry@jhmi.edu. Sponsored by SoM, the DC Baltimore Research Center on Child Health Disparities, the Johns Hopkins Black Faculty and Staff Association and the Johns Hopkins Office

of Diversity and Cultural Competence. W4030 SPH. EB I N FOR M A T I O N SESSIONS Mon., Jan. 9, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Carey Business School graduate programs information session.

To register, go to carey.jhu.edu/ admissions/admissions_events/ pt_events.html. 100 International Drive.

Optic Lobes,” a Carnegie Institution Embryology seminar with Claude Desplan, New York University. Rose Auditorium, 3520 San Martin Drive. HW Tues., Jan. 10, noon. “Structures and Mechanism of Lin28, a Multifunctional microRNA Regulator,” a Biological Chemistry faculty recruitment seminar with Yunsum Nam, Harvard Medical School. WBSB Auditorium. EB

p.m.

“Deletion Network Analysis for Capturing Protein Complex Architecture and Elucidating Protein Function,” an Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences seminar with Michael Washburn, University of Kansas. Co-sponsored by the HIT Center. 490 Rangos. EB

“History of Cancer,” a Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center visiting professor lecture by author and researcher Siddhartha Mukherjee, Columbia University. Owens Auditorium, CRB. EB

Wed., Jan. 11, noon. “Molecular Basis of Sensory Adaptations,” a Physiology faculty candidate seminar with Elena Gracheva, University of California, San Francisco. 203 Physiology. EB

Tues., Jan. 10, 1 p.m.

LE C T URE S

Dean’s Lecture I—“Quality Control During Protein Synthesis” by Rachel Green, SoM. Hurd Hall. EB

Mon., Jan. 9, 4 p.m.

Thurs.,

Jan.

12,

4:30

“Determinants of Variable Cancer Drug Exposure and Response: DrugDrug Interactions Mediated at the Level of Drug Absorption,” a Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences seminar with Joseph Ware, Genentech. West Lecture Hall (ground floor), WBSB. EB

Wed., Jan. 11, 4 p.m.

S E M I N AR S Mon., Jan. 9, noon. “c-myc: A Prototype for the Genomewide Regulation of Transcription by DNA Structure and Topology,” a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology seminar with David Levens, National Cancer Institute.

W1020 SPH. EB Mon., Jan. 9, 12:15 p.m. “Generating Neuronal Diversity in the

Related websites Adil Haider:

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/surgery/ faculty/Haider Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research:

https://hopkinsresearch.org/JHH_ Home.aspx?CurrentUDV=38 Trauma Outcomes Research Group:

www.traumaoutcomesresearch .com

1 7

Calendar C OLLO Q U I A

a more than 80 percent success rate,” said Haider, who is co-director of Johns Hopkins’ Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research. “But places that want to start doing it need to be very careful. This is not something you can just decide to do overnight.”

Haider says that success depends on having a well-staffed intensive care unit, where those undergoing SNOM can be closely monitored, as well as in-house surgeons and a ready operating room 24 hours a day in case a SNOM patient takes a turn for the worse and requires immediate surgery.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers contributing to this study are Amy Rushing, Elliott R. Haut, Cassandra V. Villegas, Albert Chi, Kent Stevens and David T. Efron.

Wed., Jan. 11, 4 p.m. “Flexible Distributed Lag Models Using Random Functions With Application to Estimating Mortality

Displacement From Heat-Related Deaths,” a Biostatistics seminar with Matthew Heaton, National Center for Atmospheric Research.

W2030 SPH. EB

linear Imaging,” a Carnegie Institution Embryology seminar with William Wilson, WSE. Rose Auditorium, 3520 San Martin Drive. HW

Tropical Medicine Dinner Club of Baltimore—“Rickettsial Diseases Research at the Naval Medical Research Center” with Allen Richards, Naval Medical Research Center and Utah State University. $20 for members for the seminar and buffet, $25 for non-members, $15 for residents and fellows and $10 for students. RSVP to mksmith@jhsph.edu. Johns Hopkins Club. HW

Tues.,

Wed., Jan. 11, 6:30 p.m.

“Mitochondrial Genetics and Indicators of Physical Function in Older Adults,” an Epidemiology thesis defense seminar with Ann Moore.

W2030 SPH. EB

Thurs., Jan. 12, 9 a.m.

“Antigen Receptor Gene Diversification and the Evolution of Adaptive Immunity,” a Molecular Microbiology and Immunology/Infectious Diseases seminar with Sebastian Fugmann, National Institute on Aging. W1020 SPH. EB

Thurs., Jan. 12, noon.

“Mod­­­­­­­­­ ulation of Background Channels: Mechanisms and Physiological Roles,” a Neuroscience research seminar with Doug Bayliss, University of Virginia. West Lecture Hall (ground floor), WBSB. EB

Thurs., Jan. 12, 1 p.m.

Fri., Jan. 13, 1 p.m. “Genetic Determinants of Breast Cancer Drug Resistance,” a Human Genetics Graduate Program thesis defense seminar with Morassa Mohseni. Sponsored by the Institute of Genetic Medicine. G-007 Ross. EB Mon.,

Jan.

16,

12:15

p.m.

“Biological Applications of Non-

Jan. 17, noon. “A Human-Centered Geo Visualization Framework to Improve Public Health Decision Making,” a Health Informatics/Information Science faculty candidate seminar with Ashish Joshi, UMBC. Brown bag lunch provided. Sponsored by Health Policy and Management. 688 Hampton House.

EB

W ORK S H O P S Tues., Jan. 17, 1 to 3 p.m.

“Getting Started With Blackboard,” a Center for Educational Resources workshop on the Blackboard 9.1 interface. The training is open to all faculty, staff and students in full-time KSAS or WSE programs who have administrative responsibilities in a Blackboard course. To register, go to www.bb.cer.jhu.edu. Garrett Room, MSE Library. HW

(Events are free and Calendar

open to the public Key

except where indicated.)

APL BRB CRB EB HW JHOC

Applied Physics Laboratory Broadway Research Building Cancer Research Building East Baltimore Homewood Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center KSAS Krieger School of Arts

and Sciences NEB New Engineering Building 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