The Gazette

o ur 4 1 ST ye ar

C O LLA B ORAT I O N

FOND FARE W EL L

Covering Homewood, East Baltimore, Peabody,

Bloomberg School of Public

Jerry Schnydman is feted with

SAIS, APL and other campuses throughout the

Health to offer MPH degree

honors as he retires after nearly

Baltimore-Washington area and abroad, since 1971.

program in Jaipur, India, page 12

40 years at JHU, page 7

July 9, 2012

The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University

Volume 41 No. 39

O U T R E A C H

C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

Best of Baltimore Research

Big changes ahead for ‘The Gazette’ Big changes are ahead for The Gazette.

Launched in 1971 as a four-page paper of record for the university, it evolved over the years into the larger, broaderin-content, 42-times-a-year tabloid that you are reading today. Beginning in September, the publication will be transPaper to formed again.

On the first of each relaunch month, The Gazette as monthly will appear as a big, beautiful news magazine, designed to news mag better tell the story of The Johns Hopin Sept. kins University and its people. In its pages, you will read about timely events and important news developments, learn more about our people and our programs, and find ideas to help you do your job and live your life in better ways—all brought together in a fresh, compelling package.

Like the institution—and the audience it serves—this new monthly publication was shaped by a drive for excellence and innovation, and a desire to set the standard in its field.

You’ll still get breaking news of Johns Hopkins when it happens—delivered to you in the fastest way possible, thanks to the Office of Communications’ forthcoming online news vehicle, The Hub, which will bring together in one place all the news of our far-flung university.

You can read more about The Hub in the next issue of The Gazette, and you’ll be able to discover and explore it yourself in late August.

Miss a breaking important story there? Not to worry. You’ll find it highlighted in our new print publication, along with all kinds of exciting new content, presented in a visually compelling format.

The longtime features that are in our DNA—a universitywide calendar, Cheers, Milestones, staff recognition events, classified ads with which you can connect with your colleagues—will not disappear; they’ll just look better and be more fun to peruse. All of you, our readContinued on page 4

2

will kirk / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

To our readers:

Deidra Crews, above, and L. Ebony Boulware are developing strategies to improve dietary choices of African-Americans with incomes below the poverty line in order to reduce their risk of chronic kidney disease.

Urban Health Institute and President’s Office recognize faculty work

By Greg Rienzi

The Gazette

A

Baltimore-based study, led by scientists at Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging and published in 2010, found that African-Americans with incomes below the poverty line have a significantly higher risk of chronic kidney disease than higher-income African-Americans or whites of any socioeconomic status.

After completing this study, School of Medicine faculty member Deidra Crews wanted to find out why this was, and what could be done to reverse this trend.

A major factor, she believed, was poor diet, particularly one high in sodium and low in fruits and vegetables. Crews, Continued on page 6

E V E N T

Hopkins-Nanjing Center celebrates 25 years

By Felisa Neuringer Klubes

SAIS

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resident Ronald J. Daniels and incoming SAIS Dean Vali R. Nasr led the university’s delegation to celebrate in China the 25th anniversary of the Johns Hopkins University–Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies.

The festivities kicked off on June 15 with the center’s annual commencement ceremony, where Daniels had the opportunity to

In Brief

Women’s lax goes independent; Penn Station shuttle stop; Shakespeare in the Meadow

12

address the nearly 130 members of the class of 2012 and greet each of them, along with Nanjing University Chancellor Hong Yinxing, as they crossed the stage to receive graduate certificates and master’s degree diplomas.

Daniels spoke to the graduates about the ambitious and unprecedented plans to create this one-of-a-kind partnership developed more than a quarter-century ago by then JHU President Steven Muller and then Nanjing University President Kuang Yaming. “Somehow, with great foresight, they envisioned a place where proximity, commonalities and a

C A L E N D AR

‘Summer Evening at Evergreen’; blood drive; the Carrolls’ 212th anniversary

shining academic mission would open new horizons to the next generations of American and Chinese leaders. Today, you are all the products of that vision. Your work here exemplifies both the hopes of these two men and the best version of the future relationship between our two nations.”

The center, with a community of more than 2,100 alumni worldwide, is a postgraduate educational joint venture between Johns Hopkins and Nanjing universities, providing Continued on page 6

10 Job Opportunities 10 Notices 11 Classifieds

2 9, 2012 2 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• July August 15, 2011 I N B R I E F

Women’s lacrosse program to compete as an independent

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irector of Athletics Tom Calder announced on June 29 that the women’s lacrosse program, currently a member of the American Lacrosse Conference, will begin competing as an independent beginning in the 2014 or 2015 season.

The exact date of Johns Hopkins’ departure from the ALC will be determined later this summer.

“After careful consideration and with consultation with university administrators, we have determined that competing as an independent is an exciting opportunity and one that we look forward to taking on,” Calder said. “The goal of our women’s lacrosse program, as it is with every team we have at Johns Hopkins, is to compete for a national championship. We believe this move affords us the opportunity to continue playing a national schedule while pursuing that ultimate goal.”

In addition to the competitive ALC schedule the Blue Jays have had in place since joining the league as a charter member in 2002, Johns Hopkins has played numerous other nationally recognized programs in recent years. In addition to local rivals Loyola, Towson and UMBC, the Blue Jays counted games against Princeton, Georgetown, Virginia and Harvard among their nonconference games in 2012.

“The continued growth of women’s lacrosse at the Division I level provides us with the opportunity to showcase our program around the country against some of the best teams in the sport,” women’s lacrosse coach Janine Tucker added. “I have long admired the opportunity our men’s program has to selectively schedule games against strong teams from outstanding institutions.

We are very much looking forward to following that same model.”

Johns Hopkins’ current agreement with ALC requires the Blue Jays to play two more years in the league before departing. An exception to the two-year rule can be granted by a vote of the members of the league.

Johns Hopkins will compete in the league for at least one more season and will serve as the host of the 2013 ALC Championships in May.

Northbound Penn Station shuttle stop moves for Artscape

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ecause of street closures in effect for Artscape 2012, the city’s annual arts festival, the northbound Penn Station stop of the Homewood-Peabody-JHMI Shuttle will relocate to the northeast corner of Mount Royal Avenue and North Calvert

Editor Lois Perschetz Writer Greg Rienzi Production Lynna Bright Copy Editor Ann Stiller Photography Homewood Photography A d v e rt i s i n g The Gazelle Group Business Dianne MacLeod C i r c u l at i o n Lynette Floyd Webmaster Lauren Custer

Street from Thursday, July 19, through Sunday, July 22. Regular operations will resume on Monday, July 23.

For shuttle updates, go to parking.jhu.edu or Nextbus.com.

Shakespeare returns to the Meadow at Evergreen Museum

S

hakespeare returns to the Meadow at Evergreen Museum & Library this summer, when The Baltimore Shakespeare Factory presents two of the Bard’s works in a monthlong series of performances that begins on Friday, July 20.

Love’s Labour’s Lost is directed by the troupe’s artistic director, Tom Delise, who promises “crackling dialogue that goes off like firecrackers” and a “plethora of bawdy humor” in this play about four lords who swear off love only to meet their match in four feisty ladies. The performances are July 20 to 22, July 27 to 29 and Aug. 5.

Taming of the Shrew is directed by the company’s managing director, Kelly Dowling.

“The unique feature of our production is the use of the Prologue,” Dowling says. “Most people are not even aware it exists, and it puts the events of the play in a completely different light.” Performances are Aug. 3, 10 to 12 and 17 to 19.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m., Sunday’s at 2 p.m.

On Saturday, Aug. 4, Marathon in the Meadow offers Love’s Labour at 2 p.m. and Shrew at 7:30. The grounds open two hours earlier for picnicking.

For tickets and more details, go to theshakespearefactory.com.

SoN’s Accelerated 2013 class is most ethnically diverse in history

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he Accelerated 2013 class of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing is the most ethnically diverse class in the school’s history, according to Nancy Davis Griffin, associate dean for enrollment management and student affairs. Thirty-two percent (42 of 131 students) of the class represents minority ethnicity.

In addition to significant ethnic diversity, the class is internationally well-represented: Three students are from China, and 17 originally came from Belarus, Brazil, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, Iran, Latvia, Mali, Nigeria, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Great Britain and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Nationally, the class represents 28 states and the District of Columbia, with 30 students coming from Maryland and 28 from California. Fifteen students are Peace Corps Coverdell Fellows, representing 15 different countries.

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, Suite 540, 901 S. Bond St., Baltimore, MD 21231, in cooperation with all university divisions. Subscriptions are $26 per year.

Deadline for calendar items, notices and classifieds (free to JHU faculty, staff and students) is noon Monday, one week prior to publication date.

Phone: 443-287-9900 Fax: 443-287-9920 General e-mail: gazette@jhu.edu Classifieds e-mail: gazads@jhu.edu On the Web: gazette.jhu.edu Paid advertising, which does not represent any endorsement by the university, is handled by the Gazelle Group at 443275-2687 or gazellegrp@comcast.net.

July 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

3

A P P O I N T M E N T S

University names VP, chief of staff and secretary to the board and VP, strategic initiatives B y P at r i c i a S c h e l l e n b a c h

University Administration

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resident Ronald J. Daniels has announced two key administrative appointments at The Johns Hopkins University: a vice president, chief of staff and secretary to the board of trustees; and a vice president, strategic initiatives.

Jacqueline Lee Mok, currently The University of Arizona’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, as well as senior vice president and chief of staff, will assume the position of vice president, chief of staff and secretary to the board on Aug. 1.

Phillip Spector, most recently senior adviser to the legal adviser at the Department of State, will join the university as vice president for strategic initiatives, beginning July 9.

These two highly accomplished leaders will encourage collaboration among divisions and teams around the university and will continue the work of strategically positioning and advancing university initiatives and priorities, said Daniels, who recommended the appointments to the board of trustees.

Mok joined The University of Arizona in 1997 as assistant dean in the College of Fine Arts. In her two current leadership positions, she has provided institutional oversight for academic matters, including direct oversight of 13 colleges. She also brings experience in adult continuing education, alumni affairs, performing arts and international relations.

Among her contributions at The University of Arizona, Mok has led university- and college-level strategic and annual planning exercises. She has served in various capacities in U.S. embassies in France, Nigeria and

Jacqueline Lee Mok

Phillip Spector

Sri Lanka. At Johns Hopkins, she also will have a faculty appointment at the Peabody Institute. Mok holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Middlebury College and a master’s in music education from the University of North Texas. She earned her doctorate in arts education from New York University.

“I am honored to be asked to serve The Johns Hopkins University,” Mok said.

“Johns Hopkins’ traditions and its promise for the future place it as a university with the capacity to transform lives. Through its preeminent undergraduate, graduate and professional education programs, coupled with the excellence of its faculty, the excellence of JHU students and staff, and its collaborative and interdisciplinary strengths, I believe

The Johns Hopkins University has led and will lead the way for higher education.”

She will be a senior adviser to Daniels and work closely with the deans, trustees and senior leaders to coordinate initiatives across the university. She will oversee the Office of the President and the Office of the Secretary to the Board and manage short- and longterm priorities for the president.

Spector joins the university after most recently serving as senior adviser to the legal adviser at the Department of State. In this position, he provided counsel and strategic advice on a range of legal and foreign policy initiatives, as well as cyber issues. Additionally, he served as head of the U.S. delegation for negotiations at the United Nations

and represented the office on legal topics including Wikileaks, LGBT issues, cluster munitions and land mines. Before joining the State Department, he served as senior counsel to then Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He earned his undergraduate degree in political science and mathematics from Swarthmore College and his law degree from Yale Law School.

In his new role, Spector will support the executive leadership of the university by coordinating, integrating and leading the planning and implementation of the university’s strategic initiatives across divisions, departments and units.

“I am honored and delighted to be joining the Johns Hopkins University community,” Spector said. “President Daniels has charted an exciting and inspiring vision for the future of the university, and it is a privilege to be given the opportunity to join him and his team in making that vision a reality. I look forward to meeting as many of the members of the university family as I can in the days to come.”

Mok and Spector will be filling the gaps left by Jerome D. Schnydman, who is retiring after 37 years at Johns Hopkins, and Lois Chiang, who plans to leave the university, given her husband’s relocation to Kansas.

Both Spector and Mok will report directly to the president.

“Phil Spector and Jacqueline Mok are extraordinary candidates who will bring impressive leadership experience to Johns Hopkins,” Daniels said. “They will help set the agendas and execute the strategies that will allow this university to continue to lead on the community and global stages. I look forward to having them join our team.”

African Bioethics Program receives NIH continuation grant B y L e a h R a m s ay

Berman Institute of Bioethics

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he Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics is planning its second decade of building capacity in research ethics across sub-Saharan Africa, thanks to a five-year grant from the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health.

In the program, an African institution is selected each year to send scholars to the Berman Institute, where they spend six months engaged in course work, seminars, intensive mentoring and leadership training. The funding then provides support for these individuals to complete a six-month practicum project in research ethics at their home African institution.

“We were first funded by Fogarty to start this program 12 years ago, when there were few opportunities for training in research ethics within Africa. We are honored and humbled to be awarded an additional five years of funding by the NIH,” said Nancy Kass, co-director of the program and deputy director for public health at the Berman Institute. “Many of our FABTP alumni have become recognized international ethics experts, and we look forward to this continued funding that will allow more African institutions to develop sustainable bioethics and research ethics centers,” she said.

Oliver Mweemba, a 2012 Fogarty Scholar from the University of Zambia’s School of Medicine, said that he wants to enhance research ethics education at his home institution, and his practicum project will develop and implement a curriculum for researchers, educators and staff. Mweemba teaches health promotion, social medicine and qualitative methods to undergraduate and graduate students. He has also been involved in HIV pre-

vention research projects at both the national and international levels, and consulted on the Population Council’s study in Zambia on the impact of male circumcision on sexual behavior and condom use negotiations.

“The Fogarty training program in bioethics has been an eye-opener for me on the links between politics, social justice and health,” Mweemba said. “Working with experienced academics in the field provided a unique experience for sharing and discussing global issues in bioethics, as well as providing me with an ethics platform to critically analyze not only moral issues in doing research but also contextualize the research agenda in the global contest of power. My goal is to pass on this experience and skills to folks in Zambia,” he said.

Adnan Hyder, co-director of the Fogarty program and associate director for global programs at the Berman Institute, said that the program’s true strength comes from scholars like Mweemba, who continue research ethics development in their home countries. “Through our scholars, the Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program has a lasting impact,” Hyder said. “Fogarty bioethics scholars build research ethics capacity across Africa by implementing lessons and projects developed in the program for longterm benefit.”

Kass and Hyder, along with their colleague Joseph Ali, recently published a paper in the journal Developing World Bioethics looking back on the first nine years of the program; it’s available at onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/10.1111/j.1471-8847.2012.00331.x/ abstract.

In addition to the University of Zambia, in recent years the program has partnered with the College of Health Sciences at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and with the Office of Research and Development at the University of Botswana.

“The Fogarty African Bioethics Train-

ing Program is a cornerstone of our Global Bioethics Program at the Berman Institute,” said Ruth Faden, director of the Berman Institute. “Thanks to this continued funding, we are looking forward to continuing the program and expanding institutional support for our Fogarty scholars as they implement their practicum projects.”

The program is currently accepting applications for 2013 partner institutions, which

if selected will send up to four scholars for training at The Johns Hopkins University and Berman Institute. Eligible institutions include universities, hospitals, nongovernmental organizations and governmental institutions from sub-Saharan Africa that fund, regulate, conduct, oversee or provide training related to health research with human beings.

For more information on the Fogarty African Bioethics Training Program, go to fabtp.com.

Two faculty named fellows in American Academy of Nursing

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ohns Hopkins University School of Nursing faculty members Christine Savage and Elizabeth “Betty” Jordan have been named fellows in the American Academy of Nursing for 2012.

Savage and Jordan are among 176 nursing leaders from across the United States chosen for one of the most prestigious honors in nursing. Academy fellows hold a variety of positions including university presidents, chancellors and deans; association executives; state and federal political appointees; hospital chief executives and vice presidents for nursing; nurse consultants; and researchers and entrepreneurs. Savage and Jordan will be inducted Oct. 13 at the academy’s 39th Annual Meeting Conference in Washington, DC. Savage, a professor and chair of the Department of Community Public Health, has worked in addictions within a public health context for the majority of her career. As a maternal child health nurse in Visiting Nursing Organizations in the 1970s and 1980s, she became interested in the role alcohol and drug use played in increasing vulnerability in

certain populations, especially women. She has conducted funded research related to alcohol use during pregnancy and to management of health for the solitary homeless adult, and has recently been engaged in research related to nursing education in alcohol.

Jordan, an assistant professor and director of the School of Nursing’s baccalaureate program, is internationally recognized for her clinical expertise in maternal and newborn outcomes research, practice and education.

She is the associate director of the Johns Hopkins University Global Mobile Health Initiative, which is recognized as the go-to place for the development, implementation and evaluation of, and interdisciplinary education related to, the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices. Jordan assisted with designing, implementing and evaluating “text4baby,” the first mobile health information program in the United States. She maintains a clinical nursing practice with the Baltimore City Health Department, reviewing infant and fetal deaths, and aspects of prenatal care for women in the community.

4 9, 2012 4 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• July August 15, 2011 C O G N I T I V E

S C I E N C E

Citizen science: Thousands tested their ‘gut’ sense for numbers

By Lisa De Nike

Homewood

A

first-of-its-kind study using the World Wide Web to collect data from more than 10,000 study subjects ages 11 to 85 found that humans’ inborn “number sense” improves during school years, declines during old age and remains linked throughout the entire lifespan to academic mathematics achievement.

The study, led by psychologist Justin Halberda of The Johns Hopkins University and published during the week of June 25 in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is groundbreaking for presenting a picture of how our basic cognitive abilities may change across our lifetime.

“Gathering evidence from massive numbers of participants via the Internet the way we did is an important new model for doing psychological research,” said Halberda, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences in the university’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. “Engaging thousands of people between 11 and 85 years of age allowed us to generate a picture of how a core cognitive ability—our gut sense for numbers, known as ‘number sense’— changes across a lifetime.”

The term number sense is used to describe humans’ and animals’ inborn ability to intuitively size up the number of objects in their everyday environments. It’s what enables a skittering squirrel, for example, to quickly ascertain which tree offers the most acorns, or a late-to-work motorist to figure out which E-ZPass lane will get him on his way fastest. Scientists believe we are all born with this ability. They think it probably is an evolutionary adaptation that permitted

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Psychologist Justin Halberda collected data from 10,000 subjects who played a simple game online and answered questions about their math abilities.

our human and animal ancestors to survive in the wild.

In the study, everyday folks visited a website to play a simple game that tested their intuitive number sense by asking them to view screens displaying varying numbers of yellow or blue dots and decide rapidly which were more plentiful. (Readers can take the test themselves at panamath.com.) The test subjects also reported in detail about how they did in math class throughout their school years, and on the math portion of the SAT. Previous research links school math ability with number sense in teenagers, but this study demonstrates that the relationship holds fast throughout the lifespan. Halberda

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and his team, however, were surprised to find that number sense peaks around the age of 30, almost a decade after other cognitive abilities reach their most acute.

“Perhaps most striking to us were the large developmental improvements that we found in people’s gut number sense precision, improvements that continued into the

30s,” he said. “Either the maturing brain or the everyday activities people engaged in helped improve the precision of their number sense throughout the first three decades of life.”

These results suggest that a person’s number sense is not set in stone, Halberda says, and may be improved by the things we do daily, such as deciding which grocery store checkout line has the fewest shoppers or which airport security line will move most quickly.

The fact that some people seem to be born with—or to develop—more acute number sense than others also has important implications educationally. The finding that number sense is, in a way, malleable leaves open the possibility of developing educational strategies to improve people’s number sense, Halberda says.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Related websites Justin Halberda and the study:

pbs.jhu.edu/research/halberda/ facultyinfo halberdalab.net/pnas2012

Former national security official Hans Binnendijk joins SAIS

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ans Binnendijk, a former high-ranking national security official who most recently served as vice president for research and applied learning at the National Defense University, has joined SAIS as a senior fellow.

Based at the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations, Binnendijk, who also held the Theodore Roosevelt Chair in National Security Policy at NDU, will engage in a full range of center activities, including seminars, policy study groups, media commentary, research projects and engagement with SAIS students and other center fellows.

“Hans Binnendijk is one of America’s leading strategic thinkers,” said Dan Hamilton, CTR executive director and Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Research Professor. “He brings a great deal of commitment to the transatlantic relationship, strong knowledge of European dynamics and extensive leadership experience in U.S. foreign and defense policy.”

Binnendijk also served as director of

NDU’s Institute for National Strategic Studies and was the founding director of its Center for Technology and National Security Policy. He previously was on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and senior director for defense policy and arms control, principal deputy director of the Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff, deputy staff director and legislative director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and editor of Survival. He currently serves as vice chairman of the board of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

“We are delighted to welcome Hans Binnendijk to the school,” said SAIS Dean Vali R. Nasr. “SAIS will be much enriched by his engagement.”

Other distinguished CTR fellows include Jose Maria Aznar, former president of the government of Spain, former Prime Minister of Hungary Gordon Bajnai, former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker.

Gazette

appeared earlier than that, please continue to query us at gazette@jhu.edu.

We’re excited and energized by the new publication we’ve conceived for you, and we hope that you will be proud of it and the way it represents this august institution.

The July 23 issue of The Gazette will be the last in our longtime format. We will not print editions in August; important breaking news will be posted online on our current website, gazette.jhu.edu, and on the university’s home page, jhu.edu.

We will continue to carry advertising that adds value to your reading experience, and university affiliates will still enjoy special rates. A partnership with our new advertising representative, Clipper City Media, begins immediately; for rates and deadlines, contact Kristen Cooper at kcooper@ clippercitymedia or 410-902-2309.

We’ll see you in September, in the same locations where you’ve been finding us.

Take a look, and let us know what you think. Drop us a note at gazette@jhu.edu. G

Continued from page 1 ers, contribute to the success of these elements; please continue to alert us to significant stories and submit news that’s important to you at gazette@jhu.edu. (Questions about deadlines? Please contact editor Lois Perschetz at lwp@jhu.edu.)

You’ll see changes in our website, too.

Like that of our sister publication, Johns Hopkins Magazine, our new online home is being designed by the talented Web team in the Office of Communications and will be easy to access on your computer or mobile device.

We know that many of you rely on The Gazette as the go-to source for historical information. You’ll still be able to access online our archives dating back to 1994; for help tracking down information that

July 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

5

G E O C H E M I S T R Y

They were what they ate: Pre-humans ate only forest foods

By Lisa

de

Nike

Homewood

will kirk / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

Y

ou are what you eat, as the saying goes, and that seems to have been as true 2 million years ago, when pre-human relatives were swinging through the trees and racing across the savannas of South Africa, as it is today.

A study published June 27 in the journal Nature reveals that Australopithecus sediba, an apelike creature with human features living in a region about 50 miles northwest of today’s Johannesburg, consumed exclusively fruits, leaves and other forest-based foods, even though its habitat was near a grassy savanna with its rich variety of savory sedges, tasty tubers and even juicy animals.

“This astonished us,” says Benjamin Passey, a Johns Hopkins University geochemist on the international team that conducted the study. “Most hominin species appear to have been pretty good at eating what was around them and available, but sediba seems to have been unusual in that, like present-day chimpanzees, it ignored available savanna foods.”

These new findings add detail to the emerging picture of our various pre-human relatives, and why some thrived and continued to evolve, while others became extinct.

“We know that if you are a hominin, in order to get to the rest of the world, at some point you must leave the forests, and our ancestors apparently did so,” Passey said.

Benjamin Passey

“The fates of those that did not leave are well-known: They are extinct or, like the chimpanzee and gorilla today, are in enormous peril. So the closing chapter in the story of hominin evolution is the story of these ‘dids’ and ‘did nots.’”

In order to learn what these 4-foot-tall, small-brained, bipedal beings had for dinner most nights 2,000 millennia ago, Passey wielded a laser to extract and vaporize infinitesimal bits of fossilized tooth enamel from two Au. sediba individuals.

He then used a mass spectrometer to detect, in the vapor, the ratio of two forms of carbon (called isotopes): carbon-12 and

carbon-13. These chemical “fingerprints” became locked into the sedibas’ enamel in their youth, as their teeth formed. A reading heavy in carbon-12 indicates a diet comprising mostly forest foods, such as leaves and fruits, and a reading heavy in carbon-13 signals a diet that includes larger amounts of savanna foods such as seeds, roots and grasses.

“We study tooth enamel because it’s the hardest mineral in the body and preserves its chemical and isotopic signatures over time, so it has a lot to tell us,” Passey explains.

“We couldn’t get the same analysis from a bone fragment, for instance, because it will be affected by the composition of the soil surrounding it.”

Passey and the team concluded that Au. sediba consumed between 95 and 100 percent forest-based foods, despite other foods easily available to them.

Why is this important to know?

“Well, one thing people probably don’t realize is that humans are basically grass eaters,” he said. “We eat grass in the form of the grains that we use to make breads, noodles, cereals and beers, and we eat animals that eat grass. In America, we eat animals that are fed corn, and corn is grass, albeit one with an incredible history of human selection. So when did our addiction to grass begin? At what point in our evolutionary history did we start making use of grasses?

Eating grasses is a hallmark of humanity, and we are simply trying to find out where in the human chain that begins.”

The study team was led by Amanda

Henry of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and included Peter S. Ungar, of the University of Arkansas; Matt Sponsheimer and Paul Sandberg, both of the University of Colorado, Boulder; Lloyd Rossouw, of the National Museum Bloemfontein; Marion Bamford and Lee Berger, both of the University of the Witwatersrand; and Darryl J. de Ruiter, of Texas A&M University.

Passey’s work was funded by the National Science Foundation, and other team members were supported by the Smithsonian, the Malapa Project at the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand, the Max Planck Society, the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Scholarship Program, the Leakey Foundation, the University of Colorado’s Dean’s Fund for Excellence, the Paleontological Scientific Trust (South Africa) and the South African Department of Science and Technology, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Ray A. Rothrock Fellowship and the International Research Travel Assistance Grant of Texas A&M University.

To see a video of Passey talking about the discovery, go to youtube.com/watch?v= 6IaZwDavDDI.

Related website Benjamin Passey:

eps.jhu.edu/bios/benjamin-passey/ index.html

Researchers recommend steps to improve global road safety

By Tim Parsons

Bloomberg School of Public Health

R

oad traffic crashes kill more than 1.2 million people each year, with 90 percent of those fatalities occurring in low- and middle-income countries.

Yet despite a growing body of data to support effective and proven interventions, proportional funding for implementation in developing countries has not been forthcoming, leaving a gap between evidence and action.

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health outlines steps to address the implementation gap in low- and middleincome countries. IIRU Director Adnan Hyder and doctoral student Katherine Allen, along with members of the World Health Organization, the Global Road Safety Partnership and Bloomberg Philanthropies, among others, have published, “Addressing the Implementation Gap in

Global Road Safety: Exploring Features of an Effective Response and Introducing a 10-Country Program,” in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Using their experiences in the field of injury prevention, global road safety and health services delivery, and taking into account WHO’s benchmark 2004 world report on road traffic injury prevention, the team of researchers recommends 10 characteristics that are necessary to effectively address this evidence-to-action gap. Among them are a concerted effort to coordinate across multiple sectors, the need to address road safety issues on a scale that is not only commensurate with the burden but is focused where road traffic injuries are highest and, perhaps most important, the need for adequate funding.

“We know the statistics,” Hyder said. “We know that 90 percent of road traffic deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, despite the fact that they have less than 50 percent of the world’s registered automobiles. We know that relatively inexpensive interventions can be effective. For example,

wearing a seatbelt correctly can reduce the risk of fatalities by 61 percent. So why wouldn’t you support that?”

In the paper, the team introduces the Road Safety in 10 Countries project, an initiative designed as a response to the implementation gap. The RS-10 project is a five-year initiative, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, that is dedicated to reducing the burden of road traffic injuries in 10 lowand middle-income countries by evaluating and implementing road safety solutions in places where interventions are needed the most.

The RS-10 project is composed of six consortium partners—the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, WHO, the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, the Global Road Safety Partnership, the Association for Safe International Road Travel and EMBARQ—and has a simple goal: to save lives by providing evidence for stronger road safety interventions around the world.

Targeting the 10 countries that account for nearly half of all traffic deaths globally, the project addresses many of the proposed char-

acteristics of an effective response, including a scale and focus appropriate to the burden, coordination across multiple sectors, and training and capacity building for in-country collaborators. The project has not only provided funding for each of the participating countries to address road traffic injuries but has also created partnerships among local, national and global experts on road safety, which in turn will support long-term sustainability.

“The RS-10 project affords us a unique opportunity to help address a sizable portion of the world’s burden of road traffic injuries,” Hyder said. And, he notes, the project is already making huge strides.

“We’ve recently published a special issue of Traffic Injury Prevention, which includes 11 scientific papers highlighting new and aggregate data collected and analyzed in the first two years of the project. These results will extend beyond the project and serve as a foundation for future road safety work globally.”

The study was funded with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Found: Pathway for origin of most common form of brain tumor

By Stephanie Desmon

Johns Hopkins Medicine

J

ohns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered one of the most important cellular mechanisms driving the growth and progression of meningioma, the most common form of brain and spinal cord tumor. A report on the discovery, published in the journal Molecular Cancer Research, could lead the way to the discovery of better drugs to attack these crippling tumors, the scientists say.

“We are one step closer to identifying genes that can be targeted for treatment,” said study leader Gilson S. Baia, a faculty research associate in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Baia and his team based their study on the knowledge that in roughly two-thirds of cases of meningioma, patients have a mutation in the NF2 tumor suppressor gene, an alteration that disrupts the expression of the protein called Merlin. Merlin, in turn, kicks off a cell signaling pathway called Hippo, and in the new study, Baia and his colleagues determined that if Merlin is missing, the Hippo pathway is disrupted. In normal development, Hippo controls the size of tissues and organs in the body. It is activated when tissue needs to grow and also acts as a brake on uncontrolled growth. If disrupted, a biochemical cascade produces uncontrolled tumor growth.

In meningioma cells, Baia studied the activation of a protein called YAP1, for Yesassociated protein 1, which is regulated by Hippo. Without it, YAP1 moves into the cell

nuclei and activates genes whose products trigger tumorigenesis and cell proliferation.

In recent years, the Hippo pathway has been found to play a role in the growth of other cancers, but this is the first time the pathway has been implicated in meningioma, Baia says. YAP1 has also been implicated in other cancers, he says, including lung and ovarian malignancies, and the mutation in NF2 has been found in other, less common forms of brain cancers as well as in mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer associated mostly with exposure to asbestos.

In their research, the investigators collected 70 human meningioma tissue samples and found that YAP1 expression was present in the nuclei of all of the samples regardless of tumor “grade,” meaning it appears to be a molecular mechanism involved in the earliest stages of meningioma development. In

the lab, Baia knocked down the amount of YAP1 in cell nuclei and found that tumor proliferation went down. When there was more YAP1, the cells grew and also migrated more.

Baia and his team also injected human cell lines in which YAP1 was overexpressed into the brains of the mice. “With excess YAP, all of the mice got tumors,” Baia said.

The next step, he said, is to determine the exact genes activated by the arrival of YAP1 in the cell nuclei. Then, he said, the hope is that new treatments can be developed to target those genes.

The research was supported by donations from Leonard and Phyllis Attman and the Meningioma Mommas Foundation. Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in the study are Otavia L. Caballero, Brent A. Orr, Janelle S.Y. Ho and Gregory Riggins.

Nanjing Continued from page 1 approximately 180 students from the United States and other countries, and China, the opportunity to live and study together. American and international students take the majority of their classes in Mandarin, while Chinese participants study mostly in English.

Nearly 250 of the 350 attendees of the anniversary celebration were alumni of the center, who came to Nanjing from around the globe for a packed weekend of forums, class dinners, student presentations, traditional Chinese banquets—and even a few cups of coffee at favorite neighborhood hangouts—to reminisce about their unique shared academic and cultural experience.

The gathering also served as an opportunity

to bring together and recognize many of the American and Chinese co-directors who have worked as the center’s lead administrators on the ground in Nanjing throughout the years.

Among the festivities was the formal launch of the Hopkins-Nanjing Council, an advisory body chaired by former JHU President William R. Brody and “composed of professionals from all walks of life who are deeply committed to the center’s future,” said Jason Patent, American co-director of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Brody and his wife, Wendy, were among the attendees.

Yan Cunlu, a 1993 HNC graduate who now serves as president of Autocraft Industrial (Shanghai) Ltd., spoke at the June 16 anniversary ceremony as the representative of the center’s Chinese alumni. “My year at the center influenced me deeply,” Yan said. “At the center, you cultivate a new way of thinking. … This learning experience made me realize that no matter how

Baltimore Continued from page 1 and her mentor, L. Ebony Boulware, have since set out to develop interventions and strategies to improve dietary choices in this vulnerable population and help prevent chronic kidney disease.

Their work was recently recognized with an inaugural President’s Research Recognition Award, an honor sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute and the President’s Office that aims to acknowledge JHU faculty who are conducting exceptional research related to urban issues in Baltimore and to further encourage community-based research across the university.

Also recognized with a President’s Research Recognition Award was the work of Stephen Plank, a sociology professor in the School of Arts and Sciences who has explored topics such as the effects of school organization and classroom climate on student performance and attainment.

Each year, Johns Hopkins faculty conduct hundreds of research efforts aimed at improving the health and social well-being of Baltimore and its citizens. These projects include studies of hypertension, violence prevention, drug enforcement policy, clinical drug trials, economic growth and the history of the city’s neighborhoods, just to name a few.

The President’s Research Recognition Award will honor the “best of the best” of these efforts.

The award’s selection committee determined that two groups were worthy of this year’s top prize, so $5,000 awards went to both Plank and the team of Boulware and Crews. The funds can be used at the faculty members’ discretion to advance their work.

Boulware has devoted her career to performing patient-oriented research to improve the full spectrum of care and clinical outcomes of patients with chronic kidney disease. She has conducted studies of treatment of risk factors, such as hypertension

L. Ebony Boulware

and diabetes, and of improved detection methods. She has been principal investigator of 15 peer-reviewed grants funding her research, which is dedicated to improving ethnic/race disparities in health and health care among Baltimore residents.

Crews has recently focused her research on healthy food availability and its relationship to kidney disease.

In some Baltimore neighborhoods, healthy food options can simply be hard to find.

“Some people live in what are known as food deserts, areas with few if any full-service grocery stores,” says Crews, an assistant professor in the Division of Nephrology at the School of Medicine. “For some, it’s making poor choices with limited means.”

People might, Crews says, tend to eat diets high in sodium, which increases a person’s risk of high blood pressure, one of the leading causes of chronic kidney disease.

Crews said that interventions are needed to stop the cycle.

“There needs to be a conversation,” she says, “to tell people about healthy foods to eat and where to purchase them, even with limited means.”

Traditional Chinese banquets were among the weekend’s activities, which also included forums and class dinners. Nearly 250 of the 350 attendees were alumni of the center, who came to Nanjing from around the world.

different people are, you can build friendships—and solve problems through these friendships.”

Kenneth Jarrett, a 1989 HNC graduate and chairman of APCO Worldwide’s Greater China Region, echoed Yan’s sentiments when speaking on behalf of his fellow international alumni: “This auditorium is filled with countless examples of individuals whose personal and professional lives have been enriched by their time at the center,” he said. “That was certainly the case for me.”

Daniels noted that Johns Hopkins often receives inquiries from other U.S. universities seeking to form partnerships in China.

“Twenty-five years into its history, with its focus on rigorous graduate education and cultural immersion, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center still stands as the gold standard,” he said. “This center represents a true collaboration between two of the top universities in their respective countries; it is a collabo-

ration that has withstood both the test of time and the rough patches of U.S.-China relations.”

The ceremony also included comments

by Nanjing University President Chen Jun, Nanjing Vice Mayor Zheng Zeguang and Robert S. Wang, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Wang remarked that the two university presidents, Muller and Kuang, confronted many challenges in 1986, when official relations between China and the United States did not even exist. “In this light, the birth of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center was nothing short of miraculous,” he said. “Fast forward 25 years: Today our two economies are inextricably linked. There are some who may see China’s rise as a threat to the United States and see us as competitors locked in a zero-sum game. But reality is much different, and the continued existence of the center is proof of that.” G

She and Boulware, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology in the School of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine, are currently designing a pilot healthy-eating intervention for low-income citizens that they hope to scale up to larger populations.

Crews says that the award is a positive sign that they are moving in the right direction.

“It is definitely nice to be recognized by the university where you work. It validates your work as being important,” Crews says.

“Personally, it gives me a lot of inspiration to keep going forward with this work that I feel will make a significant difference in the fight against chronic kidney disease.”

Plank was recognized largely for his work as co-director of the Baltimore Education Research Consortium, or BERC, a partnership of the Baltimore City Public Schools, Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University and other civic and community partners.

BERC’s mission is to conduct and disseminate long- and short-term strategic data analysis and research that inform decisions about policy and practice to improve the educational and life outcomes of children in Baltimore. BERC assembles a diverse coalition of partners to formulate questions, contribute to conversations and highlight policy implications.

Some of the organization’s basic research themes have been chronic absenteeism, career and college readiness, and economies of learning. Chronic absenteeism, Plank says, has been a major issue in city schools.

In one paper, the organization looked at “pressures of the season,” examining second- and third-grade classrooms in eight city schools during times when the students were preparing for high-stakes standardized tests.

“We wanted to see what this preparation does, for example, to class quality and student-teacher relationships,” Plank says.

The research identified several unintended consequences of this testing, such as reduction in “warmth and support” and less higher-level learning because there was more drilling of basic skills.

“There was a lot of teaching to the test,” he says. “A lot of this had been believed to be the case, but we were able to document it.”

Plank says that he is honored to receive the President’s Research Recognition Award, which he says sends an important message.

“For me, it’s positive affirmation at a time when I really needed it,” Plank says.

“You also hear a lot of people at JHU, from the highest level of administration to staff and faculty, talking about being a truly good citizen of Baltimore and spreading knowledge for the world. It’s one thing saying that, but I want to feel reassured that it’s not just what we preach. This award shows me that the President’s Office and the Urban Health Institute truly support this sort of research work and that we are making efforts to put what we say into practice.” G

will kirk / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

President Ron Daniels, SAIS Dean Vali Nasr and Scott Rembold of Development sit in on a student presentation of HNConnect, a proposed website and international development resource providing bilingual analysis of business issues in China.

CARL MCCLARTY

CARL MCCLARTY

6 9, 2012 6 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• July August 15, 2011

Sociologist Stephen Plank is co-director of the Baltimore Education Research Consortium, which is working to improve educational outcomes for city children.

July 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

7

R E T I R I N G

Send-off and honors celebrate career of JHU’s go-to guy

By Greg Rienzi

The Gazette

will kirk / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

T

Jerry Schnydman and his wife, Tammy, at the retirement event where a scholarship in their name was announced. The atrium in the Brody Learning Commons will also bear his name.

pleased to be able to honor Jerry in this uniquely appropriate way.”

Schnydman first came to Johns Hopkins in 1963 as an undergraduate and during his student career cemented his place in Blue Jays and lacrosse lore. He served as cocaptain of the 1967 national championship team and was selected in 1966 and 1967 as a first team All-American. He is a member of the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and

the halls of fame for the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the Lacrosse Foundation, Johns Hopkins and Baltimore City College High School.

Following his 1967 graduation and an eight-year career in the insurance and pension business, Schnydman returned to Johns Hopkins to join the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, working his way from assistant director to director, a post he held for nearly

will kirk / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

he university has said goodbye to its go-to guy, but wants to make sure he’s not forgotten.

Generations of students and staff have come to know Jerome “Jerry” Schnydman, a beloved and admired figure on campus who forged a legend on the lacrosse field nearly 40 years ago and then gave his alma mater more than three decades of distinguished service benefiting undergraduates, alumni, trustees and the Office of the President.

On June 30, Schnydman retired from his posts as executive assistant to the president and secretary of the board of trustees. Johns Hopkins wants to ensure that future generations will recognize his name and decades of contributions.

On the eve of Schnydman’s retirement, the university announced that the atrium of the Brody Learning Commons—a new Sheridan Libraries facility on the Homewood campus set to open later this summer—will be named the Schnydman Atrium. A plaque and signage will be installed inside the space to commemorate the honor.

The announcement was made at a retirement celebration event held for Schnydman June 28 in the Glass Pavilion on the Homewood campus.

The Brody Learning Commons is a fourstory building located adjacent to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library. It is designed to foster collaborative learning and will include a quiet reading room, 16 group study rooms, an atrium and a cafe. The three-story, natural-light-filled atrium will have movable furniture to allow students to study in groups or sit and read by themselves.

The building is named in honor of William R. Brody, the 13th president of the university, and his wife, Wendy. Schnydman worked closely with President Brody for a decade, and the two forged a powerful partnership and friendship.

Winston Tabb, Sheridan Dean of University Libraries and Museums at Johns Hopkins, says that the honor is both welldeserved and fitting.

“Through his long career and in the many roles he played, Jerry touched the lives and connected generations of students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni and friends of The Johns Hopkins University,” he says. “The atrium space will be a central gathering point at Johns Hopkins for both social and scholarly purposes, so we are tremendously

One of Schnydman’s grandchildren snaps a shot of him at the podium that showcases a portrait from his Johns Hopkins undergraduate days.

11 years. He next served as executive director of Alumni Relations, from 1989 to 1998, when he assumed his positions of executive assistant to the president and secretary of the board of trustees.

Richard S. Frary, a university trustee who has known Schnydman for more than 45 years, says that his friend was born to play the role he served with the trustees and in the President’s Office.

“Jerry literally knows everyone: faculty, staff, students, politicians, community members,” Frary says. “He became the point of contact for anyone who had a question about Johns Hopkins. Alums would come to him. Faculty would call on him if there was an issue. Politicians would check in to see what was going on about a particular matter. Jerry was just central to everything that was going on at any given time at the university.”

Frary, a 1969 graduate of the School of Arts and Sciences, says that he quickly came to respect the man he first met in 1965.

“Jerry had time for everyone. He has a huge heart and almost no ego. He cares deeply about the people around him and loves the university,” Frary says. “I remember when he got the job as secretary of the board of trustees, he nearly broke down in tears.

For him, it was a life’s dream come true. He’s just a humble man with amazing interpersonal abilities.”

In addition to the atrium, a scholarship called the Jerome D. and Tamara Schnydman Fund has been created to honor Jerry and his wife, Tammy. To date, $1.6 million has been donated to the fund, which will be available to Homewood undergraduates of merit who apply for financial assistance.

Schnydman says he was both surprised and humbled by the honors.

“I am astonished, excited and so thankful,” he says. “It really is beyond my wildest dreams. I, myself, was a scholarship student, so to have my name and my wife’s name linked with a scholarship to help future needy students is just unbelievable. As for the atrium, I had a wonderful relationship with Bill Brody, so to have my name linked with that building is beyond what I ever expected and deserved. It’s unbelievable.”

Schnydman says he clearly recalls, like it was yesterday, that day in 1963 when, as a high school senior, he made his way up 33rd Street to Shriver Hall to be interviewed by the university’s Office of Admissions.

“I just hoped I’d make the lacrosse team,” he says. “So now to look back and take in all of this, I get chills.”

‘Huntington’s in a dish’ created to enable search for treatment

By Stephanie Desmon

Johns Hopkins Medicine

J

ohns Hopkins researchers, working with an international consortium, say they have generated stem cells from skin cells from a person with a severe, early-onset form of Huntington’s disease and turned them into neurons that degenerate just like those affected by the fatal inherited disorder.

By creating “HD in a dish,” the researchers say they have taken a major step forward in efforts to better understand what disables and kills the cells in people with HD and to test the effects of potential drug therapies on cells that are otherwise locked deep in the brain.

Although the autosomal dominant gene mutation responsible for HD was identified in 1993, there is no cure. No treatments are available even to slow its progression.

The research, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, is the work of a Huntington’s Disease iPSC Consortium that includes scientists from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and

the University of California, Irvine, as well as six other groups. The consortium studied several other HD cell lines and control cell lines in order to make sure that results were consistent and reproducible in different labs.

The general midlife onset and progressive brain damage of HD are especially cruel, slowly causing jerky, twitchlike movements, lack of muscle control, psychiatric disorders and dementia, and eventually death. In some cases (as in the patient who donated the material for the cells made at Johns Hopkins), the disease can strike earlier, even in childhood.

“Having these cells will allow us to screen for therapeutics in a way we haven’t been able to before in Huntington’s disease,” said Christopher A. Ross, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, neurology, pharmacology, and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and one of the study’s lead researchers. “For the first time, we will be able to study how drugs work on human HD neurons and hopefully take those findings directly to the clinic.”

Ross and his team, as well as other collaborators at Johns Hopkins and Emory University, are already testing small molecules

for the ability to block HD iPSC degeneration. These small molecules have the potential to be developed into novel drugs for HD. The ability to generate from stem cells the same neurons found in Huntington’s disease may also have implications for similar research in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

To conduct the experiment, Ross took a skin biopsy from a patient with very early onset HD. When seen by Ross at the Huntington’s Disease Center at Johns Hopkins, the patient was just 7 years old. She had a very severe form of the disease, which rarely appears in childhood, and of the mutation that causes it. Using cells from a patient with a more rapidly progressing form of the disease gave Ross’ team the best tools with which to replicate HD in a way that is applicable to patients with all forms of HD. The patient’s skin cells were grown in culture and then reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells by the lab of Hongjun Song, a professor at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Cell Engineering. A second cell line was generated in an identical fashion in Ross’ lab from someone without HD. Simultaneously, other HD and control iPS cell lines were

generated as part of the NINDS-funded HD iPS cell consortium.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins and other consortium labs converted those cells into generic neurons and then into medium spiny neurons, a process that took three months.

What they found was that the medium spiny neurons deriving from HD cells behaved just as they expected medium spiny neurons from an HD patient would. They showed rapid degeneration when cultured in the lab using basic culture medium without extensive supporting nutrients. By contrast, control cell lines did not show neuronal degeneration.

“These HD cells acted just as we were hoping,” said Ross, director of the Baltimore Huntington’s Disease Center. “A lot of people said, ‘You’ll never be able to get a model in a dish of a human neurodegenerative disease like this.’ Now, we have them where we can really study and manipulate them, and try to cure them of this horrible disease. The fact that we are able to do this at all still amazes us.”

Specifically, the damage caused by HD is due to a mutation in the huntingtin gene, Continued on page 10

8 9, 2012 8 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• July August 15, 2011

Next front in world AIDS battle: Stretching use of anti-HIV drugs B y D av i d M a r c h

Johns Hopkins Medicine

A

Johns Hopkins expert in the drug treatment of HIV disease and AIDS is spearheading an international effort to radically shift the manufacturing and prescribing of combination therapies widely credited in the last decade for keeping the disease in check for 8 million of the 34 million infected people worldwide.

“We can do more with less of the active pharmaceutical agent in many anti-HIV drug compounds, and we can adopt moreefficient techniques to make the drugs more quickly and for less money than before,” said clinical pharmacologist and infectious disease expert Charles Flexner, a professor in Johns Hopkins’ schools of Medicine and Public Health.

In a report appearing in the July edition of the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Flexner, along with other scientists from Johns Hopkins and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, say that more-efficient and cheaper manufacturing methods, better drug formulations, lower-dose prescriptions and shorter treatment periods are all feasible, safe and potentially effective.

Implementation of these efforts would, they say, make the drugs more accessible to the remaining two-thirds of people with HIV disease, most of them living in poor subSaharan Africa and unable to afford or get access to treatment on their own.

The new focus is needed, they argue, to counter widespread budget constraints and reluctance on the part of developed nations to contribute much more than the $56 billion already invested in such international aid programs as the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. More fiscal belt tightening is occurring despite these programs’ proven success during the last decade in dramatically increasing the number of infected people receiving treatment in impoverished subSaharan Africa, from an estimated 50,000 in 2003 to 4.7 million today.

“Our biggest challenge in treating those already infected with HIV in the developing world is figuring out how we are going to stretch our existing drugs further to treat two or even three times as many people,” Flexner said. “Fortunately, the scientific and chemical engineering evidence is on our side.”

In the report, Flexner and his colleagues call for improvements in manufacturing to lower the cost of existing drugs, noting that most anti-HIV drugs prescribed in developing nations are generic and already marketpriced as low as possible. Yearly drug costs for treating HIV disease run between $130 and $1,500 per patient.

Flexner and other experts say that pharmaceutical companies largely refrain from making cost-saving improvements to antiretroviral therapies on their own because any savings from more streamlined drug manufacturing are too small, and are outweighed by marketing and regulatory costs

Related websites Charles Flexner:

hopkinsmedicine.org/ pharmacology_molecular_ sciences/faculty/bios/flexner.html ‘The Lancet Infectious Diseases’:

thelancet.com/journals/laninf/ onlinefirst tied to government approval for any change in production methods. “There’s simply no financial incentive for them to make any changes under our current drug pricing structure,” Flexner said. “So it is up to the scientific community to step up and fill in the gap.”

Flexner says that the new report serves as an action plan for the more than 140 scientists, policy experts, philanthropists and pharmaceutical industry representatives who gathered in June 2010 in Alexandria, Va., as part of the first consensus conference on antiretroviral drug optimization.

The international group puts manufacturing improvements, such as using cheaper suppliers of raw materials, or formulation changes to optimize how well drugs are absorbed by the body, at the top of the list for lowering the cost of anti-HIV drugs.

One example of this approach, Flexner says, was the emergence in 2007 of a new, competing manufacturer for a raw ingredient used to synthesize tenofovir, the world’s most widely prescribed antiretroviral drug and a key component of the combination therapy Atripla. Using the competitor’s product reduced tenofovir’s drug price by nearly 60 percent within four years and saved aid programs millions. Changing reagent suppliers and using more-advanced technology to manufacture another Atripla drug, efavirenz, has led to a 64 percent drop in the price within the last five years.

Many drugs, such as tenofovir, Flexner says, have a body absorption rate—a measure of how much of the key active chemical ingredient actually gets into the bloodstream—of less than 30 percent. Doubling this, Flexner contends, could save on the number of pills patients need.

He says that twice as many people could have access to tenofovir if the average dose needed to effectively treat the disease were lowered to 150 milligrams daily from 300 milligrams daily.

According to Flexner, most drugs are prescribed at slightly higher doses than actually needed to ensure the desired effect.

The overdosing doesn’t harm people taking the drugs, he says, but it shows how drug manufacturers are “erring on the side of caution, in prescribing more of a drug rather than less,” which may be particularly true of antiretroviral medications, whose development was sped along in the past two decades in the rush to fight HIV disease.

Flexner says that lowering the dose of prescription drugs used in treating people in the developing world is perhaps the most controversial of the group’s proposals, as “we do not want there to be any possibility of providing substandard care.”

Flexner emphasizes that careful research will have to be done to validate any lower-

ing of antiretroviral medication doses, so as to avoid development of drug resistance and to dispel ethical concerns about substandard treatment of people in developing countries.

Studies are already under way, he notes, using slightly lower doses of efavirenz and stavudine, especially for slimmer or shorter people whose average body mass may not warrant the larger doses.

“Even if two-thirds the daily dose, or maybe even half, works just as well as the initial prescription, millions more people infected with the disease stand a good chance of gaining access to our existing supply of anti-HIV drugs,” Flexner said.

And while fewer pills could lead to better disease management in some cases, Flexner says, scientific teams elsewhere are evaluating the use of add-on pharmacological “boosting” drugs to enhance the effects of active ingredients in other drugs.

A black pepper derivative called piperine could be used to enhance concentrations of drugs such as the integrase inhibitor raltegravir.

Pharmacologists are also, he says, looking to extend the shelf life of anti-HIV drugs as a means of making them more accessible to infected people in the developing world.

Such a move would reduce the number of drugs going to waste and allow for lessexpensive shipping by sea, instead of by airplane, especially for drugs that might reach their expiration date during transport and delivery.

“All these seemingly small innovations and improvements can add up,” said Flexner, whose teams have already begun to calculate the costs and benefits of their many attempts at drug optimization.

Flexner says that the antiretroviral drug optimization group met with the United Nations’ World Health Organization in May in Geneva to work on revamping treatment guidelines for HIV disease to incorporate their optimal drug use strategies.

Keith Crawford of Johns Hopkins was also one of the leaders behind the consensus conference, for which funding support was provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Study: Improve care, reduce high cost for Medicare beneficiaries

By John Lazarou

Johns Hopkins Medicine

I

t’s well-known that a relatively small percentage of chronically ill patients accounts for a disproportionate amount of health care spending. Now, a multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins researcher Bruce Leff might provide insights into how to cut Medicare costs while improving health care for older adults suffering from chronic health conditions.

Results of the study, published in the June issue of the journal Health Affairs, highlight the early efforts of the Medicare Innovations Collaborative, a program involving six health care–related organizations around the country that focused on the simultaneous implementation of six geriatric health care delivery models.

“We all agree that it is critical to improve health service delivery for older adults, especially those with complex chronic illnesses,” Leff said. “Understanding the issues around implementing and adopting effective health service delivery is critical to Medicare’s efforts to provide value-based care.”

The organizations in the study varied from a solo hospital (Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y.) to a group of hospitals that owns or operates nursing facilities, hospices and a home health agency (Lehigh Valley Health Network in Pennsylvania). Other partici-

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pants were Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee; Carolinas HealthCare System, Charlotte, N.C.; Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pa.; and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland.

Each of the participating organizations already had one of the models in place, and each was required to plan the additional implementation of one of the six different geriatric service models.

The models are Nurses Improving Care to Healthsystem Elders (NICHE), a patientcentered model to improve hospital care processes for older adults, with oversight by a nursing team; Acute Care for Elders (ACE), which concentrates on helping hospitalized older adults maintain or achieve functional independence in basic activities of daily life; the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP), designed to prevent delirium among hospitalized older patients; Care Transitions Intervention Model (Care Trans.), which provides chronically ill patients with “transition coaches” who help them effectively move from hospital to home; the Palliative Care Consultation Model (Pall. Care), which focuses on averting unwanted medical interventions for adults with life-limiting illnesses; and Hospital at Home, a model developed by Leff at Johns Hopkins that provides acute hospital-level care in the home as a substitute for inpatient hospital admission.

“Over the years, many evidence-based models of geriatric care have been developed, but few have been widely implemented. Our study developed the theory that putting multiple geriatric models into a geriatric service line or ‘portfolio,’ and providing technical assistance to an adopt-

ing organization in a learning collaborative, would make these models attractive for adoption by health systems from both a clinical and economic standpoint,” Leff said.

The study showed that NICHE, which facilitates more-effective communication and collaboration in elderly care, was seen as a model on which organizations could build a foundation for improving a hospital’s culture of quality and safety for older adults. Other organizations found the Pall.

Care model effective in delivering patientcentered care to those suffering from terminal illnesses and in reducing medical costs.

“Organizations learned from each other and reduced adoption time and costs through structured support and voluntary exchange, since the main goal of the collaborative was to help participants evaluate and implement the geriatric service models,” Leff said.

Leff points out that the study does have certain limitations, as there are no measures of traditional outcomes or post-implementation results, but clinical and financial outcomes will be reported in the near future.

The success of this phase of the work is to demonstrate that multiple complex health service delivery models that improve quality of care can be implemented rapidly by health systems.

“We are hoping to turn the participating health systems involved in this study into expert centers to provide technical assistance to more health systems to adopt the models, and working to expand beyond the hospital to include post-acute and ambulatory areas,” Leff said.

Currently, 44 million beneficiaries—

approximately 15 percent of the U.S. population—are enrolled in Medicare, and nearly 7.3 million people receive benefits because of disability status, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Funding for this study was provided by The Atlantic Philanthropies. Leff, under agreements between The Johns Hopkins University and Mobile Doctors 24/7 International, is entitled to fees for licensing and consulting services related to the Hospital at Home care model. Under institutional consulting agreements between The Johns Hopkins University and Clinically Home LLC, the university and Johns Hopkins Health System are entitled to fees for consulting services related to the Hospital at Home care model. Leff, who participated in the consulting services, receives a portion of the university fees. The terms of this arrangement are managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies. Hospital at Home is a registered U.S. service mark.

Leff is a noncompensated board member and president of the American Academy of Home Care Medicine and a noncompensated member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians.

Related website Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins:

hopkinsmedicine.org/geriatric_ medicine_gerontology

July 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

Milestones The following staff members are retiring or celebrating an anniversary with the university in July 2012. The information is compiled by the Office of Work, Life and Engagement, 443-997-7000.

ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL CENTERS

25 years of service Hub bar d , Carlotta, Johns Hopkins University Press 20 years of service Diepe r , Susanne, American Institute

for Contemporary German Studies

10 years of service Ro man , Elaine, Jhpiego

5 years of service Jen n ings , Lakeya, Johns Hopkins University Press P a dge tt , Terry, Jhpiego Sh a sha , Willibrord, Jhpiego

T hi l ke r , David, Physics and Astronomy

5 years of service Ayre s , Jennifer, Office of the Dean Che sne y , Sharon, Study Abroad H a l e y , Alicia, Office of the Dean P l a c i l l a , Anthony, Physics and Astronomy R a p poc c i o , Salvatore, Physics and

Astronomy Tre nt , Kimberly, Earth and Planetary Sciences

30 years of service S te i n , Patricia, Student Health and Wellness Center 20 years of service F re e d m an , Joan, Digital Media Center Mond , Michael, Counseling Center

10 years of service D u nba r , Joy, Office of the Registrar F ra se r , Megan, Athletics Va na l l e n , Robert, Athletics SAIS

20 years of service H i g h , Susan, Business Office S e a rs , Stephen, Business Office

25 years of service K a le , Nathan, Information Systems Ro dge rs , Kevin, Financial Operations

Zu re k , Jennifer, Western Hemisphere

10 years of service Bo a mpong , Alicia, Epidemiology C rispino , Konrad, Communications and Public Affairs Go der re Jone s , Johanna, Epidemiology

5 years of service

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

Retirees Wi e l a nd , Theodora, 12 years of service,

Center for Social Organization of Schools

5 years of service La u re nza n o , Mary, Educational

Technology

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

35 years of service Mol a nder , Sharon, Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology Tsottl e s , Nancy, Oncology

5 years of service C o les , Matthew, Center for

Accelerated Vaccine Access C ui , Hongjie, Human Nutrition Go ldschmit t , Brandon, Epidemiology Gupta , Ruchira, Environmental Health Sciences Mea dows , Darcy, Development and Alumni Relations Mo rsell , Jason, Center for Immunization Research and Vaccine Sciences Nix o n , Genevieve, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Wiggingt on , Kenneth, Information Systems CAREY BUSINESS SCHOOL

5 years of service Deem e r , Tracy, Development and External Affairs KRIEGER SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Retirees Fish er , Barbara, 21 years of service, Cognitive Science 25 years of service Allen , Karen, Economics Ro dge rs , Michael, Biology 20 years of service Bo n d , Susan, Advanced Academic Programs 15 years of service Ba x t e r , Ellen, Biology 10 years of service Smee , Stephen, Physics and Astronomy

30 years of service Lodde r , Herbert, Bayview, Behavioral

Pharmacology Research Unit P i nn , Michael, Infectious Diseases P ri ol e a u , Hazel, Human Resources We l l i ng , Sharon, Graduate Affairs

25 years of service A l w ood , Karla, Infectious Diseases B l a c kbu r n , Sharon, Pathology Ca se , Barbara, Pediatrics K a hl , Robert, Pathology P a p a rou n i s , Milicent, Immunogenetics P l u nke tt , Beverly, Clinical Immunology Ta l bot , C., Jr., Basic Biomedical Sciences Ta yl or , Kimberly, Facilities Wi l l , Catherine, Graduate Student Affairs 20 years of service A ndre w s , Herbert, Maintenance and

Operations

B a nks-J o h n s o n , Deborah, Surgery Crov o , Patricia, Infectious Diseases Ga rd , Sharon, Pathology Ga tto , Gertrude, Gynecology and

Obstetrics La troni co , Diane, Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences T hom p so n , Coraleeze, History of Medicine 15 years of service B u rre l l , Lori, Pediatrics Ca rre i ra , Susan, Pathology

15 years of service

Medicine Ko w a r s k i , Carol, Continuing Medical Education L a n d i s , Patricia, Urology L i n d er , Janice, Gynecology and Obstetrics R o s e , Patricia, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine R o s s , Debra, General Internal Medicine Ya n g , Chune, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Z h a n g , Jie, Institute of Genetic Medicine

Tod d , Barbara, Office of the Dean

10 years of service B o w en , Linda, Oncology C o n l ey , Karin, Pathology Del a n ey , Robert, Oncology F a n , Hongni, Oncology F o r r es t , Lynette, Pediatrics G r i f f i t h s , Alison, Neurology Kes s l er , Thomas, Oncology L ev i n e , Susan, Gynecology and Obstetrics L o s , Jennifer, Infectious Diseases Ly o n s , Arvin, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation M o , Guanglan, Oncology Pr i ce , Mary, Pathology Pr i n ce , Jack, Ophthalmology, Bayview Sch a p i r o , Nancy, Otolaryngology Sl o d z i n s k i , Martin, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine T h o m a s , Jon, Health, Safety and Environment Wem m er , Jan, Neurosurgery

10 years of service H er r , Heidi, Sheridan Libraries Wang , Jing, Sheridan Libraries

HOMEWOOD STUDENT AFFAIRS

BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

15 years of service Ha m men , Marlena, Center for American Indian Health Levine , Charlene, Epidemiology P erreault , Kim, Facilities Zelke , Rosalia, Epidemiology

Hi b l er , Michael, Fund for Johns Hopkins

5 years of service A d r i en , Mario, Research Administration A n t h o n y , Ashley, Clinical Practice Association C a r r - C o z i er , Cherylann, Oncology Deb evec , Barbara, Pathology Der o s e , Robert, Cell Biology E s o p i , David, Oncology F a r r o w , Tracey, Otolaryngology G a d d y , Anne, Pediatrics G u o , Xin, Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology Heck , Kirsten, Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine Hel d , Ki, Psychiatry, Bayview Hs u , Johnny, Neurology Ich n i o w s k i , Jennifer, Neurology Jo h n s en , Luke, Infectious Diseases Jo n es , Joyce, Infectious Diseases L eg o , Nicole, Human Resources L i b er t o , Lisa, Ophthalmology M a s s a , Michele, General Internal Medicine M cC r ee , Kirsten, General Administration, Chairman’s Office M o l l a r , Annie, Infectious Diseases M o x l ey , John, Epidemiology O t t o , Shannon, Surgery O w en , Stephanie, Pathology R ed m o n d , Angelique, Anesthesiology and Critical Care R y k i el , Mary, Institute of Genetic Medicine Sh ep h er d , Pamela, Geriatric Medicine, Bayview So u d er , Kimberly, Rheumatology, Bayview Sp et h , Arthur, Health, Safety and Environment St a ck , Alicia, Otolaryngology Ti n k er , Robert, III, Maintenance and Operations To w n s , Jessica, Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine Wey , Allison, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation W h i t eh ea d , Sharron, Gynecology and Obstetrics

5 years of service Rober t s , Carl, Registrar’s Office Sc ar p ol a , Jessica, Acute and Chronic

Care

SHERIDAN LIBRARIES/ JHU MUSUEMS

25 years of service H al l , Virginia, Sheridan Libraries

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION

Retirees Cas c i o , Nelson, 10 years of service, Enterprise Applications 40 years of service Br uc e , Prizgar, Facilities 35 years of service H end er s on , Charles, Facilities 30 years of service M c L aug hl i n , Sue, Development and

Alumni Relations

25 years of service Col l i fl ower , Eric, Office of the Chief,

Enterprise Technology Services El l i s , Mary, Controller Ros e , Nancy, Enterprise Applications 10 years of service Cad e , Beverly, Controller Cal l ahan , James, Jr., Johns Hopkins Real Estate H end r i c ks , Kimberly, Development and Alumni Relations L owe , Kenna, Development and Alumni Relations 5 years of service And er s en , Christian, Supply Chain

Shared Services

And er t on , Connie, Development and

Alumni Relations

Cr om wel l , Michael, Security

Services

D evaney , Andrew, Facilities H i l l , Jennifer, Facilities Kazm i er s ki , Kris, Office of the Chief

Networking Officer

L am ber t , Christine, Development and

Alumni Relations

M i l l er , James, Security Services N or for d , Lawrence, Development and

Alumni Relations

Z eng , Angela, Office of the Provost and

Sr. VP for Academic Affairs

WHITING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

25 years of service Gi bbi ns , Ann, Applied Mathematics and Statistics 15 years of service D ebl as i o , Stephen, Computer Science H aber , Julie, Engineering for

Professionals

Ronzhes , Yury, Mechanical

Engineering

10 years of service Kol as ny , Anthony, Center for Imaging

Science

M eehan , Jamie, Engineering Research

Center

Ca rri ng t o n , Robin, Clinical Practice

Association

Chri sti a n , Michele, General Internal

Medicine

H a m p ton , Jacqueline, Psychiatry

SCHOOL OF NURSING

5 years of service

Retirees A n g el l , Sandra, 27 years of service, Office of Academic and Student Services

Sp i r o , Mary, Institute for NanoBio-

Technology Swad ow , Jessica, Academic Affairs

9

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

B U L L E T I N

R E S O U R C E S

Notices

Hot Jobs

No notices were submitted for publication this week.

Listed below are some of the university’s newest openings for in-demand 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.

Homewood Office of Human Resources Wyman Park Building, Suite W600 410-516-7196 The Whiting School of Engineering has a number of IT openings. For more detailed job descriptions and to apply, go to jobs.jhu.edu.

53165

GUI Designer—will design the new interface for a tool that displays and analyzes medical time series data for the Institute for Computational Medicine’s Cardiovascular Research Grid Project (cvrgrid.org).

49962

Linux Systems Administrator—will perform Linux/UNIX systems and security administration, design computer system solutions, and develop and troubleshoot software within the Department of Computer Science.

51870

Senior Systems Administrator—will manage and develop servers and attached clients for computationally intensive research activities, primarily for the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics.

52234

LAN Administrator II—will provide IT support for a research group within the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department.

School of Medicine Office of Human Resources 98 N. Broadway, Suite 300 410-955-2990 The School of Medicine is seeking candidates for financial management and operations positions. For detailed job descriptions and to apply, go to jobs.jhu.edu.

51776 52633 52958

Administrative Manager Assistant Administrator—Clinical Financial Manager

Huntington’s Continued from page 7 HTT, which leads to the production of an abnormal and toxic version of the huntingtin protein. Although all the cells in a person with HD contain the mutation, HD targets mainly the medium spiny neurons in the striatum, part of the brain’s basal ganglia that coordinates movement, thought and emotion. The ability to work directly with human medium spiny neurons is the best way, researchers believe, to determine why these specific cells are susceptible to cell stress and degeneration and, in turn, to help find a way to halt progression of HD. Much HD research is conducted in mice.

And while mouse models have been helpful in understanding some aspects of the disease, researchers say that nothing compares with being able to study actual human neurons affected by HD. For years, scientists have been excited about the prospect of making breakthroughs in curing disease through the use of stem cells, which have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types.

In the form of embryonic stem cells, they do so naturally during gestation and early life. In recent years, researchers have been able to produce induced pluripotent stem

Classifieds Continued from page 11 lent quality, used less than 1 wk. $350. 410235-5775.

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.

53102 53120 52523 53096 51855

Senior Programmer Analyst Research Service Analyst Budget Specialist Director Admissions Research Data Analyst

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

R O L A N D PA R K

• Large airy rooms • Hardwood Floors • Private balcony or terrace • Beautiful garden setting • Private parking available • University Parkway at West 39th St. 2 & 3 bedroom apartments located in a private park setting. Adjacent to Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus and minutes from downtown Baltimore.

410-243-1216

B O A R D

105 West 39th St. • Baltimore, MD 21210 Managed by The Broadview at Roland Park BroadviewApartments.com

Desk w/hinged top and pullout writing extension, 31"W x 19.5"D x 34.25"H, cherry finish throughout, 3 cubby holes inside, removable legs, good cond, top needs tiny refinishing. 410-444-1273 or 443-799-2932 (for pics).

Lg modern mirror w/silver brushed finish, frame measures 3 x 2.5 ft (1.5 x 1 ft actual mirror), $50; beautiful black bi-level wood coffee table, 2.5 x 2 x 2 ft, in perf cond, $100. 443-386-5967.

Exterior French doors (2), $175/ea; fulllength Dior silver fox coat, $950; fitness chair, $10; office supplies, $40; man’s travel bag, $10; Fossil watch boxes (6), $10; art display case, $25; and Playboy collection. 443824-2198 or saleschick2011@hotmail.com.

SERVICES/ITEMS OFFERED OR WANTED

Group of women in their 60s looking for pinochle and bridge players for regular games. Arlene, 410-664-6859.

Voice lessons by active performer w/2 MM degrees from Peabody, ages 12 to adult, lessons held in Mt Vernon. $50/hr. ecmvoicestudio@gmail.com.

Need a fresh, clean coat of paint for your home interior walls? Prof’l painter has 30 yrs’ experience, does quality work at very reasonable price. 443-831-3374 or blessing.cheer@ hotmail.com.

cells, which are adult cells (like the skin cells used in Ross’ experiments) that have been genetically reprogrammed back to the most primitive state. In this state, under the right circumstances, they can then develop into most or all of the 200 cell types in the human body.

The other members of the research consortium include the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine; Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; the University of California, San Francisco; Cardiff University; the Universita degli Studi di Milano; and the CHDI Foundation.

Primary support for this research came from an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and a grant from the CHDI Foundation.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in this study are Sergey Akimov, Nicolas Arbez, Tarja Juopperi, Tamara Ratovitski, Jason H. Chiang, Woon Roung Kim, Eka Chighladze, Chun Zhong, Georgia Makri, Robert N. Cole, Russell L. Margolis and Guoli Ming. G

Related website Christopher Ross:

neuroscience.jhu.edu/ ChristopherRoss.php

Community-shared agriculture (CSA) fresh produce, half-share available immediately at JHMI. $11.77/wk for 20 wks. brianacoles@ yahoo.com.

Sublet wanted by 4th-yr medical student from Scotland, now through September, nr JHMI shuttle/mass transit. Nikki, nicola_ heller@hotmail.com.

Johns Hopkins employee looking for Owings Mills house to rent for long-term and/or option to buy, 3+ BRs only. kishagbrown@ yahoo.com.

Cartoonist/caricaturist artist looking for work. 443-500-0672 or streettoons@gmail .com.

Looking for energetic Chinese tutor for a 3-yr-old, 1-2 hrs/wk. drchriswu@gmail.com.

Masterpiece Landscaping provides knowledgeable on-site consultation, transplanting, bed prep, installation, sm tree/shrub shaping, licensed. Terry, 410-652-3446.

Affordable landscaper/certified horticulturist avail to maintain existing gardens, also designing, planting or masonry; free consultations. David, 410-683-7373 or grogan .family@hotmail.com.

Editing of biomedical documents offered by a PhD biomedical scientist and certified editor in the life sciences. 443-600-2264 or michellejones@jonesbiomediting.com.

Licensed landscaper available for summer lawn maintenance, mulching, yard cleanup, other services incl’d trash hauling. 410-8126090 or romilacapers@comcast.net.

Friday Night Swing Dance Club, open to the public, no partners necessary. 410-6630010 or www.fridaynightswing.com.

Need extra copies of ‘The Gazette’?

A limited number of extra copies of ‘The Gazette’ are available each week in the Office of Communications, Suite 540, 901 S. Bond St., in Fells Point.

Those who know they will need a large number of newspapers are asked to order them at least a week in advance of publication by calling 443-287-9900.

July 9, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

Classifieds APARTMENTS/HOUSES FOR RENT

Assateague Pointe, 2BR house in gated community, 2 swimming pools, fishing pier, biking, birding, quiet place for friends/family, 5 mi to Ocean City and Assateague National Seashore, avail wkly year-round. $950/wk.

Claire, 410-908-5286 or cjh3219@msn.com.

M A R K E T P L A C E

front community, 15 mins to JHH, plenty of safe prkng, walking/running paths, pool, hot tub, fishing piers, boat docks. 443-805-8671.

Lutherville/Timonium, 3BR, 2.5BA TH, new paint/crpt/laminate flr, dw, refrigerator, deck, yd, conv to 695/I-83, no pets. 410828-4583 or moqiu@comcast.net.

Bayview (Elrino St), spacious, bright EOG TH, 2nd flr available, 3 blks to Bayview campus. $650/mo (or best offer). 443-3868471 or fanauh2o@yahoo.com.

Mayfield, charming 3BR, 2BA house in historic neighborhood, hdwd flrs, fp, garage, yd/ patio, nr Homewood/JHH/Bayview. $1,675/ mo. 410-852-1865 or miriam.mintzer@ gmail.com.

Bayview, totally rehabbed 2BR, 2BA TH, everything new, club bsmt, W/D, offstreet prkng, nr JHH/95/895/695. $1,400/mo.

Chris, 410-633-9936.

Mt Vernon (1001 St Paul), lg, lovely studio, furn’d, wood flrs, 24-hr front desk, walk to Hopkins shuttle, avail Sept 1. $795/mo.

410-967-7027 or weiwhua@hotmail.com.

Butchers Hill, 1BR, 1BA carriage house, kitchen, side porch, walk to school, 1 blk to Patterson Park, avail Aug 1. $895/mo.

Sharon, 443-695-9073.

Mt Washington, spacious, furn’d 4BR house, 2.5BAs, CAC, avail Aug 20, 2012, to Aug 30, 2013. $2,400/mo. 410-466-0255 or b.meneveau@comcast.net.

Canton, luxury loft apt on Boston St (Shipyard Bldg), 1.5BAs, stainless steel appls, W/D, lg walk-in closet, spiral staircase, skylight, gated prkng, 24-hr security, walk to great restaurants and waterfront. 240-6031899 or home4rent2006@yahoo.com.

Mt Washington, cozy 2BR, 1BA apt, top flr of restored house, perfect for mature person who values simple quiet peace, shady trees, yd, daytime sleep schedule no problem. $1,249/mo. 410-419-6840.

Canton (940 S Kenwood St), 2BR, 2.5BA house, galley kitchen, soak-in tub, great views of harbor from 3rd flr. $1,750/mo.

443-928-8129 or 443-928-8125.

Charles Village (28th St to 33rd, Calvert to St Paul), studio and 1BR apts available.

410-269-8463 or atoll4u@gmail.com.

Charles Village, 1BR apt in historic RH, sunny kitchen, AC, W/D, bsmt storage, porch swing, Internet, nr shuttle. $925/mo (unfurn’d) or $975/mo (furn’d). 410-2369840.

Charles St and University, bright, secure 1BR apt across Homewood campus and steps from shuttle stop. $1,100/mo incl all utils. 443-253-8884 or fsifakis@gmail.com.

Cockeysville, 4BR, 2.5BA single-family house, hdwd flrs, deck, 1-car garage, great schools (Dulaney/Cockeysville/Warren), avail Aug 10. $2,000/mo + utils. 443-7682399 or towsonrenthouse@gmail.com.

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

Evergreen/Roland Park, 3BR, 2.5BA single-family house, CAC, W/D, hdwd flrs throughout, orig woodwork, updated kitchen/lighting, fp, front porch, 2 back porches, backyd, prkng, walk to school/restaurants/ Stony Run Park, 1-yr lease only, furn’d/ unfurn’d, credit check req’d. $2,600/mo. malimidwives@gmail.com.

Greektown, recently renov’d 2BR, 2BA RH, orig hdwd flrs, stainless steel appls, W/D, central HVAC, sec sys, bsmt, prkng pad. $1,400/mo. 410-982-7273 or anthonyweitzel@gmail.com.

Hampden, 3BR house w/2 full BAS, W/D, dw, porch, fenced backyd, plenty of free street prkng, 1-yr lease and sec dep req’d. $1,500/mo. Mina, 410-592-2670.

Hopewell Pointe, lg BR, priv BA and walkin closet in 1,650 sq ft condo, priv water-

HICKORY HEIGHTS

Pikesville/Mt Washington, 3- to 4BR, 4BA TH in quiet, friendly community nr Bonnie Ridge, hdwd flrs, pref nonsmoker. $1,600/ mo. eatpizzer@hotmail.com.

Remington/Hampden, 3BR, 1BA RH w/hdwd flrs, expos’d brick, stainless steel appls, W/D, bsmt for storage, walk to Homewood campus. $1,500/mo incl water, monthly cleaning service. aascosi@agorafinancial.com.

Reservoir Hill, huge apt, 1,000 sq ft on 3rd flr, kitchen, BA, living rm, dining rm, BR, parquet flrs, 2 fps + 2 sm rms on 4th flr for office or other; clean, quiet, safe, only single occupancy, no smoking/no pets, 1-yr lease minimum. $825/mo + utils + sec dep. damien_crv@yahoo.com.

Towson/Stoneleigh, 3- or 4BR, 2.5BA TH, renov’d BAs and kitchen, CAC, avail midJuly. $1,900/mo + utils, incl water, lawn care, snow removal, community pool. 330310-5340 or jtogioka@gmail.com.

2BR, 2.5BA house nr medical campus, priv prkng, fenced yd, walk to SoN/SPH/JHU shuttle bus. $1,100/mo (or $550/mo per rm). work230@hotmail.com.

3- and 4BR apts nr Homewood campus, very spacious. $1,395/mo and $1,495/mo. 443253-2113 or pulimood@aol.com (to make an appt).

HOUSES FOR SALE

Bayview/Greektown, lg, newly renov’d 2BR, 2BA EOG, 1,400 sq ft, bright rms, new appls, granite, lg upstairs w/laundry and office area, washer on fin’d lower level. $150,000. 410-935-8060.

Gardenville, 3BR, 1.25BA RH w/new kitchen and new BA, CAC, wood flrs, fenced, maintenance-free yd w/carport, club bsmt w/cedar closet, quiet neighborhood, 15 mins to JHH. $105,000. 443-610-0236 or tziporachai@juno.com.

Glyndon, garden w/3BR, 2BA house attached, surrounded by 1.8 acres, mature trees, groomed paths and glorious gardens. $384,900. 410-245-4128.

with Balcony - $790

Greenway, Manhattan-style efficiency condo in owner-occupied, elegant and secure bldg, steps to Homewood campus. $86,500. 443-414-6282.

www.brooksmanagementcompany.com

Harborview, 2BR, 1BA single-family house,

A lovely hilltop setting on Hickory Avenue in Hampden!

2 BD units from $760 Shown by appointment

410.764.7776

11

hdwd flrs throughout, lg fenced yd w/long driveway, 20 mins to JHH, 25 mins to JHU. $155,000. 443-604-2797 or lexisweetheart@ yahoo.com.

Mt Washington, 4BR, 3.5BA TH, landscaped, private community, easy commute to JHU/JHMI. $289,000 (and seller’s $5,000 contribution toward settlement costs). lisamwolf@comcast.net.

Mt Washington, 4BR, 3.5BA TH, beautiful renovations, deck, backyd, blue ribbon school, county, easy commute to JHU/JHMI. $269,900. 410-653-9164, zlatkina711@ gmail.com or zillow.com/homedetails/ 53-Jones-Valley-Cir-Baltimore-MD-21209/ 36349995_zpid.

Stewartstown, PA, 2,170 sq ft rancher, stick-built w/full bsmt, on private lane, many updates, exit 4 off I-83. $314,900.

410-977-2103.

3402 Mt Pleasant Ave (21224), completely rehabbed and superb quality, new reduced price. $154,900. jvgiiird@hotmail.com.

ROOMMATES WANTED

Young prof’l wanted to share beautiful 2BR, 2BA apt at the Fitzgerald w/30-yr-old Italian doctor moving to Balto in September to work at JHMI, own BA, share W/D (in unit), nice finishes, beautiful kitchen, balcony w/city view, the bldg has a swimming pool, fitness center, movie theater, Starbucks and Barnes & Noble. $1,105/mo per person. aletobarone@mac.com.

Share all new, refurbished TH w/other medical students, 4BRs, 2 full BAs, CAC, W/D, dw, w/w crpt, 1-min walk to JHMI (924 N Broadway). gretrieval@aol.com.

Nonsmoker wanted for rm and BA in brand new TH, walking distance to JHMC, no pets. 301-717-4217 or xiaoningzhao1@ gmail.com.

1BR and priv BA avail in my 2BR apt by Mercy Hospital, walking distance to Hopkins shuttle and metro. $700/mo + elec. davis@darsch.com.

Share fantastic RH w/3rd-yr law student, BR and priv BA in 2BR, 2BA house, safe neighborhood, unzoned street prkng, nr bars/grocery store/more. 419-356-6568.

Rm avail in 3BR Belair-Edison area house, 10 mins to JHU, free cable and WiFi. $500/ mo incl utils. Darrick, 443-226-6497.

F wanted for lg furn’d BR and priv BA nr JHH/SoN/SPH (maximum 10-min walk), high-spd Internet, very good view. $750/mo incl utils. myhome.2011@yahoo.com.

Rms avail in house at 33rd and Ellerslie. $650/mo or $500/mo (per rm) + utils or entire house (excluding bsmt), $1,650/mo + utils. 703-953-8943.

F wanted for peaceful, furn’d 3BR, 2BA house, 2 cats, short-term lease OK. $600/ mo incl wireless, utils, prkng. skbzok@ verizon.net.

and $400/mo incl utils and Internet. Alex, 443-271-3859 or alex21771@gmail.com.

Share Loch Raven Village TH, fin’d bsmt and priv BA, prkng, laundry, shared use of common areas. $800/mo incl utils. crettaliata@ gmail.com.

Furn’d rms in several TH bldgs nr JHMI/ shops/restaurants/ transportation, W/D in units, some assigned prkng, roommates are JHU students. $350-$550/mo (depending on rm size, length of lease) + shared utils.

410-680-6971 or happyhut4u@yahoo.com.

CARS FOR SALE

’01 VW Cabrio convertible, manual, 2-dr, 4-cyl engine, 83K mi. $4,600. lilide80@ yahoo.it. ’92 Toyota Corolla, in great shape. iricse .its@verizon.net. ’06 Toyota Scion Xa, 4-dr hatchback, automatic, gray w/black interior, 4 recent tires (less than 8K mi on them), new battery and carburetor, new brake pads and rotors, CD/ FM stereo w/good spkrs, sm dings/scratches on body, 77K mi. $7,000 (negotiable). 310622-5999. ’05 Honda Civic si hatchback, black, 5-spd, VTEK turbo, sunroof, bucket seats, back seats fold down, excellent control, tight turning, fast and strong, hitch installed, insp’d, 103K mi. $9,000. 410-963-8741 or naturegazer@gmail.com. ’99 VW Passat GLX, V6, black, one owner, well maintained, in excel cond, low mileage (50K mi). $6,900/best offer. 443-845-8415. ’05 Toyota Matrix, automatic, 4WD, phantom-gray, XR trim, mechanically perfect, sm dents from street prkng, 98K mi. $7,200.

410-925-6726 or jinysong@yahoo.com. ’96 Honda Accord, leather seats, power windows, sunroof, AM/FM stereo, cruise control, all scheduled maintenance, in good cond, 125K mi. $2,800. 443-930-5412. ’96 Lexus ES300, leather seats, sunroof, garage-kept, needs minor work for inspection, 210K mi. $1,500. Kathy, 410-491-3153.

ITEMS FOR SALE

Whirlpool air conditioner, barely used, 12,000 BTUs, 14" x 22", settings from fan to turbo cool, located in Charles Village; pics available. $175. 256-508-9033.

Beautiful bamboo and glass coffee table, like new, $25; antique wooden cradle, ca 1918, $30. 410-377-7354.

Purebred teacup Yorkie puppies (2), 12 wks old, M and F, born/raised indoors, dew claws removed, tails docked, CKC registered, current vaccines, dewormed, pics avail. samantha01@blumail.org.

Weber gas grill w/full tank of propane. $100/ best offer. Ellen, 410-294-1348.

Queen-size plush pillowtop mattress, excel-

3 BRs avail in newly renov’d 3BR house nr Homewood campus, 2 full BAs. $500/mo

Continued on page 10

PLACING ADS Classified listings are a free service for current, full-time Hopkins faculty, staff and students only. Ads should adhere to these general guidelines: • One ad per person per week. A new request must be submitted for each issue.

• Ads are limited to 20 words, including phone, fax and e-mail.

• We cannot use Johns Hopkins business phone numbers or

e-mail addresses.

• Submissions will be condensed at the editor’s discretion.

• Deadline is at noon Monday, one week prior to the edition in which the ad is to be run.

• Real estate listings may be offered only by a Hopkins-affiliated seller not by Realtors or Agents.

(Boxed ads in this section are paid advertisements.)

Classified ads may be faxed to 443-287-9920; e-mailed in the body of a message (no attachments) to gazads@jhu.edu; or mailed to Gazette Classifieds, Suite 540, 901 S. Bond St., Baltimore, MD 21231. To purchase a boxed display ad, contact the Gazelle Group at 443-275-2687.

12 THE GAZETTE • July 9, 2012 J U L Y

9

–

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

2 3

Calendar

Bloomberg School to offer MPH degree program in India

Celebrate the anniversary of Charles Carroll Jr. and Harriet Chew Carroll on July 15 with a traditional afternoon tea at Homewood House. This image of Homewood is from an antique chair back. See Special Events.

B L OO D D R I V E S

defense seminar with Brian Roelofs.

W1214 SPH. EB

Thurs., July 12, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

JHU/American Red Cross blood drive.

For information, call 410-614-0913 or email johnshopkinsblooddrive@jhmi .edu. Turner Concourse. EB S E M I N AR S Mon., July 9, 1 p.m. “Targeting Lymphocyte Function-Associated Antigen-1 (LFA-1) and Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1) Interactions to Prevent the Sexual Transmission of HIV1,” a Molecular Microbiology and Immunology thesis defense seminar with Janet Tai Guedon. W2030 SPH. EB Mon., July 9, 2 p.m. “Regulation of Musculoskeletal Development and Function by Myostatin/GDF-11 Binding Proteins,” a Human Genetics thesis defense seminar with Yun-Sil Lee. Sponsored by the Institute of Genetic Medicine/ Human Genetics Graduate Program. 517 PCTB. EB

“The Effect of Protein Binding on Antiretroviral Drug Distribution and Antiviral Effect Among Diverse Anatomic Compartments,” a Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences thesis defense seminar with Lindsay Avery. 303 WBSB. EB

Tues., July 10, 11 a.m.

Wed., July 11, 10 a.m. “TE-Array—A High Throughput Tool to Study Transposon Transcription,” a Human Genetics thesis defense seminar with Veena Gnanakkan. Sponsored by the Institute of Genetic Medicine/Human Genetics Graduate Program. G007 Ross. EB

“Reproductive Intentions in Rural Bangladesh: A Longitudinal Analysis,” a Population, Family and Reproductive Health thesis defense seminar with Rebecca Callahan. E4517 SPH. EB Wed., July 11, 1 p.m.

“Risk Factors and Care Seeking for Neonatal Infections: A Community-Based Prospective Study in Rural Bangladesh,” an International Health thesis defense seminar with Dipak Mitra. W2030 SPH. EB

Tues., July 17, 10 a.m.

“The Effect of Coercion on Health: An Empirical Test of the Dutton and Goodman (2005) Model of Coercion in Intimate Partner Violence,” a Health, Behavior and Society thesis defense seminar with Georgette Cox. 744 Hampton House. EB

Tues., July 17, 10:30 a.m.

“Post-Translational Modification of Bcl-XL Orchestrates Non-Canonical Functions,” a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology thesis

Mon., July 23, 2 p.m.

The Indian Institute of Health Management Research in Jaipur will host an MPH program offered in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

By Tim Parsons

SPECIAL EVENTS

Sun., July 15, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.

“The Carrolls’ 212th Wedding Anniversary Tea,” a traditional afternoon tea at Homewood House offers a chance to learn about the lives and lifestyles of Charles Carroll Jr. and Harriet Chew Carroll, one of early America’s wealthiest and most socially prominent families.

(See image, this page.) Seatings for tea at 12:30 and 3 p.m. Sponsored by JHU Museums. $30 general admission, $25 for members; by prepaid reservation only.

For information, call 410-516-5589.

Homewood Museum. HW “Summer Evening at Evergreen,” an opportunity to see the Evergreen Museum and Library’s exhibits after hours: Sculpture at Evergreen 7: Landscape as Laboratory, Alix Ayme: European Perception and Asian Poeticism and Eliot Porter: TREES. Bring a picnic supper and at 7:30 p.m. enjoy an open dress rehearsal of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost by the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory Players.

Thurs., July 19, 5 to 7 p.m.

Fri., July 20, and Sat., July 21, 7:30 p.m., and Sun., July 22, 2 p.m.

“Shakespeare in the Meadow,” performances under the stars of Love’s Labour’s Lost by the Baltimore Shakespeare Factory. (See In Brief, p. 2.) Bring a blanket, lawn chair and picnic. Wine and beer from Boordy Vineyards and Flying Dog will be available for purchase. $20 general admission, $15 for senior citizens and students (grade 6+) and free for kids grade 5 and under. Tickets available at the door or in advance ($5 off per ticket); for reservations, call 410-596-5036 or go to theshakespearefactory.com. The Meadow, Evergreen Museum and Library.

Calendar (Events are free and

Key

APL BRB CRB EB HW JHOC

open to the public except where indicated.)

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

and Sciences PCTB Preclinical Teaching Building SAIS School of Advanced

International Studies SoM School of Medicine SoN School of Nursing SPH School of Public Health WBSB Wood Basic Science Building WSE Whiting School of Engineering

Bloomberg School of Public Health

T

he Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Health Management Research, will offer a master of public health degree program in Jaipur, India, beginning this fall. The program is specifically intended for citizens and residents of India and low- and middleincome countries in the region and will focus on public health capacity building in developing countries. The curriculum will concentrate on health management skills to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of public health programs and services, with special emphasis on issues facing India.

“As a school, we are committed to promoting public health and sharing our knowledge wherever we can,” said Michael J. Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School. “We are eager to work with our colleagues at the IIHMR on this region-based degree program

to train a new generation of public health leaders. Together we can improve health and save lives.”

Shiv Gupta, director of the Indian Institute of Health Management Research, added, “The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health MPH program in collaboration with IIHMR will be an important milestone in promoting public health and building capacity of health professionals in India and the Southeast Asia region. It will usher in a new era in providing highquality education and training in public health that will establish a new benchmark in this part of the world.”

The collaborative initiative will consist of 80 term credits earned in a full-time 11-month program. The curriculum includes 23 didactic classes, plus a practicum and capstone. Classes will be taught primarily at the IIHMR campus in Jaipur, and online, and students will take two weeks of classes at the Bloomberg School campus in Baltimore.

More information about the collaborative MPH program is available on the IIHMR website at mph.iihmr.org.

Immune system ‘circuitry’ that kills malaria in mosquitoes ID’d

By Tim Parsons

Bloomberg School of Public Health

R

esearchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute have, for the first time, determined the function of a series of proteins within the mosquito that transduce a signal that enables the mosquito to fight off infection from the parasite that causes malaria in humans.

Together, these proteins known as immune deficiency, or Imd, pathway signal transducing factors are analogous to an electrical circuit. As each factor is switched on or off, it triggers or inhibits the next, finally leading to the launch of an immune response against the malaria parasite. The study was published June 7 in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

The latest study builds upon earlier work of the research team, which had found that silencing one gene of this circuit, Caspar, activated Rel2, an Imd pathway transcription factor of the Anopheles gambiae mosquito. The activation of Rel2 turns on the effectors TEP1, APL1 and FBN9 that kill malaria-causing parasites in the mosquito’s gut. More significantly, this study discovered the Imd pathway signal transducing factors and effectors that will mediate a successful reduction of parasite infection at their early ookinete stage, as well as in the later oocyst stage, when the levels of infection were similar to those found in nature.

“Identifying and understanding how all of the players work is crucial for manipulating the Imd pathway as an intervention to control malaria. We now know which genes can be manipulated through genetic engineering to create a malaria-resistant mosquito,” said George Dimopoulos, a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

To conduct the study, Dimopoulos’ team used an RNA interference method to “knock down” the genes of the Imd pathway. As the components were inactivated, the researchers could observe how the mosquito’s resistance to parasite infection would change.

“Imagine a string of Christmas lights or other circuit that will not work when parts aren’t aligned in the right sequence. That is how we are working with the mosquito’s immune system,” Dimopoulos explained.

“We manipulate the molecular components of the mosquito’s immune system to identify the parts necessary to kill the malaria parasites.”

Malaria kills more than 800,000 people worldwide each year. Many are children.

The authors of the study are Lindsey S. Garver, Ana C. Bahia, Suchismita Das, Jayme A. Souza-Neo, Jessica Shiao, Yuemei Dong and Dimopoulos, all of Johns Hopkins.

The research was funded by the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute.