Category: Research
NIH grant funds study on stem cells from ALS patients
February 22, 2010
A two-year $3.7 million stimulus grant from the National Institutes of Health will allow Johns Hopkins neurologist and lead researcher Jeffrey Rothstein to expand on his long-standing research into the nerve- and muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Using stem cells developed in a laboratory from skin cell samples taken from 20 ALS patients and […]
Obesity—mild or severe—raises kidney stone risk, study finds
February 22, 2010
Obesity nearly doubles the risk of developing kidney stones, but the degree of obesity doesn’t appear to increase or decrease the risk one way or the other, a new study from Johns Hopkins shows. “The common thinking was that as weight rises, kidney stone risk rises as well, but our study refutes that,” said study […]
Seniors stymied unnecessarily in wait for kidney transplants
February 22, 2010
One-third of people over the age of 65 wait longer than necessary for lifesaving new kidneys because their doctors fail to put them in a queue for organs unsuitable to transplant in younger patients but well-suited to seniors, research from Johns Hopkins suggests. Results of a study reported online in the American Journal of Transplantation […]
Assessing cardio care for HIV/AIDS patients
February 8, 2010
In a three-year study of 700 Baltimore patients with HIV/AIDS, Jason Farley, an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, will explore the effectiveness of health care clinicians in preventing cardiovascular disease in HIV/AIDS patients. “In an HIV/AIDS clinic population, we’re very focused on treating HIV, but we’re also involved in providing primary […]
Ability to navigate may be linked to genes, JHU researcher says
February 8, 2010
Imagine that you are emerging from the subway and heading for your destination when you realize that you are going in the wrong direction. For a moment, you feel disoriented, but a scan of landmarks and the layout of the surrounding streets quickly helps you pinpoint your location, and you make it to your appointment […]
Human growth hormone: Not a life extender after all?
February 8, 2010
People profoundly deficient in human growth hormone due to a genetic mutation appear to live just as long as people who make normal amounts of the hormone, a new study shows. The findings suggest that HGH may not be the “fountain of youth” that some researchers have suggested. “Without HGH, these people still live long, […]
Cardiologist tracks biomarkers for an elusive killer: IPH
February 1, 2010
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center cardiologist Allen Everett recently won more than $460,000 in stimulus grant funding to identify the biomarkers of idiopathic pulmonary hypertension, or IPH, a progressive and highly lethal condition in children and adults marked by persistently elevated pressure in the artery that carries blood from the heart to the lungs. Biomarkers—biological “byproducts” […]
Stressed nanomaterials display unexpected movement
February 1, 2010
Researchers have discovered that, under the right conditions, newly developed nanocrystalline materials exhibit surprising activity in the tiny spaces between the geometric clusters of atoms called nanocrystals, from which they are made. This finding, detailed recently in the journal Science, is important because these nanomaterials are becoming more ubiquitous in the fabrication of microdevices and […]
Old antidepressant offers promise in treating heart failure
February 1, 2010
A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have found in animal experiments that an antidepressant developed more than 40 years ago can blunt and even reverse the muscle enlargement and weakened pumping function associated with heart failure. In a report published in the Jan. 8 edition of Circulation Research, U.S. and Italian heart experts […]
JH researchers awarded $8 mill to develop method to rid body of HIV
January 25, 2010
A multidisciplinary research team at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has been awarded $8 million in funding by the National Institute of Mental Health to develop methods to rid the body of HIV.