Traditional medical imaging works great for people with light skin but has trouble getting clear pictures from patients with darker skin.A Johns Hopkins University–led team found away to deliver clear pictures of anyone‘s internal anatomy,no matter their skin tone.In experiments the new imaging technique produced significantly sharper images for all people—and excelled with darker skin tones.It produced much clearer images of arteries running through the forearms of all participants,compared to standard imaging methods where it was nearly impossible to distinguish the arteries in darker-skinned individuals."When you‘re imaging through skin with light,it‘s kind of like the elephant in the room that there are important biases and challenges for people with darker skin compared to those with lighter skin tones,"said co-senior author Muyinatu"Bisi"Bell,the John C.Malone Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering,Biomedical Engineering,and Computer Science at Johns Hopkins."Our work demonstrates that equitable imaging technology is possible."The findings are newly published in the journal Photoacoustics."We show not only there is aproblem with current methods but,more importantly,what we can do to reduce this bias,"Bell said.The findings advance a2020 report that showed pulse oximeters,which measure oxygen rates in the blood,have higher error rates in Black patients."There were patients with darker skin tones who were basically being sent home to die because the sensor wasn‘t calibrated toward their skin tone,"Bell said.Bell‘s team created anew algorithm to process information from photoacoustic imaging,a method that combines ultrasound and light waves to render medical images.Body tissue absorbing this light expands,producing subtle sound waves that ultrasound devices turn into images of blood vessels,tumors,and other internal structures.But in people with darker skin tones,melanin absorbs more of this light,which yields cluttered or noisy signals for ultrasound machines.The team was able to filter the unwanted signals from images of darker skin,in the way acamera filter sharpens ablurry picture,to provide more accurate details about the location and presence of internal biological structures.The researchers are now working to apply the new findings to breast cancer imaging,since blood vessels can accumulate in and around tumors.Bell believes the work will improve surgical navigation as well as medical diagnostics."We‘re aiming to mitigate,and ideally eliminate,bias in imaging technologies by considering awider diversity of people,whether it‘s skin tones,breast densities,body mass indexes—these are currently outliers for standard imaging techniques,"Bell said."Our goal is to maximize the capabilities of our imaging systems for awider range of our patient population."Other authors include Guilherme S.P.Fernandes,who was avisiting doctoral student at Johns Hopkins from University of Sa?o Paulo,Brazil,as well as Joa?o H.Uliana,Luciano Bachmann,Antonio A.O.Carneiro,and Theo Z.Pavan of University of Sa?o Paulo,Brazil. 查看详细>>

Researchers have discovered asurprising anomaly in the behavior of how proteins form,upending long-held assumptions about the way cells produce these crucial molecules and potentially leading to abetter understanding of aging and neurodegenerative diseases in humans.Contradicting conventional wisdom that proteins can reassemble themselves,Johns Hopkins University biochemists found asignificant number of the proteins in E.coli could not,even when the team tried to spark the repairs in the lab with helper proteins called"chaperones."The finding was stunning,said senior author Stephen Fried,an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences who led the research published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."The most surprising finding is that there are certain proteins even chaperones can‘t help,"Fried said."If proteins misfold,we are taught that chaperones are supposed to be able to fix them.But some proteins are like Humpty Dumpties:Once they fall,all the cells‘men and horses can‘t put them back together again."Proteins are long chains of molecules consisting of smaller components called amino acids.All cells—human or not—contain proteins that execute an endless number of functions including fighting viruses,building tissue,running organs,and producing other types of molecules.A protein‘s shape determines its ability to function properly.The way their amino acid chains"fold"or organize into specific three-dimensional structures determines the functions they perform.If unfolded proteins were anecklace of pearls,functional proteins would look like the pearls organized into balls,tubes,and other structures of many shapes and forms.Genetic mutations and other biochemical mishaps within cells can cause proteins to misfold into dysfunctional structures.In humans,mistakes in protein synthesis and folding can kill neurons and cause Alzheimer‘s,Parkinson‘s,and other neurodegenerative diseases associated with aging.But the details of how this behavior damages acell‘s functions are still unclear.Fried hopes the findings help illuminate that process."From decades of protein folding research,we know alot about avery small number of very simple proteins because those were the ones that were amenable to the types of experiments biophysicists were good at,"Fried said."We now have these really amazing technologies in the field to analyze tens of thousands of proteins in one sample,but this technology had never really been deployed to look at folding."With scientists at Pennsylvania State University,Fried‘s lab is also working to gain abetter understanding of why some proteins can‘t refold.Their findings,published in Nature Chemistry,show some proteins can only fold properly when acell‘s ribosome produces them for the first time.The research also shows subtle mutations could be changing how quickly or slowly acell builds and folds specific proteins.Fried is also collaborating with Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Michela Gallagher to study how the E.coli protein findings compare to proteins in the brains of aging rats with memory loss and other cognitive impairments.They hope this will provide insight into how protein folding glitches influence brain disease in humans.Johns Hopkins authors included:Philip To,Yingzi Xia,Sea On Lee,Taylor Devlin,and Karen G.Fleming.Penn State researchers included Yang Jiang,Syam Sundar Neti,Ian Sitarik,Priya Pradhan,Yingzi Xia,Squire J.Booker,and Edward P.O‘Brien.The work was supported by:NIH Director‘s New Innovator Award(DP2GM140926),the NSF Division of Molecular and Cellular Biology(MCB2045844).NIGMS(R01GM079440),and NIH training grant(T32GM008403). 查看详细>>

Breasts come in all shapes and sizes,as well as various densities—an important consideration when screening for cancer.Nearly half of all patients have dense breasts,which make it more challenging to spot cancer in mammogram images.Ultrasound screening and follow-up can be better at catching breast cancer early in those with dense breast tissue.However,this imaging technique has ahigh false-positive rate,sometimes resulting in patients undergoing invasive aspiration procedures,unnecessary biopsies,and follow-up monitoring that requires some patients to wait up to two years for adefinitive diagnosis.New research to improve ultrasound techniques for breast cancer screening and diagnosis is on the way.Muyinatu Bell,the John C.Malone Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering,is leading aproject to develop ultrasound technology that can help radiologists detect early-stage breast cancers,regardless of apatient‘s breast tissue density.Bell leads the Whiting School of Engineering‘s Photoacoustic and Ultrasonic Systems Engineering Lab.When breast cancer is detected early,the chances of survival are very high;almost 99%of patients diagnosed at the earliest stage live for five years or more,according to the CDC."Ultrasound imaging is an important screening and diagnostic tool,particularly for patients with dense breasts for whom mammography is suboptimal,"said Bell,who was awarded afour-year,$1.4 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health for the project."We are interested in engineering better ultrasound technology to increase early detection and better optimize hospital resource allocations."Not all breast lumps are cancerous.In fact,many lumps are fluid-filled masses,or cysts,which are usually benign.Other lumps are solid masses,or tumors that may be cancerous and warrant more analysis.Bell said the problem with existing ultrasounds is that dense breasts tend to produce lower-quality images,making it difficult to distinguish between the two mass types.As part of the R01 grant,Bell‘s lab will build on recently developed workflows that combine conventional two-dimensional ultrasound imaging with anew technique called robust short-lag spatial coherence,or R-SLSC,imaging.With this approach,solid breast masses produce images that appear distinctly different from those of fluid-filled masses.The team believes this new methodology will offer increased diagnostic certainty of mass contents.That will in turn help clinicians rule out whether an underlying cancer is present and reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies,needle aspirations,and multi-year follow-ups."The studies funded by this grant will provide areal-time,ultrasound-based tool to remove clutter,distinguish solid from fluid breast masses with greater confidence,curb patient anxiety surrounding diagnostic wait times,and offer simpler clinical workflows for the most challenging cases,"said Bell.This work will be carried out in partnership with Bell‘s team of clinical collaborators,including breast radiologists Eniola Oluyemi,Kelly Myers,Lisa Mullen,and Emily Ambinder at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. 查看详细>>

For the more than 15 million epilepsy patients around the world whose disease is not controlled by medication,the only remaining option is removal of the parts of the brain where seizures originate.Even then,surgery is only 50%effective because accurately pinpointing the brain regions responsible is challenging.Developed by Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineers,a new method of highlighting the most epileptic parts of the brain could enable not only more accurate diagnosis of the seizure disorder,but also help guide more precise surgical treatment.The team‘s study was published recently in Nature Neuroscience."For these patients,the only available treatment is to surgically remove the brain area responsible for seizures,"said study first author Adam Li,a doctoral student in the laboratory of Sridevi Sarma,associate professor of biomedical engineering."However,surgery is not as effective as it should be because there is no biomarker that can pinpoint the epileptic brain regions.Our goal was to solve that problem."In the study,the team describes how they modeled the dynamics of brain waves to develop aquantitative test that calculates the likelihood that any single brain region would contribute to aseizure.The mathematical model was based on biological experiments that showed changes in brain region connections that render the brain unstable,and thus,prone to seizures.This instability is known as neural fragility.The team then applied this mathematical model to data from electroencephalograms(EEG),computing neural fragility for every EEG electrode.The next step was developing software that processes data from the EEGs and returns aheatmap showing the neural fragility of channels throughout the brain over time—information that could enable improved diagnosis of epilepsy and help guide surgical treatment of patients leading to higher rates of freedom from seizures.The software obtained a510k FDA clearance,and Li expects the heatmap will be useful to clinicians when diagnosing epileptic brain regions."We are currently in the process of pursuing additional funding to take the product to market,"said Li."We anticipate that this could take up to one or two years."Li and his team released asubset of the anonymous EEG data on openneuro.org,an NIH funded repository for neural data,to help facilitate data sharing and analysis.The team‘s next goal is to replicate its findings in EEG data that was recorded outside of aseizure."We want to take snapshots of EEG data without any seizure activity and see if we can pinpoint the epileptic brain regions using only that data,"said Li."This would be advantageous because then we can leverage the vast amounts of non-seizing EEG data that patients typically have."This would reduce the time it takes to determine an appropriate treatment,and minimize patient risks associated with intracranial EEG monitoring and hospital costs.Additional collaborators include researchers and clinicians from the National Institute of Health,University of Maryland Medical Center,Cleveland Clinic,University of Miami,Florida,Jackson Memorial Hospital,and the Johns Hopkins Hospital. 查看详细>>

Understanding the way awave moves through granular materials—after an earthquake,for example—has vast implications for modern science.After all,scientists use stress wave propagation through granular materials to detect the magnitude of earthquakes,locate oil and gas reservoirs,design acoustic insulation,and develop materials for compacting powders.Using X-ray measurements and analyses,a team of researchers led by aJohns Hopkins mechanical engineering professor have shown that velocity scaling and dispersion in wave transmission is based on particle arrangements and chains of force between them,while reduction of wave intensity is caused mainly from particle arrangements alone.The research appeared yesterday in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."Our study provides abetter understanding of how the fine-scale structure of agranular material is related to the behavior of waves propagating through them,"said Ryan Hurley,assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering."This knowledge is of fundamental importance in the study of seismic signals from landslides and earthquakes,in the nondestructive evaluation of soils in civil engineering,and in the fabrication of materials with desired wave properties in materials science."Hurley conceived of this line of research while apostdoc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,collaborating with ateam that included physicist Eric Herbold.The experiments and analysis were later performed by Hurley and Whiting School postdoc Chongpu Zhai after Hurley moved to JHU,with experimental assistance and continued discussions with Herbold. 查看详细>>

Johns Hopkins University has become the first university in the world to partner with Innovation for Defense,the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Innovation Hub‘s new initiative.Also called I4D,the Norfolk,Virginia–based center aims to bring together avariety of partners to design solutions to challenges the organization faces.As part of the new partnership,Johns Hopkins students will work with NATO experts to tackle how health care—whether civilian or military—is delivered and managed in conflict zones.The students involved are part of the university‘s Center for Leadership Education,which prepares them for leadership roles in the professional world through avariety of courses,minors,internships,graduate programs,networking opportunities,and hands-on experiences."This is apilot for us;our eventual goal is to have I4D university partnerships in all 29 NATO member countries,"says Serge Da Deppo,manager at the Innovation Hub."What we‘re creating fresh with Hopkins will serve as amodel for the others going forward.Our goal is to tap into the imaginative,fertile,and hopeful minds of these young people and get their fresh take on solving many serious and thorny problems." 查看详细>>

Bloomberg Philanthropies,the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,and the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute today announced an initiative aimed at advancing and expanding the science of precision medicine by combining the renowned clinical and medical expertise of Johns Hopkins with the unique stem cell technologies and research capabilities of the NYSCF Research Institute.The collaboration will accelerate Hopkins‘pioneering Precision Medicine Initiative,which aims to identify diagnostic disease markers with pinpoint accuracy to help researchers understand disease pathways and customize therapeutic approaches."Johns Hopkins is working intensively to realize the great promise of precision medicine for all those in our care,locally and globally,"said Johns Hopkins President Ronald J.Daniels."This significant new collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies and NYSCF moves us ever closer to that aim as we join together our far-reaching research capacities to advance knowledge and deliver better health outcomes for populations and people around the world."This collaboration will also establish an unprecedented cache of human disease models available to researchers worldwide,thus promoting the real-world application of precision medicine and driving new discoveries and improvements to the study of human disease."Bloomberg Philanthropies‘mission is to ensure better,longer lives for the greatest number of people,"said Michael R.Bloomberg,founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and aJohns Hopkins alumnus."For years,Johns Hopkins University and the New York Stem Cell Foundation have shared that mission—and we‘re honored to deepen our partnerships with them as they explore new,innovative ways to save lives through the application of precision medicine."Diseases manifest themselves differently in different patients.To understand the basis of these differences and to tailor treatments for specific patients,researchers need more-accurate biological tools.Stem cell models can be used to provide a"biological avatar"of apatient,allowing scientists and clinicians to better understand,define,and account for differences in individual patients and groups of patients. 查看详细>>

Gregg L.Semenza,whose discoveries on how cells respond to low oxygen levels have the potential to result in treatments for avariety of illnesses,today was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.The academy recognized Semenza,the C.Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,for his groundbreaking discovery of hypoxia-inducible factor 1,or HIF-1,the protein that switches genes on and off in cells in response to low oxygen levels.The discovery,along with Semenza‘s additional work clarifying the molecular mechanisms of oxygen regulation in cells,has far-reaching implications in understanding the impact of low oxygen levels in blood disorders,blinding eye diseases,cancer,diabetes,coronary artery disease,and other conditions.Gregg Semenza Image caption:Gregg Semenza meets with areporter early Monday after receiving word that he had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine."I‘ve been able to do what I‘ve been able to do here at Hopkins,and Ireally don‘t believe that Iwould have accomplished this anywhere else,"Semenza said Monday afternoon during anews conference on the university‘s East Baltimore campus."That‘s why I‘ve stayed here my whole career,because Ithink this is the greatest place to do research."Semenza shares the award with William G.Kaelin Jr.and Sir Peter J.Ratcliffe.Kaelin,a professor of medicine at Harvard University and researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,completed his specialist training in internal medicine and oncology at Johns Hopkins.Ratcliffe is aprofessor at University of Oxford and the Francis Crick Institute.The three researchers were honored"for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability,"the Nobel Assembly wrote.They will share acash prize of$913,000. 查看详细>>

When Valeria Hesse started at Johns Hopkins University,she noticed that many of her fellow first-year students weren‘t thinking about the impact their actions had on the environment.Some loaded their dining hall trays with more food than they could eat.Others frequently bought bottled beverages and tossed the empties in the trash.Many opted for plastic bags when they shopped at local stores.So Hesse,now ajunior majoring in chemical and biomolecular engineering,decided to educate her classmates.She joined the student group Sustainable Hopkins Innovative Projects,known as SHIP,and encouraged others to choose reusable bags and water bottles,avoid wasting food,and opt for locally grown food.She also joined acoalition of environmental groups that meets periodically to collaborate and share ideas."Sustainability is something that will always be important to me,and I‘ll carry that with me to wherever Igo with my career,"says Hesse,who currently serves as president of SHIP.That‘s amindset that Julian Goresko,director of Sustainability at Johns Hopkins,hopes to instill in more students,faculty,and staff members.Goresko,appointed to his position in the spring,is overseeing areinvigoration of the university‘s sustainability initiatives.The first steps came on Earth Day in late April,when JHU President Ronald J.Daniels announced that the university would make the largest purchase of renewable energy by any single higher education institution in the country.By transitioning to solar power and other renewable energy sources,the university is on track to reduce its carbon footprint from a2009 baseline by 51%by 2025. 查看详细>>

For the fourth time in five years,Johns Hopkins University is included among the top 10 universities in the nation in U.S.News&World Report‘s Best College rankings,the longest-running and most widely cited assessment of U.S.colleges and universities.Hopkins shares the No.10 spot with Duke in the National Universities category in USNWR‘s annual rankings of nearly 400 national colleges and universities for 2020.The publication also recognizes Hopkins as one of the nation‘s top schools in terms of overall value,innovation,and economic and ethnic diversity.Johns Hopkins also remains the nation‘s No.1-ranked undergraduate biomedical engineering program,according to U.S.News,and ranks No.15 among undergraduate engineering programs overall.U.S.News has ranked colleges and universities each year since 1985,and Johns Hopkins has been among the top 16 for 25 consecutive years.The rankings evaluate colleges across 16 quantitative and qualitative measures,including graduation and retention rates,admissions statistics,faculty resources,alumni giving,and assessments completed by peer institutions and high school guidance counselors. 查看详细>>