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>>

This past spring,the Henderson-Hopkins School found itself with an extra 85 students on campus:Twice aweek,55 undergraduate and 30 graduate students from Johns Hopkins University would travel to the East Baltimore public school to serve as math tutors for grades four through eight.The Henderson-Hopkins Math Tutorial Program first started in fall 2022,with 53 tutors serving nearly three-fourths of all eligible students.Since then,the initiative has grown exponentially,with about 40 Hopkins tutors resuming their roles this fall and plans to hire an additional 60 tutors for the upcoming school year.The idea for the program first arose during avisit to the school by JHU President Ron Daniels.While speaking to Henderson-Hopkins Principal Peter Kannam,Daniels asked what could be done to address learning losses caused by the pandemic."I said,‘I would set up away to engage Johns Hopkins students and bring them in to tutor our students in math,"Kannam recalled."And President Daniels said,‘Let‘s make it happen.‘That‘s the kind of person that President Daniels is."According to the first cohort of tutors,each visit with their Henderson-Hopkins students follows the same routine:After arriving in Lyfts provided by the university,tutors go inside to meet their groups,which are made up of two to three students.Then,after afew minutes of catching up,the lessons begin,with each student receiving personalized attention as they review math concepts and complete practice problems.Some weeks also have special themes,such as Culture Week,where students and tutors were encouraged to share parts of their heritage with each other.One aspect that makes this tutoring program different from past Henderson-Hopkins initiatives is the timing.Rather than keeping the students after school or requiring them to come in early,tutoring occurs during the school day,slotted between the students‘other learning blocks.By structuring the day like this,the program can better retain its college-age tutors,who often have other commitments outside of school hours.As aresult,students receive more consistent instruction and support.According to Charlotte Egginton,a Krieger School junior majoring in the Writing Seminars,maintaining reliable tutors also allows for deeper connections within the program."I saw so many examples of extremely positive relationships forming between the students and tutors,"she said."Part of my duty as atutor was not just to do the math problems and solve the equations but to listen to[my students]when they needed someone to confide in.Because we‘re younger,we have the opportunity to form aclose connection like that." 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>>

Joanis comes to Hopkins from Bucknell,where he has overseen HR for eight years and played alead role in helping the university navigate the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. 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>>

The University of California,San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University today announced the launch of the Opioid Industry Documents Archive,a digital repository of publicly disclosed documents from recent judgments,settlements,and ongoing lawsuits concerning the opioid crisis.The documents come from government litigation against pharmaceutical companies,including opioid manufacturers and distributors related to their contributions to the deadly epidemic,as well as litigation taking place in federal court on behalf of thousands of cities and counties in the United States.The documents in the archive include emails,memos,presentations,sales reports,budgets,audit reports,Drug Enforcement Administration briefings,meeting agendas and minutes,expert witness reports,and depositions of drug company executives.The Opioid Industry Documents Archive leverages extraordinary expertise within UCSF and Johns Hopkins University in library science,information technology,and digital archiving.It also relies on scholarship focused on many dimensions of the opioid epidemic,ranging from the history of medicine to pharmaceutical policy to clinical care.Key organizations at UCSF involved include the Philip R.Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies;Department of Clinical Pharmacy;Department of Humanities and Social Sciences;Department of Family and Community Medicine;and Library.From Johns Hopkins University,the project involves the Bloomberg School of Public Health‘s Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness;Welch Medical Library;Institute of the History of Medicine;and Sheridan Libraries‘Digital Research and Curation Center. 查看详细>>

A Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory-led mission to explore electric currents in Earth‘s atmosphere that link the aurora to our planet‘s magnetosphere has been selected by NASA to move forward to ascheduled launch in 2024.The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer,EZIE,is aset of three small spacecraft that will study the auroral electrojet,which are electrical currents flowing about 60 to 90 miles above the poles that link the beautiful aurora to the Earth‘s magnetosphere,and which responds to solar activity and other drivers.The interaction of the magnetosphere and the solar wind—one piece of Earth‘s complicated space weather system—compresses the Sun-facing side of the magnetosphere and drags out the nighttime side of the magnetosphere into what is called a"magnetotail."Auroral electrojets are generated by changes in the structure of the magnetotail.The same space weather phenomena that power the fascinating aurora can cause interference with radio and communication signals and utility grids on Earth‘s surface,and damage to spacecraft in orbit."Despite decades of research,we still don‘t understand the basic configuration of the electrical currents which are central to the interactions between Earth and the surrounding space,"said Jeng-Hwa(Sam)Yee,chief scientist in Earth Science at APL and principal investigator for the mission."This is aproblem of universal importance since it applies to any magnetized body such as Mercury,Saturn and Jupiter—but it also has practical importance since these currents have aprofound impact on our technologies in space and here on Earth." 查看详细>>

Johns Hopkins University has created anew system for students,prospective students,parents,and others to submit requests for assistance with course registration,financial aid,and student accounts,an important first step as the university moves toward ashared student services organization.The new case management system—developed by University Information Systems as part of the Student Services Excellence Initiative—will make it easier for users to get the support they need quickly and easily.Rather than calling or emailing various offices or departments to ask questions or resolve issues,students can submit arequest.The system will significantly reduce the number of times astudent is referred to another office or staff member to receive support.It will also give staff amore comprehensive view of the needs of students and others requesting help,showing prior requests,the status of requests,and previous communications with the student."Along with my colleagues who lead registration,student accounts,and financial aid,I‘m excited about the launch of this new tool,"said Tanya Johnson,the university‘s inaugural director of Student Enrollment Customer Services."The tool offers digital record-keeping,centralized data management,and real-time updates for students and staff.The Hopkins community will appreciate how the system increases transparency and offers efficient resolution of case management through effective collaboration."Historically,information collected on student help requests has been difficult to track and nearly impossible to report on—information is stored in different locations that are not accessible across departments.The new system will promote the collection and safeguarding of important student data.The first wave of the rollout begins today,for students in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Whiting School of Engineering,including Advanced Academic Programs and Engineering for Professionals.Degree-and certificate-seeking learners at all degree levels may use the tool,but those in non-credit programs should continue to work directly with their program contacts,as the tool does not currently support non-credit programs.AAP‘s summer programs are also not included.Current and prospective students,parents,and alumni can submit requests and inquiries by visiting the online case form.It can also be accessed on the Homewood University Registrar,Student Financial Services,and Student Accounts websites.The system will roll out across the university throughout the coming year.Details on exact launch dates will be shared at alater date;to stay informed,readers can subscribe to the SSEI newsletter. 查看详细>>

Johns Hopkins University‘s newly established Tenure Advisory Committee—a universitywide body that will advise President Ronald J.Daniels on the strength of tenure cases forwarded to him for consideration and will bring the university in line with how its peers address the tenure process—held its first meeting earlier this month.Daniels charged the 14-member TAC with fostering consistently high academic standards across the schools.Chaired by Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Sunil Kumar,the TAC will begin advising Daniels on all cases submitted to him for final approval by the board of trustees in February 2021."One of the most important academic decisions that we make as auniversity are the appointments and promotions of our faculty colleagues,"Daniels said."I know my part in the tenure process will benefit tremendously from the cross-divisional and diverse faculty perspectives represented on this committee."The TAC was created based on the recommendation of the Faculty Advisory Committee on Tenure,or FACT,which formed in April 2019 to assess the value of creating auniversity-level tenure committee and to make recommendations for its composition and procedures.FACT issued its final report in favor of forming the TAC in December 2019 after nine months of extensive research,consultation,deliberation,and revision. 查看详细>>