Over the holiday season, I was fortunate to spend time with family in northern California where I grew up. There I had the opportunity to catch up with some friends from high school. We talked about many things, but eventually the conversation turned to work, salaries and other practicalities of adult life we would have(...)
Perspectives in Research
Student Perspectives: All About Grad School
Posted by | A Day in the Life, Perspectives in ResearchCurious about graduate school? Below are recent posts from our students sharing advice, accomplishments and the latest goings-on in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine graduate programs. The Future of Biomedical Education: A Conversation with Dr. Ziegelstein A Ph.D. candidate sits down with Dr. Ziegelstein, vice dean for education at the Johns Hopkins University(...)
Partnering Toward Discovery: A Focus on Inclusion Body Myositis
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchMany people are not familiar with a rare disease called inclusion body myositis (IBM). Most have never heard of it. On Jan. 22, 2019, Harry Benjamin Larman and students Janelle Montagne, Sahana Jayaraman and Kyla Britson presented their clinical and basic science research on IBM at the first event in this year’s Partnering Toward Discovery(...)
Engineering Magic Bullets for Pancreatic Cancer
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchIn a 1909 manuscript titled “Ueber den jetzigen Stand der Chemotherapie” (“About the Current State of Chemotherapy”), Nobel laureate Paul Ehrlich proclaimed, “We must learn to aim in a chemical sense.” What did he mean? Ehrlich was referring to his “magic bullet” theory of chemical specificity, the observation that certain drugs can eliminate disease-causing entities(...)
A Life or Debt Decision: Tackling Unaffordable Drug Prices in Maryland
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchI first became concerned about unaffordable drug prices when I did one of my first-year research rotations in a lab that studied the hepatitis C virus. The timing of my rotation was in the midst of the (continuing) hepatitis C epidemic and just after the development of Harvoni, an exorbitantly expensive cure ($50,000–$100,000). I learned(...)
Fuggetaboudit: Is Forgetfulness a Vice or a Virtue?
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchWhere are my keys? What’s the name of that actor again? Did she say 3 or 4 o’clock? Forgetfulness is a part of life, albeit often an inconvenient one. If you find yourself wishing you would never forget anything, you may want to reconsider. Neuroscientists are beginning to uncover the molecular mechanisms of forgetting. With(...)
The Relationship Between Age and Blood Pressure: Another Way Your Lifestyle Can Impact Heart Health
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchMany of us have likely experienced recent high blood pressure. Whether it’s from well-meaning but very inquisitive relatives, or the winding lines at the airport, most of us are acquainted with a temporary rise in blood pressure under stress. And unfortunately, high blood pressure (BP) is a common chronic issue for millions of people worldwide.(...)
The Future of Biomedical Education: A Conversation with Dr. Ziegelstein
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchFor the second part in my series on the future of biomedical education, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Ziegelstein and discuss what elements he sees as vital to education at all levels of training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Read part one. Roy Ziegelstein, vice dean for education(...)
Do You Want to Write for Us?
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchOur medical students, residents, postdocs and fellows have a lot to share — from daily life in the classroom, tips on thriving during residency, new research that is pushing the boundaries of science and patient care, to the best places to grab a bite in Baltimore, they share it here on the blog. If you(...)
Discussing the NIH Mandate to Study Sex as a Biological Variable in Basic Biomedical Research
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchIn one of my courses in the neuroscience Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins, we recently discussed the 2016 National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandate requiring consideration of sex as a biological variable in grant applications to NIH agencies. Citing the success of the initiative to include both men and women in human clinical trials, the(...)