“Don’t you ever get bored?” It wasn’t a question I’d expected from my high school summer student on her second day in the lab. And I was equally surprised when I found myself saying “all the time.” My recent experience mentoring a student has been rich and rewarding, but not for the reasons I anticipated. […]
Tackling Twitter as a Graduate Student
Posted by | A Day in the LifeI grew up during the rise of social media. Born in 1995, I have watched social media transform from inconsequential platforms for storing your random thoughts to a multi-billion-dollar industry in which influence serves as a form of currency. I have had to learn how to navigate these changes on my own, and I have […]
Finding the Medicine in Historical Drama
Posted by | A Day in the LifeEvery evening when I get home from campus, I put on the teakettle, get out my cross-stitch and flip on a TV show. Sawing noises and screaming come from the TV set as I stitch church steeples into blank linen. You may think I am watching American Horror Story or Hannibal, but the show is […]
A Primer on Platelets — Tiny but Mighty
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchWhen I tell people I study platelets, I am not often met with excitement. Most people know platelets as those tiny things that form clots, and if they have a fully functional clotting cascade, they aren’t bothered that much about them. When I mention that I study how platelets play a role in the immune […]
Meditation: Building a Community Across the Hopkins Campus
Posted by | A Day in the Life, Events and Happenings“Kidneys…relax…” I know where my kidneys are located thanks to my anatomy classes, but how would I make them relax, and do I even want them to relax? They fulfill a pretty crucial physiological role. These and many other thoughts came to mind as I sat during a guided, progressive relaxation mediation organized by medical […]
Summer Transitions: Learnings from Residency
Posted by | A Day in the LifeEvery summer, a fresh crop of physicians enters the workforce. Overnight, trainees begin new roles and take on new responsibilities. You could imagine that we transition gracefully, like caterpillars turned butterflies, wings beating with effortless aerodynamics upon emerging from the chrysalis. Truthfully, we are more akin to baby birds, pushed off a branch and made […]
Considerations for the Manufacturing of Cell and Gene Therapies for Humans
Posted by | Events and HappeningsWhat are cell and gene therapies and how are they different from drugs? Cell and gene therapies are biologic drugs that come from living systems such as a microorganism or human cells (donors), whereas small-molecule pharmaceuticals largely come from combining specific chemical ingredients in an ordered process. The field of cell and gene therapy has […]
Stockholm Syndrome City
Posted by | A Day in the LifeAt the time, chaos and disappointment were all I saw in Baltimore. Imagine sitting at the sixth story window, looking out across the Baltimore skyline, and seeing fire. Heading to work around 8 a.m., news circulates that armored vehicles are set to post around the medical campus, should riots become unruly. Morning turns to lunch, […]
50 Years Since Humankind’s Giant Leap
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchOn July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle touched down on the surface of the moon. Approximately 650 million people around the world watched in awe as Neil Armstrong took his historic first steps on the moon on national television. Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had set out on an eight-day-long […]
Knocking on the Door: How to Leave Your Postdoc Position
Posted by | A Day in the Life, Events and HappeningsGuest post by Parnaz Daneshpajouhnejad, M.D., a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The following is not Daneshpajouhnejad's own personal experience but rather inspired by a talk by Megan Bohn, assistant director of postdoctoral affairs, during the event, “Exit Interview: How to Tell the Boss […]