Life at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Working with biological samples has its ups and downs. Every Ph.D. student, postdoc and scientific researcher working with cells, tissues, animals or other living organisms knows how tricky it can be. For instance, you might have to work on some weekends or holidays, because these living things usually do not care about the holidays. They […]
Next generation cancer diagnostics are poised to change the way that cancer is detected and treated. Ph.D. candidate Roshan Chikarmane shares his perspectives on the teams and technologies that are leading the charge.
In 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 […]
Melanoma cells stained with PTRF (in red), RPA194 (in green) and nucleus stained in blue. RPA194 is the main subunit of the RNA polymerase I (POL 1) enzyme. Our lab discovered a first-in-class small molecule that inhibits POL 1 enzyme and causes the destruction of RPA194 protein. Here, we are investigating how these proteins are […]
While the word cancer treatment may identify everything from chemotherapy to radiation, there is significant variance between the type of cancer and its responsiveness to even the most promising therapies. That has been precisely the case for the α-PD-1 immunotherapy treatment. While it has shown remarkable efficacy in patients diagnosed with lung cancer, other types […]
My fifth grade world — a typical one concerned with classes, friends, recess, lunch menus and dreading middle school — forever changed one day, when I sat on the ABC-patterned carpet in my classroom and watched my favorite teacher hide tears from the class. I first met her in third grade. She was always peppy […]
When scientists and clinicians hear the words “clinical trial”, we may think of hope, discovery, and a new chance at life. But for racial and ethnic minorities, these words may not have the same positive connotation but may rather be associated with inaccessibility, fear, and exclusion. The potential benefits for patients who participate in clinical […]
Yoshinori Ohsumi of the University of Tokyo was recently awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in mechanisms for autophagy. What is autophagy? From the Greek roots “auto,“ or self, and “phagia,” or eating, the word literally means self-eating. In cell biology, autophagy describes the way that cells recycle unneeded […]
During the final month of 2015, Congress passed a $1.1 trillion federal spending bill that would keep the government fiscally solvent into September 2016. Along with large tax breaks, new cyber security programs and ending a ban on oil exports, new appropriations were made for the world’s largest research agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH). […]