On the floor where I work in the preclinical teaching building at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, there are a variety of postdoctoral fellows, students, technicians and faculty from all over the world. We have postdoctoral fellows from China, Portugal and Israel, and graduate students from Germany, Canada and Taiwan. You can always(...)
in the lab
The Science of Snoring
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchThere are few disciplines in science and medicine as broadly important, or as inherently relatable, as the study of sleep. During the annual Johns Hopkins Sleep and Circadian Research Day, a disparate group of clinicians, epidemiologists, geneticists and basic researchers gather to share posters and present new findings at the vanguard of sleep research on(...)
Titan Titin: When Mutations in the Largest Known Protein Affect the Heart
Posted by | Events and Happenings“We know from our clinical experience in the practice of medicine that in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, the individual and his background of heredity are just as important, if not more so, as the disease itself.” — Paul Dudley White (1886–1973), Chief Consultant, National Heart Institute For the second installment of the Heart, Lung and(...)
Wrapping Axons – an Ongoing Mission Throughout Your Lifespan
Posted by | Recently PublishedYou are driving on a road and see a pedestrian approaching the crosswalk. You brake to give way. Even such a simple action as this requires multiple levels of processing in our brains — recognizing the shapes and curves that resemble a human being, observing the speed at which they move, pressing the brake with(...)
Why Winners Keep Winning
Posted by | Perspectives in ResearchYou are on a roll. In the morning, you delivered a compelling business proposal. You were the center of attention at lunch and your colleagues loved your witty remarks. In the afternoon meeting, you stood your ground and brilliantly defended your case with irrefutable arguments. When it’s your day, you feel invincible. What gives you(...)
Developing a Laboratory Model for Inclusion Body Myositis
Posted by | Did You See This?If you were diagnosed with a disease, there are two questions you would immediately want answered: 1. How can we treat it? 2. What caused the disease? Those two questions are the foundation of my Ph.D. thesis. I study a muscle disease called inclusion body myositis (IBM), which is sometimes referred to as the “Alzheimer’s(...)
Does My Sense of Smell Make Me Look Fat?
Posted by | Recently PublishedLong before we see or taste food, what strikes us most is its aroma wafting through the air. While eating, what we perceive as taste is not only due to the sensation on our taste buds, but is also mediated by our sense of smell. Although we can detect only five primary tastes, we are(...)
The Mystery Behind the Jargon
Posted by | A Day in the LifeScience is a complex language. It has its own vocabulary and corresponding slang, both of which take time to learn and understand. In the lab we speak this language as fluidly and comfortably as if we were raised with it as our native tongue. For some students with parents who work in science, this may(...)
Would You Eat Lab-Made Meat?
Posted by | Did You See This?As a researcher in a muscle biology and regeneration lab, it’s disturbing to picture myself eating the tiny pieces of muscle I grow in petri dishes. However, the idea of growing muscle (meat) from avian (chicken) or bovine (cow) stem cells in the laboratory for human consumption is a reality today. Some people consider it(...)