Recent news from The Johns Hopkins University
This section contains regularly updated highlights of the news from around The Johns Hopkins
University. Links to the complete news reports from the nine schools,
the Applied Physics Laboratory and other centers and institutes are to
the left, as are links to help news media contact the Johns Hopkins
communications offices.
In a microscopic feat that resembled a high-wire circus act, Johns Hopkins researchers have coaxed DNA nanotubes to assemble themselves into bridge-like structures arched between two molecular landmarks on the surface of a lab dish. The team captured examples of this unusual nanoscale performance on video.
January 5, 2017 Tags: biomolecular engineering, DNA nanotubes, microscopic video, molecular bridges, nanotechnology
| Category: biology, Chemistry, Engineering, Natural Sciences, Technology
Cancer cells need oxygen to survive, as do most other life forms, but scientists had never tracked their search for oxygen in their early growth stages until now — a step toward deeper understanding of one way cancer spreads that could help treat the disease.
August 1, 2016 Tags: biomolecular engineering, cancer, metastasis, sarcoma, tumor
| Category: biology, Natural Sciences, Uncategorized
Five Johns Hopkins graduate students, recently named to the 2016 class of Siebel Scholars, are each pursuing bioengineering projects that could lead to important new diagnostic and treatment advances in healthcare. The merit-based Siebel program has recognized their research skills, academic achievements and leadership qualities by providing $35,000 to each of the five PhD candidates for use in his or her final year of graduate studies.
December 4, 2015 Tags: bioengineering, biomedical engineering, biomolecular engineering, doctoral student awards, Siebel Scholar
| Category: Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Student-Related News, Technology
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a new mechanism that explains how cancer cells spread through extremely narrow three-dimensional spaces in the body by using a propulsion system based on water and charged particles. The finding, reported in the April 24 issue of the journal Cell, uncovers a novel way that the deadly cells use to migrate through a cancer patient’s body. The discovery may lead to new treatments that help keep the disease in check.
April 30, 2014 Tags: biomolecular engineering, cancer cells, cancer research, celll migration, metastasis, osmotic engine model
| Category: Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Technology
Because of results seen in flat lab dishes, biologists have believed that cancers cells move through the body in a slow, aimless fashion, resembling an intoxicated person who cannot walk three steps in a straight line. This pattern, called a random walk, may hold true for cells traveling across two-dimensional lab containers, but Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that for cells moving through three-dimensional spaces within the body, the “drunken” model doesn’t hold true.
March 11, 2014 Tags: biomolecular engineering, cancer cells, cancer migration, cell movement, metastasis, random walk
| Category: Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Technology
A Johns Hopkins engineer who is designing cancer-fighting nano-size structures that could assemble themselves and deliver treatment to diseased tissue has received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation. Honggang Cui, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins, has been given this honor, which is accompanied by nearly $500,000 that will be disbursed over five years.
February 18, 2013 Tags: biomedial engineering, biomolecular engineering, cancer treatment, drug delivery, nanostructures, NSF CAREER Award
| Category: Engineering, Homewood Campus News, Medicine and Nursing, Technology
In life, we sort soiled laundry from clean; ripe fruit from rotten. Two Johns Hopkins engineers say they have found an easy way to use gravity or simple forces to similarly sort microscopic particles and bits of biological matter—including circulating tumor cells.
June 12, 2012 Tags: Bernate, biomolecular engineering, Drazer, lab-on-chip, micrifluidic device, tumor cells
| Category: Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Natural Sciences, Student-Related News, Technology
Johns Hopkins researchers have devised a protein “switch” that instructs cancer cells to produce their own anti-cancer medication. In lab tests, the researchers showed that these switches, working from inside the cells, can activate a powerful cell-killing drug when the device detects a marker linked to cancer. The goal, the scientists said, is to deploy a new type of weapon that causes cancer cells to self-destruct while sparing healthy tissue.
September 23, 2011 Tags: biomolecular engineering, biotechnology, cancer research, cancer treatment, chemotherapy
| Category: Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Technology
A Johns Hopkins undergraduate team that assembled fragments of DNA in a way that allows cells to respond to electrical “messages” has received recognition in an international contest in the emerging field of synthetic biology. The students competed this month in the latest International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, also known as iGEM 2010.
November 30, 2010 Tags: biomedical engineering, biomolecular engineering, biophysics, iGEM 2010, molecular biology, synthetic biology
| Category: Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Natural Sciences, Student-Related News, Technology
Showing movies in 3-D has produced a box-office bonanza in recent months. Could viewing cell behavior in three dimensions lead to important advances in cancer research? A new study led by Johns Hopkins University engineers indicates it may happen. Looking at cells in 3-D, the team members concluded, yields more accurate information that could help develop drugs to prevent cancer’s spread.
June 21, 2010 Tags: biomolecular engineering, cancer cells, cell culture, Johns Hopkins University, metastasis
| Category: Engineering, Homewood Campus News, Medicine and Nursing, Natural Sciences, Student-Related News, Technology
