Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
October 17, 2026 October 17, 2026 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

Science & Technology

COURTESY OF JUSTIN OPFERMANN The PeriPath allows for safer pediatric cardiac procedures bypassing the need for open-heart surgeries.

PhD student wins grant for device that could make pediatric cardiac surgeries safer

By AKUL KESARWANI | November 10, 2022

PeriCor, co-founded by Hopkins Mechanical Engineering PhD student Justin Opfermann, won the Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health for PeriPath, a novel device that obviates the need for open cardiac procedures in children. This grant will provide around $1.8 million to help the development of the device in order to make it commercially available.

PHILLIP JEFFREY / CC BY-SA 2.0 Levels of 'free range' DNA in the blood can be possible predictors of early dementia. 

Researchers find indicator of early dementia in blood

By VICKY ZHU | November 5, 2022

Dr. Peter Abadir and Dr. Lolita Nidadavolu from the School of Medicine, along with other researchers, recently identified circulating cell-free genomic DNA (ccf-gDNA) as one of the factors that can predict the effects of aging in elderly populations. 

K-STATE RESEARCH AND EXTENSION / CC-BY-2.0 The Opioid Industry Documents Archive aims to document and preserve evidence of the corporate behavior leading to the opioid epidemic.

Hopkins and UCSF archive shines light on the opioid crisis

By NATANIA KURIEN | November 4, 2022

The Opioid Industry Documents Archive (OIDA) preserves and publicizes over 1.5 million documents related to the stakeholders of the opioid epidemic. The archive — a joint effort by Hopkins and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) — serves as a consolidation of knowledge containing millions of pages of documents released during litigation between 2011-2022 against manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacies involved in opioid distribution.

COURTESY OF PROTOCOL SNOW /  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Hopkins students often have to visit the Pre-Professional Advising Office at some point in their college career if they intend to apply to medical school.

Project MD 2027: Pre-Health Advising at Hopkins

By ELLIE ROSE MATTOON | November 2, 2022

Pranav Samineni, a recent graduate currently working in a stroke lab at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, knew coming into Hopkins that he wanted to be a doctor. After growing up in a multigenerational household and witnessing the impact of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia on his family members and their caregivers, Samineni gained the impression that physical health was one of the biggest things to be thankful for in life. 

BALTIMORE HERITAGE / CC BY 1.0 A team at the School of Medicine has found that changes in extracellular vesicles can be used to monitor the development of postpartum depression.

Study aims to improve methods of predicting risk of postpartum depression

By AKUL KESARWANI | October 28, 2022

A team of researchers at the School of Medicine led by Sarven Sabunciyan, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, discovered that changes in mRNA communication through extracellular vesicles are connected to postpartum depression. The team’s findings were published in Molecular Psychiatry, which further details their impact on the field.

COURTESY OF JERNEJ FURMAN / CC BY 2.0 Persistent respiratory conditions, including coughing, fatigue, dyspnea and chest pain, constitute a large component of post-COVID symptoms.

A hacking cough or new personality trait: respiratory impacts of long COVID

By DEANNA RAHMAN | October 27, 2022

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, respiratory symptoms such as fatigue, dyspnea, chest pain and cough are some of the most common post-COVID symptoms among both hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients. As such, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been working to improve its identification of symptoms and diagnoses experienced by patients with persistent respiratory conditions post-COVID. 

COURTESY OF NASA / PUBLIC DOMAIN Satellite images from NASA show that cities like Qambar are heavily inundated.

The role of climate change in Pakistan's floods

By TANVI NARVEKAR | October 27, 2022

Starting in mid-June of this year, the increased intensity of monsoon rains have led to flooding conditions over certain parts of Pakistan. A monsoon can refer to the rainy season created by a change in wind patterns or a dry season. However, in Asian regions, monsoons mainly refer to the rainy season. But how is climate change connected to these floods?

COURTESY OF ZACHARY BAHAR. Amber Jacobs discusses a treatment involving cress, mustard and rocket found in Greek, Roman and Egyptian sources at the Prescription to Prediction conference.

Ancient sciences given new focus on Hopkins campus

By ZACHARY BAHAR | October 10, 2022

Prescription to Prediction: The Ancient Sciences in Cross-Cultural Perspective conference brought Egyptologists, Classicists, ancient Near Eastern scholars and science historians from around the world to Scott-Bates Commons on Oct. 6–7 to discuss intercultural exchange of medical and scientific knowledge in the ancient world.

NF UTVOL / CC BY-SA 4.0 The Stoop Storytelling Series produced "Hidden in Plain Sight" in collaboration with the Bloomberg School of Public Health to highlight the stories of public health professionals in Baltimore.

The Stoop Storytelling Series showcases public health narratives

By AKUL KESARWANI | October 4, 2022

The Stoop Storytelling Series and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health collaborated to bring the “Hidden in Plain Sight” event to the Enoch Pratt Central Library on Sept. 22. The event featured a live recording of an episode of the Stoop Storytelling Series podcast, published on Oct. 3, where a panel of speakers told their stories about the impact of public health on their lives.

COURTESY OF VIGGY VANCHINATHAN People gathered on Sept. 26 to celebrate the successful completion of the DART mission.

Mission failed successfully: DART impacts asteroid's trajectory

By VIGGY VANCHINATHAN | October 3, 2022

Here’s an interview question for you: how would you save humanity if an asteroid was hurtling through space towards our planet? Hopkins students and professors gathered Monday, Sept. 26 on Keyser Quad to view a live broadcast of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s (APL) Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), their answer to the question. 

CASSANDRA CASARES / CC BY-SA 4.0 Since 2020, many medical school interviews have become virtual and are planning to stay that way for the foreseeable future. 

Project MD 2027: do I have to wear pants to my Zoom interview?

By ELLIE ROSE MATTOON | September 30, 2022

Smrithi Upadhyayula, a senior at the University of Texas at Dallas, was already resigned to the fact that her email inbox would stay packed for the rest of her medical school application cycle. Every day, there seemed to be updates from one school or another about transcripts that needed to be updated or rec letters that needed to be resubmitted. 

COURTESY OF DELPHINE TAN Jenlu Pagnotta, Delphine Tan and Hannah Yamagata pose at Design Day.

Hopkins team reaches finals of Collegiate Inventors Competition

By NATANIA KURIEN | September 29, 2022

Three Hopkins undergraduates have been named finalists in the Collegiate Inventors Competition for developing “The Dynamic Brace”, a brace for children born with clubfoot.  The team, which includes Hopkins alum Jenlu Pagnotta, senior Delphine Tan and senior Hannah Yamagata, began their work as a class project in their Multidisciplinary Engineering class in fall of 2022. 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING, NIH / CC BY-NC 2.0 In Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases, damaging protein clumps can cause chronic brain inflammation, muscle tremors, slowness of movement and many other severe symptoms.

Thinking small: a new approach to treating neurodegenerative diseases

By VIGGY VANCHINATHAN | September 22, 2022

Our brains are robust and highly efficient, tasked with managing our memories, emotions and identity. But what happens when this organ breaks down?  Xiaobo Mao’s team at the School of Medicine, which specializes in answering this question, published a paper in Nature Communications that details a potential treatment for neurodegenerative diseases like Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease. The team’s findings focus on using nanobodies to disarm harmful protein clumps. 

COURTESY OF MATHIEU ET AL/ CC BY 4.0 Over the course of the past summer, monkeypox cases globally have increased substantially. 

Hopkins hosts global monkeypox briefing

By KAIYUAN DU | September 20, 2022

On Sept. 12, Dr. Matthew M. Hamill, assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the School of Medicine and clinical chief for Sexually Transmitted Infections at Baltimore City Health Department, provided an update to the monkeypox outbreak on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health.

COURTESY OF JAY HUANG / CC BY 2.0 The Inflation Reduction Act promises more funding towards green energy. 

The Inflation Reduction Act and its investment for climate change action

By TANVI NARVEKAR | September 20, 2022

The political side of climate change has been slightly quiet until recently. However while Trump was president, we did see movement — unfortunately in the backwards direction. In one of my previous articles, I wrote about how Trump took the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. This step was not exactly surprising, but it did remove the commitment of the U.S. to reduce its greenhouse gas production. 

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