Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
November 18, 2025 November 18, 2025 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

Science & Technology

COURTESY OF ELIZABETH JAFFEE & DANIEL ZABRANSKY Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee and Dr. Daniel Zabransky, Hopkins researchers investigating the development of pancreatic cancer, underscore the importance of federal funding to their work. 

How federal funding is fueling the battle against pancreatic cancer at Hopkins

By SHREYA TIWARI | April 23, 2025

Researchers at Hopkins have made strides in pancreatic cancer research, both in understanding age-related differences in prognosis and working on the development of a vaccine for patients at high risk of developing the disease. Fueled by personal commitment to the work and vital support from federal funding, scientists like Dr. Daniel Zabransky and Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee are working to unravel the biology of pancreatic cancer and reshape its future.

JENS MAUS / PUBLIC DOMAIN Positron emission tomography scans are reliable for detection of pathology for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. 

Science news in review: April 22

By KATIE TRUONG | April 22, 2025

We’re at the home stretch of the academic year! Let’s end the year strong by reviewing some breaking discoveries this week, including the creation of a never-seen-before color, the detection of biosignatures on a distant planet and advances in research for Parkinson's disease. 

COTTONBRO / CC BY-NC 4.0 Cho discusses her research experience at Center for OCD, Anxiety, and Related Disorders for Children (COACH) and further reflections about her journey in clinical psychology. 

A longitudinal case study on an undergraduate researcher

By AIMEE CHO | April 20, 2025

I like the color purple. The number 22, the season of autumn and definitely cats over dogs. Everytime I try to explain what fuels my affections, I don’t have much to say: I am just drawn to them for no good reason that I can pinpoint.

FLETCHER6 / CC BY-SA 3.0 Senior Maya Mann shares her research collecting, analyzing and visualizing data on food and grocery store accessibility in major cities, including Baltimore. 

From New York City to Baltimore: Research in accessible urban planning

By BUSE KOLDAS | April 18, 2025

Senior Maya Mann’s interest in accessible city planning and appreciation for public transportation stems from growing up in New York City. In an interview with The News-Letter, Mann described her research in urban planning as an aspiring systems engineer, which she hopes will inspire city policy makers to make more informed decisions.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY-SA 3.0 Ringstad delivered a talk titled “Modulation of Behavior by Host-Microbe Interactions” to the Department of Biology.

How microbes influence worm neurobiology (and maybe ours, too)

By WEILI LU | April 15, 2025

On Thursday April 1, the Department of Biology hosted Niels Ringstad, professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Ringstad delivered a talk titled “Modulation of Behavior by Host-Microbe Interactions” for the department’s seminar series, highlighting recent findings from his lab about the powerful effects of microbes on the behavior of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans).

COURTESY OF VINCENT COLÓN Orbit members Khrapko (far left), Green (second to the left), Pang (second to the right) and El-Habr (far right) gathered around a visitor who is wearing one of Orbit’s headsets. 

How former Hopkins student Colton El-Habr and Orbit make magic with vestibular stimulators

By GRACE OH | April 9, 2025

Colton El-Habr was a Whiting School of Engineering (WSE) student for a little over a year before dropping out in 2023 to commit full-time to Orbit Technologies (Orbit). Orbit is the neurotechnology startup El-Habr co-founded with Steven Pang, a former student at Georgetown University. In an interview with The News-Letter, El-Habr discussed his journey with the startup along with the details of Orbit’s technology. 

COURTESY OF BRENDON DAVIS  The Science Policy and Diplomacy Group at Hopkins visited the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on a White House visit in 2024 to discuss policy initiatives with the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Science Feature: Hopkins Science Policy and Diplomacy Group

By KATIE TRUONG | March 13, 2025

In the wake of shifting political attitudes towards science, policymaking and advocacy have become critical in guiding the future of science. The Science Policy and Diplomacy Group at Hopkins is an entirely graduate-student-run group aiming to ensure that science and policy remain connected through advocacy, awareness and action. 

COURTESY OF LANA SWINDLE Protestors gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to support funding for scientific research in light of recent cuts by the Trump administration.

Participants at Stand Up for Science Rally protest science research funding cuts in D.C.

By MYRA SAEED and LANA SWINDLE | March 12, 2025

On Friday, March 7, 2025, Stand Up for Science, a volunteer-based operation designed to protest perceived threats to scientific research and funding, gathered outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The demonstration, which drew approximately 2,000 participants — including Hopkins students, lab groups and over 30 speakers from academia, hospitals and government — highlighted concerns over frozen research grants, the dismissal of government scientists and rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

MIKE GIFFORD / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Hopkins faculty and employees share how the termination of many USAID programs has impacted their work. 

Hopkins programs forced to close as Trump administration ends USAID grants

By ALEX PAN and SHREYA TIWARI | March 12, 2025

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday, March 10, that the Trump administration had completed its six-week review of programs within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and will shutter 83% of the programs. The rest of the programs will be folded into the U.S. Department of State. The News-Letter spoke with several faculty and staff members at the School of Public Health whose work has been affected by the termination of USAID grants or reductions in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY / PUBLIC DOMAIN EpiScalp uses brain network analysis to diagnose epilepsy with heightened accuracy. 

EpiScalp: Breakthrough innovation in epilepsy diagnosis

By SHREYA TIWARI | March 11, 2025

Epilepsy diagnosis is an imperfect science. Approximately 30% of patients are misdiagnosed after their first visit. Consequences of these misdiagnoses can be severe: Untreated epilepsy increases seizure frequency and can be fatal, but at the same time, false positive results are equally dangerous. Patients who receive false diagnoses of epilepsy can face unnecessary discomfort and receive unnecessary treatments with significant side effects. 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / PUBLIC DOMAIN Hopkins researchers recently developed a “reduced intensity haploidentical” bone marrow transplantation method to cure sickle cell disease.

Science news in review: March 10

By ALEX PAN | March 10, 2025

With spring break quickly approaching, let’s take a look at some breaking scientific discoveries and news, from a new sickle cell disease cure to continued federal funding cuts.

NIAID / CC BY SA 2.0  Dr. Yuka Manabe and her team developed a tool to develop rapid diagnostic tests for many STDs, including HIV.  

Self-diagnostic tests for STDs: Diagnostic medicine in a post-COVID world

By GODSON NKANGINIEME | March 3, 2025

Despite the hardship the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted on many globally, it sparked immense progress in rapid testing for infectious disease: One could take a test quickly at home to determine whether they were infected, accelerating disease detection, treatment and recovery. Such innovation was partially championed by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Innovative Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases (JHCIDID). 

COURTESY OF ZONGWEI ZHOU  AbdomenAtlas is an extensive dataset of 3D reconstructed and annotated abdominal CT scans that can be used to train AI technology on identifying cancer. 

AbdomenAtlas: an AI-based approach for early cancer diagnosis

By ALEX PAN | February 19, 2025

A recent paper published by Johns Hopkins researchers in the Department of Computer Science details the development and use of AbdomenAtlas: an annotated public dataset containing abdominal CT scans from over tens of thousands of patients around the world. This new extensive dataset serves as the training ground for early-detection artificial intelligence programs, which have the potential to greatly improve the efficiency of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

NATIONAL HUMAN GENOME RESEARCH INSTITUTE / PDM 1.0 Dang discusses the role and dynamics of the human microbiome. 

Trust your gut: The ins and outs of your gut microbiome

By SIMRAN DANG | February 18, 2025

Imagine a bustling metropolis on a weekday morning: vehicles honking, people rushing to work, street vendors setting up shop and delivery trucks weaving through the chaos. Despite the apparent asynchrony, there is order to this chaos. If we shrink this scene down to the microscopic level, we zoom into the gut microbiome, a dynamic and complex ecosystem teeming with trillions of microorganisms checking their own to-do lists to keep us alive.

COURTESY OF KATIE TRUONG Derek Cummings discussed his work with the Infectious Disease Dynamics group (IDD) at the School of Public Health.

Derek Cummings models transient disease dynamics in dengue

By KATIE TRUONG | February 18, 2025

On Tuesday, Feb. 4, visiting professor Derek A.T. Cummings at the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health gave a talk entitled “Challenges in Infectious Disease Dynamics: highlighting work at Johns Hopkins Infectious Disease Dynamics” for the Institute for Computational Medicine. 

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY SA 3.0 This image shows the fungal dispersion from an infected fly during what Elya calls the “cycle of death.”

Death at sunset: How fungi create zombie flies

By ARANTZA GARCIA | February 18, 2025

Carolyn Elya gave a talk titled, "The Last of (Fung)us: Mechanisms of Fruit Fly Behavioral Manipulation by the Killer Fungus Entomophthora muscae" on Feb. 13 as part of the Department of Biology Seminar Series. Elya, an an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, leads a lab focused on elucidating how parasites manipulate the behavior of their hosts.

RAYHANA ALHOUR / PUBLIC DOMAIN Recently, a human kidney disease patient received a genetically edited pig kidney at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Science news in review: Feb 17

By GRACE OH | February 17, 2025

As we continue to push through the spring semester, take a break and catch up with some of the latest scientific discoveries, including the transplant of a pig organ into a human and a new tool for pancreatic cancer detection. 

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