As the semester starts to pick up, take a minute and read the latest scientific discoveries that have occurred within the past couple of weeks.
Toby Mao is a first-year MD candidate at Stanford and a Fulbright recipient passionate about interdisciplinary approaches to medicine, integrating medical engineering, technology and preventative healthcare. In an interview with The News-Letter, Toby reflected on how his background and passion for global health inspired him to pursue the Fulbright Program, which has shaped his commitment to using artificial intelligence for healthcare innovation.
At Hopkins, the Charm City STEM League (CCSL) is run by the Center for Educational Outreach (CEO) to blend STEM education with community engagement. It aims to address systemic inequities by preparing Baltimore students for success at Science Olympiad, one of the nation’s most challenging STEM competitions.
Shea Littlepage is a public health researcher and Fulbright-Fogarty Public Health Fellowship recipient. She is dedicated to advancing global health through qualitative research and providing valuable insights to public health agencies. In an interview with The News-Letter, Shea discussed how her experiences at Hopkins motivated her to study health decision-making among Ethiopian experts during the COVID-19 crisis.
The Department of Biology’s Fall 2025 Seminar Series opened with a packed house on Thursday, Sept. 11 as Simon Alberti, a professor in the Department of Cellular Biochemistry at the Technical University of Dresden, delivered a talk titled “Biomolecular condensates: molecular insights and implications for disease intervention.”
“When I first did the hearing experiment on mice, it was so straightforward — I could see the connection right away between what we were testing and the bigger picture of hearing loss,” Kate Xie shared in an interview with The News-Letter.
Stephen Fried is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry working on misfolded proteins, which are prevalent in many degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and cystic fibrosis. He seeks to understand how proteins misfold to cause these pathologies and eventually develop treatments and cures for them.
Erin Sutton, flight dynamics model validation lead for NASA’s Dragonfly mission, visited to the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics on Sept. 10 to share her work on the Dragonfly, a car-sized rotorcraft whose goal is to fly through the methane-rich atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
How do brains turn environmental inputs into motor outputs? This question, known as the “black box” problem, has left neuroscientists scratching their heads for decades. On Sept. 5, Amanda Ray, a graduate student in the Gordus Lab at Hopkins, presented her dissertation defense, titled “Understanding How Sensory and Motor Information are Processed in a Neuron of Caenorhabditis elegans.”
The School of Public Health’s Wolman seminar series hosted Marta Hatzell, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Hatzell gave a talk titled “Reactive Carbon Capture and Conversion: Pathways to Carbon-Neutral Fuels and Chemicals,” which highlighted the importance of carbon dioxide capture and its direct conversion into valuable materials.
Laboratory workshops, collaborative and independent projects, community events and personal fulfillment — Agara Bio brings it all together. The club, founded in 2018, is a student-run biology club that provides a lab space for students to delve into biology outside of traditional labs. Today, it has grown into a hub for laboratory workshops, independent projects and collaborative events that bring hands-on research opportunities to students across disciplines.
Welcome back to another academic year! Let’s kick things off with the latest updates on science and technology, which include a closer look at how carbon monoxide slips off hemoglobin, a promising method for earlier ALS detection and Amazon joining the AI agent race.
In an interview with The News-Letter, Kim described his journey in developing a haptics communication device for the visually impaired and in the patent application process associated with Hopkins.
This month of May is ALS Awareness Month, and marks an opportune time to spotlight the disease and the importance of continued progress at Hopkins in research and clinical care for ALS patients.
Enoch Toh is a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Computer Science (CS). He is a recipient of the 2025 Barry Goldwater Scholarship. In an interview with The News-Letter, Toh described his research experience and future plans.
Edmund Sumpena is a junior completing a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and Neuroscience. He is a recipient of the 2025 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. In an interview with The News-Letter, Sumpena described his research experience and future plans.
Lance Xu is a junior completing a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and currently conducting cancer research. He is a recipient of the 2025 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. In an interview with The News-Letter, Xu described his research experience and future career plans.
Gavin Wang is a junior completing a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, currently researching topics related to astronomy and astrophysics, specifically extrasolar planets. He is a recipient of the 2025 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. In an interview with The News-Letter, Wang described his research experience and future plans.
On Thursday April 17, Bin Wu, associate professor in the department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at the School of Medicine, visited Homewood Campus to deliver a talk titled “Imaging translation of single mRNAs in live cells” as part of the Department of Biology’s Seminar Series. Wu discussed his lab’s recent work using single-molecule imaging techniques to visualize the mechanisms of messenger RNA (mRNA) translation in real time.
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.
