Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896
November 17, 2025
November 17, 2025 | Published by the Students of Johns Hopkins since 1896

Science & Technology



Courtesy of Robert Johnston
The Johnston Lab employed organoids to establish a relationship between red/green cone development and retinoic acid.

Hopkins lab uncovers mechanism behind cone cell development

A recent paper published by a joint team of researchers from Hopkins and the University of Washington, Seattle used retinal cell organoids to establish that the human red and green cone cell development is regulated by retinoic acid. The paper, titled Retinoic acid signaling regulates spatiotemporal specification of human green and red cones, was published in PLOS Biology on Jan. 11, 2024.


NIH Image Gallery / CC BY-NC 2.0
In mice exposed to chronic stress, bacteria Lactobacillus in the gut microbiome reduces the differentiation of intestinal stem cells to intestinal epithelial cells with protective functions.

Science news in review: Jan. 28

A new semester has begun as we returned to a snowy campus. This week’s science news reveals exciting new insights that can help transition our mindset from vacation to school.


JD HANCOCK / CC BY 2.0 DEED
A recent paper presented a novel spinal stimulator more efficient than traditional methods, like the one shown above.

Hopkins team develops new spinal stimulator

In a giant stride toward restoring mobility to those grappling with lower limb paralysis, Hopkins scientists have unveiled promising research on a novel spinal stimulator that could potentially transform the lives of approximately the lives of 1.5 million Americans affected by paralysis due to spinal cord injuries.


NASA JOHNSON / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A former APL scientist, Koch shared her journey to the ISS.

Astronaut Christina Koch discusses career at APL

On Friday, Dec. 1, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) hosted a colloquium presentation featuring astronaut Christina Koch. The talk, titled “Human Spaceflight: A Mission to the International Space Station,” discussed Koch’s journey to becoming an astronaut and life in space.


ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE / CC BY-SA 2.0
Lee shared his view on defining biological and artificial intelligence and its implications for AI development and regulation. 

Defining intelligence: A talk with Daeyeol Lee

On Wednesday, Nov. 29, the student-led Artificial Intelligence Society at Johns Hopkins (HopAI) invited Daeyeol Lee, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Psychological Brain Sciences, to share his views on biological and artificial intelligence (AI). At the talk, Lee explored how intelligence manifests itself across biological boundaries and how the definition of intelligence can help developers and users gain a deeper understanding of AI.


LIZ WEST / CC BY 2.0
Yang discussed her work on MRI contrast agents used to detect cancers in a Nov. 29 lecture.

Jenny Yang improves methods to detect cancer progression

On Wednesday, Nov. 29, the In-vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center (ICMIC) hosted a seminar featuring Regents' Professor of Chemistry at Georgia State University Jenny Yang. The talk, titled “Noninvasive Precision Imaging of Microenvironment of Cancer and Metastasis,” discussed biochemical approaches to improving magnetic resonance imaging of cancers.


DEFENSE VISUAL INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION SERVICE / PUBLIC DOMAIN
Parallel Learning seeks to transform special education with virtual classroom spaces.

Diana Heldfond offers techniques to improve special education

While many first graders eagerly jump into reading, this was not the case for Parallel Learning CEO and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Education Entrepreneur Diana Heldfond, who spoke in a Nov. 30 installment of the Leading Change: Perspectives from Outside of Medicine talk series titled "Neurodiversity and Leadership." 




WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / CC BY 2.0
The viral strain of new cases in the recent monkeypox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is sexually transmissible. 

Science news in review: Dec. 3

As we are approaching finals season, let’s take some time to acknowledge the hard work of scientists around the world and learn from their commitment to their work. This week’s science news covers new insights into the monkeypox virus in Congo, robots made of human cells, archaeological preservation in Ukraine and an AI-robot that can predict and synthesize new materials.


COURTESY OF YUCHEN YANG
Yang discusses the exploitation of AI safety systems in a conversation with The News-Letter.

SneakyPrompt: Revealing the vulnerabilities of text-to-image AI

In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence (AI), understanding and improving AI security is increasingly crucial. Yuchen Yang, a third-year doctoral student advised by Yinzhi Cao, employed an automated attack framework to reveal the vulnerabilities in text-to-image generative models such as DALL·E 3 and Stable Diffusion. The paper, “SneakyPrompt: Evaluating Robustness of Text-to-image Generative Models' Safety Filters,” formerly titled “SneakyPrompt: Jailbreaking Text-to-image Generative Models,“ will be presented at the 45th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Symposium on Security and Privacy.


KATHERINE E. WARREN / CC BY 3.0
MRI images of a brain affected by diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, an aggressive pediatric brain cancer and a focus of Craig-Schwartz’s research as an undergraduate at Hopkins.

Everything downstream: Reflections on two years of cancer research

Craig-Schwartz works in a pediatric oncology lab under Dr. Michael Koldobskiy, whose research focuses on diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), an aggressive and fatal form of brain cancer that occurs almost exclusively in children. The lab is currently working on developing new drugs to combat the tumor as well as studying the epigenetic mechanisms of how the development of the tumor is regulated. 


RAWPIXEL.COM / CC0 1.0
Peng Jiang from the Cancer Data Science Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute shared three computational models that can advance studies in cancer research. 

Peng Jiang shares the role of computational models in studying cancer

On Tuesday, Nov. 7, Peng Jiang, a Stadtman investigator for the Cancer Data Science Laboratory, held a talk discussing the role of big data approaches in studying intercellular signaling — specifically, how cancers evade immune system function in humans. The talk was titled “Big Data Approaches to Study Intercellular Signaling During Tumor Immune Evasion” and was hosted by the Institute for Computational Medicine and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Hopkins. 


PXHERE / PUBLIC DOMAIN
In this week's news, Chinese researchers announced the birth of the first chimeric monkeys created with stem cells.

Science news in review: Nov. 13

With Thanksgiving approaching, we can all take a moment to be grateful for the beauty of scientific discovery. This week has brought images from the Euclid Space Telescope, biological chimeras and yet another superconductivity controversy.


DEFENSE VISUAL INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION SERVICE / PUBLIC DOMAIN
Hopkins alum Tom Polen discussed the state of the medical device industry in a Carey Business School Forum.

Tom Polen discusses state of health care industry in public forum

On Tuesday, Nov. 7, the Johns Hopkins Health Policy Forum invited Chairman, CEO and President of Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) Tom Polen to share his insights into the current state of global health care and BD’s role in it. Polen was joined by Dean of Carey Business School Alex Triantis.


COURTESY OF AIMON RAHMAN
Rahman discusses the importance of applying deep learning neural networks to the medical industry in a conversation with Annie Huang.

Revolutionizing medicine: Aimon Rahman on enhancing health care with deep learning

Aimon Rahman, a third-year doctoral student in the Vision & Image Understanding (VIU) Lab in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, is making significant contributions to the field of medical artificial intelligence (AI). In her Hopkins Engineering Applications and Research Tutorials (HEART) course titled "Introduction to Deep Learning for Medical Imaging," Rahman introduces students to the practical applications of computer vision in medical image analysis.


COURTESY OF DEBOJYOTI BISWAS
A team of Hopkins researchers discovered mode-switching while studying weakly electric glass knifefish.

Hopkins lab proposes novel solution to the explore/exploit trade-off

In everyday life, we all make choices based on the information available to us. These decisions range from life-changing acts to the minutiae of existence. The question we answer, consciously or not, is whether or not we have enough data on which to act, or if we need to gain more information before doing so. This question is called the explore/exploit trade-off.


NIAID / CC BY 2.0
A new drug can treat patients with the antimicrobial-resistant strain of N. gonorrhoeae, a bacteria that causes the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea. 

Science news in review: Nov. 5

As we enter the November stretch of the semester, researchers around the world are also working hard to advance efforts that can be beneficial to human health. This week’s science news highlights endeavors to understand various health challenges and identify treatments to combat them. 


Chemical engineer Jean Tom offers guidance for a successful career

On Friday, Oct. 27, the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering hosted a seminar featuring Executive Director of Development Engineering and Chemistry Process Development at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) Jean Tom, an accomplished chemical engineer with a distinguished career in the pharmaceutical industry. The seminar provided students with insights into entering the workforce and addressing challenges in their careers.


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