Collaboration is the bedrock of so many parts of life at Johns Hopkins. Working with world-class experts on both research and clinical care is one of the things that I find constantly energizing at our institution.
This edition of Inside Tract provides a few rich examples of the collaborative spirit that drives excellence in science, medicine and patient care at Johns Hopkins.
Ahmet Gurakar, for example, collaborates with transplant surgeons to give patients with end-stage liver disease another chance at life. As the opioid and heroin epidemic claims more and more lives in the US, some of those overdose victims carry the hepatitis C virus, but have otherwise healthy organs.
Gurakar discusses the transplantation of livers from donors who were positive for the hepatitis-C virus into recipients who do not have the disease.
When medical science engineers therapeutic genes to combat monogenetic diseases like hemophilia and cystic fibrosis, we’ve won only half the battle. The next challenge is the delivery of those genes to patients’ systems so that they can replicate and replace faulty genes.
Florin Selaru and Vivek Kumbhari are collaborating on ways to deliver gene therapy endoscopically via the bile ducts. This promising new delivery method has enormous potential for the entire field of customized medicine.
Finally, we have two stories of innovation from colleagues at the forefront of therapeutic endoscopy.
Mouen Khashab and his peers are training on the first FDA-approved flexible robotic endoscope, which is expected at Johns Hopkins in early 2019. For months, the team has worked to learn to use the new robotic scope which, Khashab says, will be an important weapon in Johns Hopkins’ fight against colon cancer.
“My job is to dissect the lesion a tiny bit at a time, never going outside the GI tract,” says Ngamruengphong. “When we have difficult cases, we work with our colleagues to come up with what’s best for the patient. At Hopkins, our surgeons and our pathologists and oncologists – we all work together.”