Work in the Nicole Shilkofski Lab aims to improve patient safety in critical care settings, with a focus on resuscitation scenarios. Our research is conducted as part of the research group of the Johns Hopkins Medical Simulation Center. We investigate the communication and functionality of teams during medical crisis situations. As part of those efforts, we are designing a web-based curriculum to teach pediatric resuscitation through mannequin simulation and computer-based simulation techniques.

The Mathioudakis lab is focused on developing and evaluating clinical decision support systems, technology, and mHealth for diabetes prevention and management. Our lab leverages large electronic medical record databases and uses machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to identify patterns in clinical care associated with optimal clinical outcomes. We are interested in understanding the role that advanced diabetes technologies can play in improving health outcomes for patients with diabetes. Our lab has published extensively on outcomes related to diabetes prevention and diabetes management and outcomes. Based on data from our long-term (over 10 year) clinic-based prospective cohort study from the Johns Hopkins Multidisciplinary Diabetic Foot and Wound Clinic, we have published extensively on clinical predictors and outcomes of patients with diabetic foot ulcers, focusing specifically on the role that glycemic control plays in patients with this complication. Healthcare disparities exist throughout medicine, but are particularly prominent in diabetes; our lab has evaluated healthcare inequities in diabetes outcomes and is developing and evaluating strategies to overcome them. In addition to identify optimal management approach to diabetes and its complications, our lab is interested in development and evaluation of innovative technology approaches to diabetes prevention.

The Natasha Chida Lab investigates methods for using education and curriculum development to improve patient outcomes worldwide, primarily by optimizing education of physicians-in-training. Most recently, our team has worked to develop and evaluate an assessment tool for evaluating internal medicine residents’ understanding of tuberculosis diagnostics. Previous research includes a retrospective cohort study on the high proportion of extrapulmonary TB in a low-prevalence setting as well as an analysis of ways to define clinical excellence in adult infectious disease practice.

The Natalie West Lab collaborates with Noah Lechtzin’s lab to study cystic fibrosis, with a particular focus on new resistant bacteria and their effect on the lung function of people with cystic fibrosis.

We investigate the brain networks and neurotransmitters involved in symptoms of movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, and the mechanisms by which modulating these networks through electrical stimulation affects these symptoms. We are particularly interested in the mechanisms through which neuromodulation therapies like deep brain stimulation affect non-motor brain functions, such as cognitive function and mood. We use imaging of specific neurotransmitters, such as acetylcholine and dopamine, to understand the changes in brain chemistry associated with the clinical effects of deep brain stimulation and to predict which patients are likely to have changes in non-motor symptoms following DBS. Through collaborations with our neurosurgery colleagues, we explore brain function by making recordings during DBS surgery during motor and non-motor tasks. Dr. Mills collaborates with researchers in the Department of Neurosurgery, the Division of Geriatric and Neuropsychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and in the Division of Nuclear Medicine within the Department of Radiology to translate neuroimaging and neurophysiology findings into clinical applications.

The Outcomes After Critical Illness and Surgery Group is focused on understanding and improving patient outcomes after critical illness and surgery. Research projects include improving long-term outcomes research for acute respiratory distress syndrome/acute respiratory failure (ARDS/ARF) patients; examining the long-term outcomes for acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS) patients; and evaluating the effects of lower tidal volume ventilation and other aspects of critical illness and ICU care on the long-term physical and mental health outcomes of ALI/ARDS patients.

The Fu Lab is a basic research lab that studies zinc transport, with a particular focus on which step in the zinc transport process may be modulated and how. Dr. Fu's lab uses parallel cell biology and proteomic approaches to understand how these physiochemical principles are applied to mammalian zinc transporters and integrated to the physiology of pancreatic beta cells. This research has implications for understanding how zinc transport is related to diabetes and insulin intake.

Research in the laboratory of Felipe Andrade, M.D., Ph.D., focuses on the mechanisms of systemic autoimmune diseases, particularly as they relate to the role of cytotoxic granule proteases in autoimmunity and viral clearance, mechanisms of autoantigen citrullination and pathways that control immune effector functions in autoimmune diseases. We currently focus on two principal areas: (1) defining the mechanisms that generate citrullinated autoantigens in vivo in rheumatoid arthritis and (2) understanding the pathways that control the activity of the peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) enzymes in human neutrophils.

The Frederick Anokye-Danso Lab investigates the biological pathways at work in the separation of human pluripotent stem cells into adipocytes and pancreatic beta cells. We focus in particular on determinant factors of obesity and metabolic dysfunction, such as the P72R polymorphism of p53. We also conduct research on the reprogramming of somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells using miRNAs.

Research in the Ivor Berkowitz Lab targets pediatric critical care medicine. We are particularly interested in the pathophysiology behind the cerebrovascular dysfunction that occurs in bacterial meningitis as well as the anesthetic and perioperative complications of patients with dwarfing syndromes.