Work in the Graham Mooney Lab focuses on the history of public health interventions as well as the impact of public health policies on population health outcomes. Our research includes topics such as the history of public health in the United Kingdom and United States during the 19th and 20th centuries, and the historical geographies of health and medicine. We also explore infectious disease surveillance and control and historical epidemiology and demography.

Research in the Grant (Xuguang) Tao Lab explores environmental and occupational epidemiology topics, including workers' compensation and injuries, and nosocomial infections. We conduct research through clinical trials and systematic literature reviews, and also use cancer registry data and GIS applications in environmental epidemiological research. Our recent studies have explored topics such as the effectiveness of lumbar epidural steroid injections following lumbar surgery, the effect of physician-dispensed medication on workers' compensation claim outcomes and how the use of opioid and psychotropic medications for workers' compensation claims impacts lost work time.

The Jean Kim Laboratory performs translational research in the area of chronic rhinosinusitis, with a niche interest in the pathogenesis of hyperplastic nasal polyposis. Studies encompass clinical research to basic wet laboratory research in studying the underlying immune and autoimmune mediated mechanism of polyp growth and perpetuation of disease. Human cell and tissue culture models are used. Techniques in the laboratory include cell and tissue culture, real time PCR, immunoblot, ELISA, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, gene array analysis, and other molecular approaches including genetic knockdowns. Approaches used in Dr. Kim’s clinical study designs include prospective and retrospective analysis of patient outcomes and clinical biomarkers, as wells controlled clinical trials.

Research in the Jonathan Orens Lab examines topics such as clinical outcomes of lung transplantation, chronic allograft rejection and ischemic reperfusion injury, also known as primary graft dysfunction.

Dr. Zhou's research focuses on developing new in vivo MRI and MRS methodologies to study brain function and disease. His most recent work includes absolute quantification of cerebral blood flow, quantification of functional MRI, high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), magnetization transfer mechanism, development of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) technology, brain pH MR imaging, and tissue protein MR imaging. Notably, Dr. Zhou and his colleagues invented the amide proton transfer (APT) approach for brain pH imaging and tumor protein imaging. His initial paper on brain pH imaging was published in Nature Medicine in 2003 and his most recent paper on tumor treatment effects was published in Nature Medicine in 2011. A major part of his current research is the pre-clinical and clinical imaging of brain tumors, strokes, and other neurologic disorders using the APT and other novel MRI techniques. The overall goal is to achieve the MRI contrast at the protein and peptide level without injection of exogenous agents and improve the diagnostic capability of MRI and the patient outcomes.

Johns Hopkins experts have been at the forefront of research into the benefits and proven outcomes of the most advanced prenatal surgery techniques to treat a range of conditions including congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), spina bifida and twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS).

Dr. Parikh's research focuses on the translation and validation of novel biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of acute kidney injury. Progress in kidney diseases has been hamstrung by significant heterogeneity within the current disease definitions, which are largely based on serum creatinine. Dr. Parikh's research has addressed this critical challenge by developing biomarkers of renal tubular injury, repair, and inflammation to dissect this heterogeneity. He has assembled multicenter longitudinal prospective cohorts for translational research studies across several clinical settings of acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease for the efficient translation of novel biomarkers.

His research is dedicated to the process of applying discoveries generated in the laboratory and in preclinical experiments, the development of clinical studies, and the design of clinical trials. Dr. Parikh's studies have refined the clinical definition in perioperative acute kidney injury and hepatorenal syndrome, developed strategies to reduce kidney discard in deceased donor transplantation, and advanced regulatory approvals of kidney injury biomarkers. He has also developed biomarkers to identify rapid progressors of early diabetic kidney disease before derangements in serum creatinine. Dr. Parikh's research goal is to translate our understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms into clinical practice and improve the outcomes in patients with kidney disease.

Dr. Parikh has also been the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2017 Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Nephrology.

Work in the Christian Merlo Lab includes studies on pulmonary arteriovenous malformations, outcomes in lung transplantation and treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF), and HIV-related pulmonary disease. We have studied methods of diagnosing and managing pulmonary arteriovenous malformations as well as the outcomes of adult CF patients who are infected with multiple antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Our recent research has also explored recipient and donor variables in the success or failure of lung transplants, and ways in which national healthcare delivery systems impact lung transplant outcomes for CF patients.

Dr. Christine Durand, assistant professor of medicine and oncology and member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, is involved in clinical and translational research focused on individuals infected with HIV and hepatitis C virus who require cancer and transplant therapies. Her current research efforts include looking at outcomes of hepatitis C treatment after solid organ transplant, the potential use of organs from HIV-infected donors for HIV-infected solid organ transplant candidates, and HIV cure strategies including bone marrow transplantation. Dr. Durand is supported by multiple grants: • R01 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study HIV-to-HIV organ transplantation in the US. • K23 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study antiretroviral therapy during bone marrow transplant in HIV-1 infection. • U01 from the NIAID to study HIV-to-HIV deceased donor kidney transplantation. U01 from the NIAID to study HIV-to-HIV deceased donor liver transplantation.

The Johns Hopkins Laboratory of Computational Intensive Care Medicine (LCICM) has been established to gain knowledge on the mechanisms of critical illness and injury, with the aim of identifying novel methods to treat patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Members of the lab apply mathematical and statistical models, artificial intelligence, and domain expertise to unravel patterns in data from sources such as electronic health records, high-frequency physiological recordings, and medical imaging. These patterns are resolved into health signatures that can be leveraged for classification and prediction. The overarching goal is to enhance the precision, efficacy, and outcomes of care delivered to critically ill patients.