Johns Hopkins Gazette: October 7, 1996 Form

In Brief

Vaccine may protect against major cause of blindness

A vaccine developed by scientists at Hopkins and the University of Massachusetts protected mice from eye infections with Chlamydia trachomatis, a sexually transmitted disease that affects 700 million people worldwide.

The unusual vaccine--which may prevent or speed recovery from chlamydia, the world's leading cause of infectious blindness and sexually transmitted diseases--is the first to use successfully only a purified anti-chlamydial antibody in a vaccine to immunize against and stop this infectious disease.

The report of this study was published in the October issue of Nature Medicine.


Grafted motor nerves found more effective

A Hopkins animal study suggests that grafted motor nerves may be more effective than sensory nerves for restoring movement. The findings eventually may lead to improved treatment for facial nerve injuries and other nerve peripheral damage in people.

Sensory nerves relay information from the senses to the brain, while motor nerves carry the brain's signals back to the muscles.

Grafts using sensory nerves may create numbness in the donor area, while grafts using motor nerves may weaken or paralyze the donor area. Although surgeons usually use sensory nerves because numbness is considered a more acceptable risk, that often means poor function where the graft is placed, said Kyle D. Bickel, assistant professor of plastic surgery and orthopedic surgery and the report's lead author.


Historic Krieger Hall celebrating makeover

There will be an open house for the Whiting School of Engineering's 67-year-old Krieger Hall beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11.

The "Renovation Celebration" will take place outside the building on the Homewood campus, followed by indoor tours of the facility. The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra Brass Ensemble will perform at 3:30 p.m., and at 4 p.m., top administrators, faculty members and students will make brief remarks about the project and recognize major donors.

The celebration will occur at the midpoint in an $8 million project to make urgently needed improvements in historic Krieger and Maryland halls, which will give the Engineering School additional lab and office space and allow it to hire more faculty members and expand its enrollment.

Krieger Hall was constructed in 1929 as a home for the university's Physics Department, which had been based in the cramped attic of Maryland Hall. The new structure was originally called Rowland Hall, in honor of Henry A. Rowland, the first professor of physics at Hopkins. In 1990, Rowland Hall was renamed for Zanvyl Krieger, who had provided a significant gift to renovate part of the building for the Krieger Mind/Brain Institute located there.


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