Spring 2024 – May 31, 2024 and beyond  

Programming in the Spring 2024 semester included two major events: 

  • ASPIRE Book group 
  • Specific Aims Workshop 

Our book group met 3 times in February, March and April.  

  •  February : we read and discussed selected articles about Pedagogy  
  • March : discussion about 1st Gen students in STEM with JHU staff, Allison Leventhal and Chase Oatis Student Support  – WSE Graduate School, Hanna Jackson, Sr. Director Student Success, Center for Student Success 
  • In April we invited the William R. Kenan, Jr. Scholar/Teacher, Nagma Zerin. Dr. Zerin is a Lecturer in the JHU Dept of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. We discussed her article, Work in Progress: Promotion of Growth Mindset in Introductory Mass and Energy Balance Course in Chemical Engineering, and her philosophy as a teacher of undergraduates in Engineering. 

In May we met at Morgan State University for our Specific Aims Workshop, to focus on Drs. Harriot and Morales Pantoja’s specific aims. Then we retired to the Space Telescope Institute for our farewell dinner as we closed out the ASPIRE IRACDA Program. Although May 31, 2024 marked the official end of NIH support of the ASPIRE IRACDA program, our scholars continue to shine in their fields, we remain in touch as a community and stay hopeful that our program will be funded again.  

In the meantime, four ASPIRE scholars continue to work in their host PI labs while they search for permanent positions in academia: Drs. Harriot, Hernandez, Morales Pantoja and Verdone. Dr. Mack continues her research part-time in the Spangler lab and part-time as a lecturer of BME undergrads at JHU. Dr. Dorman has accepted a faculty position at Hope College in Holland, MI in the Neuroscience Program. He started there in Summer 2024 and plans to teach classes in Neuroscience and start a neuroscience research lab with undergraduate students. 

You can also find our scholars at the BMES conference in Baltimore, October 2024. 

Jamie Hernandez 

Thursday 

  • Poster X11 : Formulation and assessment of long-acting, low-cost pharmaceutical co-crystals. 
  • Poster BB13 : Evaluating Immune Responses in Different Murine Liver Disease Models 

Saturday 

  • Poster Q16 : Real-life examples of math used in biomedical engineering research: the effect of supplemental applications curriculum on performance and motivation in an introductory calculus course 
  • Poster J19 : The effect of milling procedures on drugs GW2580 and curcumin crystal composition and size on macrophage response 

Itzy Morales Pantoja  

Thursday  

  • Poster M12:  3D printed microfluidic platforms with integrated electrodes for three-dimensional perfusion of macro-scale engineered living materials  
  • Poster BB10: Enhancing Brain Organoid Size, Complexity, and Longevity Through Synthetic Vascularization 

Saturday

  • Panelist Special session: Organoid Intelligence (OI): Advancing Biocomputing through Multidisciplinary Collaboration 

Nzinga Mack 

  • Friday: Chairing Session on Computational Immunoengineering 
  • Saturday: Session Chair Immunoengineering VI: T cell Responses in Cancer Immunotherapy 

Nzinga Mack and Elissa Leonard  

  • Saturday: Presenting Author Mechanistic Computational Modeling of IL-2 Immunocytokines to Advance Immunotherapy 

Read about Drs. Harriot and Morales Pantoja in this Scientific American article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/next-generation-biotech-is-rendering-some-lab-animals-obsolete/ 

Fall 2023 through January 2024

We had a busy Fall, with our monthly training sessions and workshops on these topics:

  • Project Management Apps
  • Educational Publishing
  • JHU Foundations Relations
  • Visit to JHTV
  • Lightning Talks
  • Conflict Resolution Trainings with JHU Ombuds.

Itzy Morales Pantoja and Daniel Dorman both taught at Coppin State University — you can hear about that in their presentations from our January Retreat (below).

At our Retreat, we participated in several productive sessions on:

We’re happy to share the Lightning Talks the scholars delivered about their research and teaching:

6 Scholars on their Research 

3 Scholars on their Teaching 

Summer 2023

The ASPIRE Scholars attended the annual IRACDA conference in San Antonio in June, along with Hany Sobhi, co-I at Coppin State, and Tina Cavaluzzi, ASPIRE Coordinator. Despite the heat, we had a great time in the Alamo City.

IRACDA 2023 conference, all ASPIRE scholars

ASPIRE scholars also participated in the BME ISPEED program for the second summer, serving on panels about career pathways in STEM, and sharing with the students how they got where they are.

Coming up in August is the The Mentoring in Higher Education: A Professional Training for Success workshop at Morgan State University that the 2nd and 1st year scholars will attend, and an informal training on project management apps held in the Whiting School to close out the summer.

Winter and Spring 2023

We held our Annual Retreat in January at the Mt. Washington Conference Center, a picturesque extension of the JHU campus. We were pleased that Bassil Ramadan, a Vivien Thomas PhD scholar in BME, could join us. There were so many great speakers!!

We inaugurate our ASPIRE Book Club in February as the scholars continue their journey to independence. The group will read and discuss The Professor is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job by Karen Kelsky over the course of 3 meetings until April. Meanwhile, Dr. Morris Verdone is teaching Principles of Neuroscience at Morgan State, and Dr. Dorman continues to co-teach the nervous system module this semester for A&P II at Coppin State.

Then we will meet again in May for our Annual Retreat, this time at the Coppin State University when the group will workshop 2 scholars’ Specific Aims pages.

After that it’s the IRACDA Conference in San Antonio in June, and participating in panels at the ISPEED summer program at JHU!

Summer and Fall 2022

Summer 2022 was busy and fun for ASPIRE scholars — we attended the IRACDA conference in Albuquerque and had a blast. Scholars completed the JHU Teaching Academy as well as workshops on writing a K Grant. Four scholars served on panels for the ISPEED summer program in BME. Scholars attended the Mentoring in Higher Education: A Professional Training for Success workshop held by the MSU Center for Innovative Instruction & Scholarship. We welcomed Dr. Itzy Morales Pantoja to the program and said goodbye to 3 ASPIRE scholars.

Fall is proceeding apace … we learned about the Teaching-as-Research program offered through the Center for Teaching Excellence & Innovation. Dr. Mack is attending workshops on Lab Set-up and Management offered through the JHM Professional Development and Career Office. Dr. Dorman is at Coppin State this Fall with Dr. Kavita Hegde, participating in her Human Anatomy & Physiology II course. You can also find us at BMES, SREB, AICHE and CRCNS conferences !

 

2022 1st Annual Grant Review Workshop

ASPIRE scholars and their PI’s joined with ASPIRE Co-Directors to review Drs. Dorman and Mack’s Specific Aims pages.

 

2022 Open House

Celebrating the achievements of ASPIRE, established in 2018 as a joint endeavor among Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University and Coppin State University. 

Highlights included:

  • Introduction of ASPIRE Program : Les Tung, co-Director, Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Presentation of Morgan State University’s ASPIRE Program : Lisa Brown, co-Director, Interim Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Director, Office Of Undergraduate Research
  • Presentation of Coppin State University’s ASPIRE Program : Hany Sobhi, co-Director, Wilson H. Elkins Professor of Chemistry, Director Center for Organic Synthesis
  • Diversity Initiatives and Opportunities to Engage : Darlene Saporu, Asst. Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, Whiting School of Education
  • Introduction of ASPIRE Scholars and 5 minute Lightning Talks about their ASPIRE work : Sri Sarma, co-Director, Vice Dean for Graduate Education WSE:
  1. Allister Suarez, SOM BME Neurosci and Neuroengineering
  2. Daniel Dorman, WSE Department of Biomedical Engineering
  3. Elissa Leonard, SOM BME Cell and Tissue Engineering
  4. Nzinga Mack, WSE Department of Biomedical Engineering
  5. Rachel Smith, WSE Department of Biomedical Engineering
  6. Rebecca Keener, WSE Department of Biomedical Engineering