Профиль

So well-deserved!!!

Well deserved!!

Congrats to Ryan Freund, an undergrad in our lab, who won the JHU McEllroy Award for his research on human retinal organoids, RGCs, and Notch!

I'm so excited and fortunate that Brooke Weingard, Carsten Hoeke, and Danielle Gardon are joining our lab to pursue their PhDs!! Can't wait for their awesome fly and organoid work!

Interesting test for AI: You know what you should prioritize next. Ask your favorite AI to guess what that is. I am giving a talk tomorrow at ARVO and need to prep. It took AI 6 guesses (with some hints) to get there. I'd love to hear how it works for others!

Check out our new paper where @simonomisz.bsky.social tackles the challenge of understanding the relationship of cell death and the loss of RGCs in human retinal organoids. This paper is an important step in understanding how to design better organoids! www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Blocking apoptosis promotes survival and alters developmental dynamics of human retinal ganglion cells in retinal organoidsZhang et al. found that two waves of apoptosis occur in developing human retinas and retinal organoids, affecting RPCs and RGCs, respectively. Retinal organoids undergo an additional wave of necrosis ...www.cell.com

Thanks so much to Michael and Michel (M&M?) for this awesome summary that makes our work look "epic"!!

Check out this "epic" summary of our recent paper from Michael Housset and @michelcayouette.bsky.social ! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The hourglass of high acuity vision: Cone plasticity at the intersection of time and space shapes the foveola | PNASThe hourglass of high acuity vision: Cone plasticity at the intersection of time and space shapes the foveolawww.pnas.org

Love eyes? Love awesome science? Love fantastic colleagues? Join us in Maine on August 9-14 for the GRC Visual System Development Conference! It's one of the best!

JHU wrote a nice story summarizing our recent studies of human foveola patterning using human retinal organoids. Come for the science, stay for the super closeup of me looking through a petri dish. hub.jhu.edu/2026/02/18/r...

How did humans develop sharp vision? Lab-grown retinas show likely answerOrganoid technology pioneered at Johns Hopkins could spur new therapies for vision losshub.jhu.edu

I'm excited to share our PNAS paper from 1st author Kasia Hussey. We study how the foveola, the high acuity region of the retina, is patterned by RA and TH. We were surprised to find that cone subtypes appear to convert fates. Our studies are important for AMD sufferers. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A cell fate specification and transition mechanism for human foveolar cone subtype patterning | PNASIn the central region of the human retina, the high-acuity foveola is notable for its dense packing of green (M) and red (L) cones and absence of b...www.pnas.org

Great news!

Check out this story! Atlantic writer Alexandra Petri visited my lab and played with some fruit flies and human organoids as she wrote about experiencing things that were affected by government cuts. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

I Tried to Be the Government. It Did Not Go Well.My five-month quest to monitor the weather, track inflation, and inspect milk for harmful microorganismswww.theatlantic.com

Check out this story! Atlantic writer Alexandra Petri visited my lab and played with some fruit flies and human organoids as she wrote about experiencing things that were affected by government cuts. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

I Tried to Be the Government. It Did Not Go Well.My five-month quest to monitor the weather, track inflation, and inspect milk for harmful microorganismswww.theatlantic.com

G+D together with JHU worked to put together this cool video describing our latest work! Check it out!

I'm so excited that @christ3na.bsky.social 's paper describing temporal control of photoreceptor development in human organoids is out at Genes and Dev and we got the cover! genesdev.cshlp.org/content/40/1... genesdev.cshlp.org/content/40/1...

Nothing like a paper acceptance right before New Years! The Johnston lab will be sharing some of our best work ever in 2026! Next update coming on Jan 1!