Associate Professor
Department of Physiology
School of Medicine

jan.hoh@jhu.edu

203 Physiology Building
725 N. Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21205

Office: 410-614-3795
Lab: 410-614-3796

We are interested in using physical principles to understand the structure and function of eukaryotic cells and their components.  The current interest in the lab focuses on understanding how eukaryotic cells interpret spatial, physical and chemical information in their environment using micropatterned substrates.  Our approach here is to develop cellular microenvironments that have well defined physical and chemical characteristics, and by varying the appropriate parameters explore how cells process and respond to information from the surrounding environment.  Initially we have worked on developing advanced new patterning technologies, including a method based on electron beam lithography to make features of proteins with dimensions <100 nm.  We have also developed a novel laser based protein patterning method.  We are now starting to use these patterned substrates to probe how cells respond to spatially defined information.  In conjunction with the patterning work we have developed a new theoretical framework for quantifying spatially complex signals using an information theoretical approach.  The theoretical effort has lead to a new metric for spatial information – so-called k-space information (kSI).  In addition to using the kSI for the studies above, we are collaborating with a number of groups to explore interesting applications of the metric.

Selected Publications
Werbin, J., W.F. Heinz, L.H. Romer, and J.H. Hoh. (2007) Micropatterns of an extracellular matrix protein and defined information content. Langmuir 23:10883-10886.

Rundqvist, J., B. Mendoza, J. Werbin, W.F. Heinz, C. Lemmon, L.H. Romer, D.B. Haviland, and J.H. Hoh. (2007) High fidelity functional patterns of an extracellular matrix protein by electron beam based inactivation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129:59-67.

Weathers, E.A., M.E. Paulaitis, T.B. Woolf, and J.H. Hoh. (2007) Insights into protein structure and function from disorder-complexity space. Proteins 66:16-28.

Rundqvist, J., J.H. Hoh, and D.B. Haviland. (2006) Directed immobilization of protein coated nanospheres to nanometer scale patterns fabricated by electron beam lithography of poly(ethylene glycol) self-assembled monolayers. Langmuir 22:5100-5107.

Mukhopadhyay, R., S. Kumar, and J.H. Hoh. (2004) Molecular mechanisms for organizing the neuronal cytoskeleton. Bioessays. 26:1017-1025.

Stevens, M.J., J.H. Hoh, and T.B. Woolf. (2003) Insights into the molecular mechanism of membrane fusion from simulation: Evidence for the association of splayed tails. Phys. Rev. Lett. 91:188102.

Kumar, S., Yin, X, Trapp, B.D., Paulaitis, M.E. and J.H. Hoh (2002). Analysis and simulation of neurofilament distributions: implications for mechanisms of interfilament spacing. J. Neurosci. Res. 68:681-90.

Koralek, D.O., W.F. Heinz, M.D. Antonik, A. Baik, and J.H. Hoh. (2000) Probing deep interaction potentials with white-noise-driven atomic force microscope cantilevers. Appl. Phys. Lett. 76:2952-2954.

Heinz, W.F., and J.H. Hoh. (1999) Spatially resolved force spectroscopy of biological surfaces using the atomic force microscope. Trends Biotech. 17:143-150.