Advancing Medical Research

As Pfizer scientists raced to develop their COVID-19 vaccine at record-breaking speed these past few months, they turned to an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) tool to help achieve this mission.

Normally, when a clinical trial or trial phase ends, it can take more than 30 days for the patient data to be “cleaned up,” so scientists can then analyze the results. This process involves data scientists…

In recent years, targeted therapies are among a revolution of new cancer treatments that have helped patients live longer than ever before. But with this success comes new challenges.

Namely, many available cancer therapies can’t effectively treat cancer that has spread to the brain, as they have difficulty crossing over the blood-brain barrier— a tightly packed layer of cells that prevents toxins and other…

As SARS-CoV-2 spreads around the globe, it is mutating, in other words it is acquiring genetic changes.

While the idea of “viral mutation” may sound concerning, it’s important to understand that many of these mutations are minor, and don’t have an overall impact on how fast a virus spreads or potentially how severe a viral infection might be. In fact, some mutations could make the virus less infectious.…

Despite the complex technology and global scientific expertise that go into building a safe and effective vaccine, when it comes down to it, vaccination is a simple concept.

Vaccination trains the immune system to recognize a pathogen and to be prepared to help fight it if it encounters this enemy in the future. It’s like a boot camp to learn to fight an infectious disease.

As the world awaits a…

Valentine’s Day broke Jen Singer’s heart.

On February 14, 2020, Jen, a 53-year-old writer from New Jersey, took a train from Newark to Boston to watch her college-age son run track. At the time, she didn’t think much about the fact that a person behind her coughed throughout the entire ride.

COVID-19 had been identified a few months earlier in Wuhan, China, but the novel coronavirus wasn’t yet seen…

If you check the labels on your favorite jarred marinara sauce, low-calorie salad dressing, or loaf of bread, you may be surprised to find that they contain added simple sugars — one of the most popular forms of which is high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a sweetener used in many processed foods.

Over the past four decades, sugar has steadily crept into American diets — a trend that can be largely attributed…

In the battle against COVID-19, big data has been critical to nearly every aspect of the global response: from tracking the spread of the virus and understanding the course of the disease to coordinating supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators in hospitals.

Researchers and scientists around the world are working to develop a potential COVID-19 vaccine. Given the urgency of the pandemic, different groups are using different methods.

Pfizer is collaborating with German biotech company BioNTech to focus on a technology called an mRNA…