Advancing Medical Research
Foundations of Science
Designing Medicines to Go Where They're Needed: Lessons from Liver Targeting
BY BREAKTHROUGHS STAFF
Sep 25, 2019Designing transformational medicines for patients requires them to be efficacious and safe. Sometimes, drug molecules have the desired effect in the organ of treatment and undesired effects in other organs, meaning one way to achieve a safer medicine is through directing the drug molecule to the place it is needed and minimizing exposure in the rest of the body. When you take a medicine, how does it…
The Winding Road to Discovery: How Unexpected Data Led to Novel Insights into Cancer Treatment
BY BREAKTHROUGHS STAFF
Jun 28, 2019Next-Gen Scientific Changemakers: Following 'Good Science' to Attack Cancer on All Fronts
BY BREAKTHROUGHS STAFF
Jun 18, 2019After earning her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010, Megan Kaneda was looking for a lab to do post-doc research. Her graduate studies focused primarily on nanoparticle drug delivery. But after reading a paper on the recruitment of immune cells into tumors by Judith Varner…
Next-Gen Scientific Changemakers: An Infectious Disease Specialist on a Mission to Develop Vaccines
BY BREAKTHROUGHS STAFF
Jun 18, 2019Soldiers, firefighters and police officers likely come to mind when you think of professions that require a good amount of courage.
But Iona Munjal, a physician and pediatric infectious disease specialist who helps design and oversee vaccine clinical trials for Pfizer, argues scientists should be counted among this group, too. “You have to be brave in research,” she says. “When you’re out there pushing the…
Next-Gen Scientific Changemakers: From War Zones to the Cancer Lab, Putting Patients First
By breakthroughs staff
Jun 05, 2019Unlocking the Secrets of Biology With Novel 3D Imaging Technology
By breakthroughs staff
May 22, 2019Shoh Asano’s grandfather first taught him how to use a microscope as a child. He’d pull the antique instrument from its wooden box to examine leaves and other specimens gathered outdoors. “I’ve always been interested in looking deeper into the natural world to visualize life directly as it’s happening,” says Asano, who grew up in Germany.
Three decades later, Asano is among a group of researchers recognized…
How Maternal Immunization Helps Protect Babies From Infections
BY BREAKTHROUGHS STAFF
May 14, 2019You could say the instinct to protect a baby starts when it’s in the womb.
Starting in the second trimester of pregnancy, a pregnant woman passes important disease-fighting molecules called immunoglobulin G, or IgG, through the placenta to her fetus. As the pregnancy continues, this sharing of immune protection gets further ramped up. The “stockpile” of protection is critical for helping newborns…
Breaking the Rules of Biology to Beat Rare Genetic Diseases
BY BREAKTHROUGHS STAFF
Apr 15, 2019Like a skipping record, our genetic code has thousands of regions known as microsatellites where short combinations of base pairs — adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) — repeat. For the most part, these repetitions are harmless. But in recent years, scientists have made…
Studying a Cell’s 'Messages in a Bottle' to Unlock Clues to Disease
BY BREAKTHROUGHS STAFF
Apr 02, 2019Cells have a variety of ways of communicating with one another, cytokines and neurotransmitters being two such methods.
But a growing body of science now points to another key mechanism for cells to send signals over long distances. All cells produce extracellular vesicles (EVs), tiny membrane-…