Advancing Medical Research

Foundations of Science

How RNA Technology Could Revolutionize Vaccine Production

Every year, millions of people get the flu shot. Although the vaccine provides protection for many people, some people still get the flu, in part, because the influenza vaccine production cycle starts at least six months in advance of the flu season. And while the World Health Organization’s selection is based on surveillance data collected from around the world, the strains in the vaccine do not always match those…

Partnering to Turn the 'Undruggable' into Promising Targets

In the world of drug discovery, “undruggable” targets are like the stubborn children of biology, proteins that are considered too challenging to bind with conventional molecules. With the rapid pace of scientific advancement, however, the “undruggable” targets of yesterday now represent a promising new area of research.

From Nĭ Hăo to Better Potential Medicines: How Language Translation Technology Is Being Applied to Drug Design

This is the first in a two-part series. If you’ve ever used Google Translate, you’ve seen how the app can effortlessly translate between two very different languages, such as going from English to Chinese. Now, the same technology is being applied to a new challenge: building better medicines.

Meet the Team: Homegrown Therapies Get Ready to Fight NASH

One of the biggest public health problems of our time is likely soon to face off with a new wave of cutting-edge medicines. As non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a severe form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, continues to be a growing public health threat, scientists are racing to develop treatments. There is…

How Next-Generation Sequencing Is Helping to Build Better Vaccines

If you’ve ever tried an at-home genetic testing kit, you’re familiar with whole-genome sequencing, the technology that allows people to quickly and easily map their DNA. This same technology is now being used to track the genomes of potentially deadly microbes.

During global disease outbreaks, scientists…

Capturing the Itch: Using Digital Wearable Devices to Help Patients with Atopic Dermatitis

For people who have atopic dermatitis (AD) — an autoimmune condition that causes painful, itchy, and inflamed skin — symptoms often flare up at night, leading to disrupted sleep. Until recently, there hasn’t been a way to truly capture how much a person’s quality of life is impacted by these nighttime symptoms. Patients enrolled in studies are asked to complete…

Designing Medicines to Go Where They're Needed: Lessons from Liver Targeting

Designing 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

The path to discovery rarely follows a straight line. In 2015, as a post-doc researcher at Pfizer, Michael Arensman got an early lesson in this maxim. At the time, he set out to study the protein xCT, a transporter that carries nutrients into cells, and its role in T-cell proliferation. As a young scientist, he was eager to have his results published and contribute to the field of immunology." />…

Next-Gen Scientific Changemakers: Following 'Good Science' to Attack Cancer on All Fronts

After 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…