Advancing Medical Research

Foundations of Science

In Search of a Better Biomarker: Why Studying Liver Enzymes Matters for Drug Safety

If you’ve ever had a liver function test as part of an annual physical, you may know that the exam screens for certain biomarkers, like liver enzymes in the blood. If these substances are found to be elevated, it may mean that you have a liver disease or have been exposed to some medications or environmental toxins.

Liver biomarkers are also important tools in the drug development process. Before a drug…

Quantifying Matters of the Heart: Using Mathematical Modeling to Simulate Vital Organs

Songwriters, poets, and novelists have long tried to capture the intricacies of the heart. But it’s the quants who might finally do it.

The Living Heart Project, initiated by the firm Dassault Systémes, is applying the advanced technology that the automotive and aerospace industries use to realistically simulate the heart. The project has solicited input from…

A Superbug Problem: When Routine Surgeries Turn Dangerous

You go in for an elective knee replacement surgery, hoping to be able to climb the stairs again without pain, and end up with more than you bargained for: a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus (also referred to as S. aureus, Staphylococcus, or staph infection.)

S. aureus is a common bacterium found on the skin and in the nose that is usually…

Scientist Embraces the ‘Ick’ Factor to Develop a New Tool Against a Dangerous Pathogen

Developing a vaccine to prevent the devastating disease caused by Clostridium difficile requires a reliable and sensitive test to diagnose the dangerous disease causing toxins produced by C. diff — and it also required scientists to figure out how to detect the toxins in stool samples.

That Which is Old is New Again: Phenotypic Drug Discovery Makes a Comeback

Scientists return to a classic model of drug discovery in an attempt to find novel medicines, while adding a modern spin.

Tumor-Typing: A New Way of Assessing Cancer Treatment Options

A method of analyzing tumors could inform response to immunotherapies.

Attacking Cancer Cells That Develop Resistance

When cancer patients receive therapy for an extended time, they often face the specter of drug resistance as tumor cells mutate and find ways to evade the cancer-killing medicines. Exploring new ways to disarm rogue cells that have developed resistance is a major field of modern cancer research. One way to address the issue of resistance is to attack cancer through the fundamental processes that drive their core…

Brenda Carrillo-Conde: Unlocking the Power of Connections

Brenda Carrillo-Conde has a talent for conjugation: making connections for the greater good — inside the lab and out. As a principal scientist with Pfizer’s Conjugation and Polytide Process Development Group in St. Louis, Missouri, she spends her workdays using chemical conjugation to improve the effectiveness of vaccines and medicines.

In the lab, conjugation is a process that connects molecules together…

Using the Dr. Jekyll of Chemical Compounds to Advance Drug Synthesis

Sulfuryl fluoride gas is the chemical equivalent of Mr. Hyde. Like the fictional monster, it’s dangerous and difficult to work with. But by inventing a process that creates a new substance called [4-(Acetylamino)phenyl]-ImidodiSulfuryl diFluoride, referred to as AISF, scientists are replacing the gas with the chemical equivalent of Dr. Jekyll. In its new state, it shares several characteristics with the good doctor…