Foundations of Science

We’ve all heard a lot about viruses lately, but what exactly are they? Viruses are bundles of nucleic acid—DNA or RNA—that are enclosed by a protein shell known as a capsid.¹ By some measures the most abundant life form on earth,¹ viruses lurk everywhere; experts estimate that they are 10 times more numerous than bacteria.² And while individual viral particles, called virions,^3…

Eczema is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that can be challenging to live with. Affecting over 31 million Americans, it is a prevalent condition presenting in seven different forms; contact dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, dyshidrotic eczema, nummular eczema, and stasis dermatitis. The main characteristics of the disease include:

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in both men and women. In fact, it is estimated that nearly 230,000 lung cancer cases will be diagnosed in the United States in 2020. Of those cases, 80-85% of lung cancer is non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).¹

The treatment of patients with NSCLC has become reliant on tissue and/or blood biomarkers to help guide treatment decisions.

It’s become the most-talked-about choir practice of 2020: In early March, as the novel coronavirus quickly spread in Washington state, a local choir group met for their weekly rehearsal. Despite taking extra precautions, such as having hand sanitizer at the door and members not hugging or…

All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have the same goal: invade our cells, use our cells’ internal machinery to make copies of itself, and then release the newly made virus to infect more of our cells. But protease inhibitors, a class of drugs long used to treat HIV and hepatitis C, have been shown to stop this process — known as the viral life cycle. These drugs work by blocking a…

It’s an experience familiar to almost anyone with a family member or friend who has fought a terminal illness, such as cancer or heart failure. In the final stages of life, it can seem as though their loved one is wasting away. This dramatic loss of muscle and fat is caused by cachexia, a wasting disorder that afflicts patients in the late stage of nearly every chronic illness. It’s the immediate cause of death in…

In the “nature vs. nurture” debate, those in the former camp believe that who we are, from our physical traits to our propensity for disease, is largely predetermined by the genes that we inherit from our parents. The nurture side attributes much of who we are to our …

Most people struggle with pain at some point in their life, and when it gets bad enough it can be a debilitating condition. However, while pain has its obvious and sometimes devastating downside, our ability to feel physical pain is also part of maintaining our health. For a time, physicians even referred to pain as “the fifth vital sign,” because it can be important to understanding the state of a person’s health…