Shelby Bradford, PhD

Shelby Bradford, PhD

Assistant editor at The Scientist

Shelby is an Associate Editor at The Scientist. She earned her PhD in immunology and microbial pathogenesis from West Virginia University, where she studied neonatal responses to vaccination. She completed an AAAS Mass Media Fellowship at StateImpact Pennsylvania, and her writing has also appeared in Massive Science. Shelby participated in the 2023 flagship ComSciCon and volunteered with science outreach programs and Carnegie Science Center during graduate school. 

Articles by Shelby Bradford, PhD

A computer-generated image of Mars with its long canyon visible against the dark background of outer space with small stars visible.

A Microbial Approach to Mars Terraforming

A grey scale photo of a young man is on the left side of the image on a black background. A color image of the same man, but a decade older, is on the right on a red background.

Then and Now: Gregory Sonnenberg Studies the Regulators of Intestinal Inflammation

A photograph of a geothermal lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. There is a raised mountain in the background covered in rocks with tall trees further down. In the foreground, the ground is rocky, with a blue lake in the middle of the image that has steam coming off of it.

A “Fire Amoeba” Takes First Place for Eukaryotic Heat Tolerance

3D illustration of spongy white bone, representing the bone marrow scaffold, with red and white blood cells visible in the spaces.

A Human Bone Marrow-On-a-Chip Unveils Long-Lived Plasma Cell Behavior

Photograph of wine glasses full of different colored wines. The last glass in the line is being filled with a red wine from a dark bottle.

Grape Microbiomes Shape Wine Characteristics

Photograph of a scientist’s hands, covered in blue gloves, holding open a petri dish with bacterial colonies growing on them.

Cancer Drugs Boost Antibacterial Activity Against MRSA

A 3D illustration of blue yeast cells against a darker blue background.

Yeast May Help Build Homes on Mars

3D illustrated antibodies that have one chain in red and one chain in blue floating against a teal background.

Hemophilia A Treatment Pioneers Win Lasker Award

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The Ctrl-Z Award Promotes Self-Retraction

Fluorescent microscopy of a fly embryo stained with five antibodies. Along the bottom, from left to right, the following colors appear representing unique homeobox (Hox) proteins: Magenta, Green, Yellow, and Red. Vertical cyan stripes appear above this line of colors, and in the middle of the embryo behind these strips is orange staining.

Multiplex Microscopy Becomes Easier with Encoded Antibodies

Illustration of a small, humanoid robot standing next to an open laptop holding a magnifying glass over a page with an edited document open. The image represents an AI-assisted reviewing tool.

Reviewer3: An AI-Based System to Streamline Peer Review

A bar graph showing the number of cancer drugs approved by either the FDA (pale green) or the NMPA (red) every year between 2020 and 2025. The title reads “China Approved 1.7 Times More Cancer Drugs than the US in the Past Three Years”.

China Overtakes US in Cancer Drug Approvals

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October 2026

Antarctica’s Blood Falls Teems With Mysterious Microbial Life

Miles away from the closest ocean, marine microbes thrive in the red ice and mud around Blood Falls, offering clues to microbial adaptation and past climate events.

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