Shelby Bradford, PhD

Shelby Bradford, PhD

Assistant editor at The Scientist

Shelby is an Assistant 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

An illustration of James Trosko, now a cancer biologist at Michigan State University, with long brown hair and close beard wearing a white lab coat on the right of the image. He is holding a cell culture plate and looking at it inquiringly. On the left is a call out showing where, in the cell culture dish, pink, irregular cells are sitting close to one another. The background is an image of these same cells in a green overlay.

A Mystery Result Caused a Hypothesis Reckoning

Illustration of three cartoon figures around a laptop. One on the left holds a magnifying glass to the screen, one sits on top of the screen holding a laptop in their lap, and a third stands on the right holding a paper.

Grant Writing Training Improves Funding Odds for Faculty

3D illustration of a large wooden horse facing the stone wall of a fortress, representing the Trojan Horse used in the legendary battle of Troy. Researchers used a similar sneaking strategy to improve CAR T cell responses against solid tumors.

CAR T Cells Break Tumor Defenses with Trojan Horse Strategy

Line-drawing of a scientist surrounded by cartoons of lightbulbs, gears, and DNA icons to represent ideas coming from her head. Irregular shapes in dark and light blue and orange are overlayed the drawings to add color. The image represents new ideas in science communication.

A Comic-Style Poster Engages Conference Attendees

Illustration of a brown woolly rhinoceros, which resembles a modern rhinoceros but with brown fur, standing against wintry tundra.

Ancient DNA Offers Clues to the Extinction of the Woolly Rhinoceros

Cartoon showing a balance scale on an orange background. On the right side of the scale, a stack of books with a college graduation cap pulls the scale down. On the left, a cartoon person is adding more gold coins to the scale to try to balance the cost. This image illustrates the high cost of academic publishing that researchers experience.

Rising Publication Costs Strain Researchers

Photograph of green leaves of a crop plant. Some leaves have turned brown from an infection, but others remain bright green and healthy. This illustrates how plants use signaling molecules to warn distant cells of danger and to protect themselves.

Plant Immunity Unearthed: A Small Metabolite Kicks Off Cellular Defenses

Photograph of an older woman in an orange, long-sleeved shirt sitting on a brown couch holding her knee.

Why Do Weather Changes Cause Joint Pain?

3D illustration showing three differently colored semi-translucent cells, representing different T cell subtypes, on a black background. A purple cell is in the front on the right, a red cell is on the left, and a blue cell sits behind the red one.

T Cell Nomenclature Gets an Update

Illustration of a developing fetus surrounded by a clear fluid with a subtle yellow tinge, representing amniotic fluid.

What Is the Amniotic Fluid Composed of?

A scanning electron microscopy image shows a scaffold imitating the bone surrounding the bone marrow with blood cell organoids derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (red).

A 3D Scaffold Helps Recreate the Human Bone Marrow Niche

Illustration of a scientist with short dark hair standing in a research lab in front of a screen showing gene expression data looking out of a window to see the surface of the Moon with Earth in the background. There is a microscope and centrifuge beside the researcher’s computer. Out the window, another lunar base is a lunar rover is visible. Outer space, with bright dots of stars, are seen behind Earth.

Space Medicine Brings Researchers into the Second Space Age

Image of a man in a laboratory looking frustrated with his failed experiment.
February 2026

A Stubborn Gene, a Failed Experiment, and a New Path

When experiments refuse to cooperate, you try again and again. For Rafael Najmanovich, the setbacks ultimately pushed him in a new direction.

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