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

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

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

A collage showing a “Ctrl” and “Z” key from a keyboard with a hand reaching from the bottom and top toward the keys on a pale yellow background.

The Ctrl-Z Award Promotes Self-Retraction

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

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

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

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

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

Photograph of a person’s hand holding a pen and pointing to a backlit western blot film.

Misleading Antibody Validation Images Controversy Expands to 15 Vendors

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 8 min read

3D illustration of amino acids, with glycine prominently in the middle of the image and more out of focus molecules in the background. The two backbone carbon atoms are gray, the oxygen atoms are red, the nitrogen is blue, and the hydrogen atoms are white.

An Enzymatic Modular System Makes Amino Acids from Methanol

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

Illustration of a white piece of 3D DNA against a white background. Cartoon people stand on top of the bases on the bottom strands, representing population-wide genomic studies.

A Meta-Analysis Uncovers Genetic Risk Factors for Fibromyalgia

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 4 min read

3D rendered image of neurons on a dark background. Two neurons in the middle have a bright, reddish orange glow, indicating they are firing together. Neurons surrounding them are in white or grey.

Deep Brain Stimulation Synchronizes Neuron Firing to Rewire the Brain

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

Illustration showing a bacterial cell (top, left), DNA strand (top, middle), and antibody (top, right) being used as inputs into a visual representation of a neural network that has dark blue, light blue, and green nodes. There is a blue glass vial with a syringe at the bottom, representing a new vaccine as the output of the model. The background is black.

Vaccine Development Gets a Boost with AI

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 10+ min read

An illustration of human silhouettes and DNA imagery in colorful circles on a dark blue background.

Complete Reference Genomes Set New Genomics Milestones

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 4 min read

Collage-style image with a person’s hands holding a black camera against a teal background with an orange dot in the center behind the hands and camera.

Wellcome Photography Prize Links Science to the Human Experience

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 2 min read

Photograph of a person’s hand raised against a background with green, leafy trees. There are icons representing concepts of recycling, reducing carbon dioxide, and reusing materials floating above the hand.

Researchers Convert Carbon Dioxide into Recyclable Plastic

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

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The Scientist Digest cover September 2026

September 2026

Multiplex Microscopy Becomes Easier with Encoded Antibodies

A new system that enables researchers to uniquely tag monoclonal antibodies for use in microscopy could help simplify complex imaging studies.

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