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

Reconstructed tomography and ultrasound image of the brain’s vasculature and glymphatic system. The blood vessels are visible as weaving strands outlining the shape of a brain, ranging from blue to green to yellow to indicate depth. The cerebrospinal fluid of the glymphatic system appears as bright orange, yellow, and red spots across the top of the brain and, with less intensity, in the middle and at the bottom of the image.

Ultrasound Reveals the Brain’s Waste Removal System

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 4 min read

Illustration of Esther Jimenez, with long dark hair and in a white shirt, taking notes behind her desk while a client across from her in a business suit describes a new invention. A laptop beside him shows an example of DNA sequencing. A monitor next to Jimenez is open to a Word document with the text “New Device” at the top. Behind Jimenez is a certificate identifying her as a patent agent by the USPTO.

Career Chat: How a Patent Agent Helps Innovations Succeed

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

Simple cartoon image of four adult students sitting around a table with laptops. They have speech bubbles above their heads with green and yellow icons of a heart, an exclamation point, a question mark, and a lightbulb. Their clothes are in either green or yellow.

Why One PI Stopped Attending His Own Lab Meetings

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

3D illustration of gray protein shapes overlaid with colorful ball-and-stick models showing their atomic interactions to represent molecular dynamic simulations of protein interactions with drugs.

High Schooler Tackles Computational Drug Discovery

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

An illustration of David Brayden on a landline phone standing in a home office. He looks shocked and has a white thought bubble above him. Inside of it is an image of a glass presentation slide from the 1980s, which is framed by a white sleeve. The slide shows Brayden’s skin tissue sample stained with a dye to make the squiggly sweat glands appear red. A crack is running across the slide.

Epic Fail: A Cracked Slide for Christmas

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 2 min read

Photograph of a researcher holding up a clear plastic film with black lines printed on it. The lines show a western blot. The researcher has dark hair and is wearing glasses, but the details of their face are obscured by the film.

Altered Antibody Validation Data on Vendor Sites Alarms Researchers

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 7 min read

Photograph of a New World Screwworm standing on a wooden post. The fly has a shiny greenish-blue back, translucent wings, and large orange eyes.

As the New World Screwworm Returns, Scientists Unite to Fight Back

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 6 min read

A 3D illustration of tan cells with bumps on their surface, purple cells with petal-like folds, blue cells, and pink cells with long projects clustered around branches of red blood

Artificial Blood Vessels and AI Will Help Better Model the Human Pancreas

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 3 min read

A bar chart with two sets of red and black bars representing the median annual income for graduate and postdoctoral researchers compared to their equivalently educated peers from all professions. Graduate researchers make approximately $36,500 compared to their peers’ $82,000. Postdoctoral researchers make approximately $60,000 compared to their peers’ salary of nearly $120,000.

Compensation Challenges Strain Graduate and Postdoctoral Researchers

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 7 min read

Photo of an unlit movie theater with a film showing two astronauts in space suits walking across a dusty surface.

Lights, Camera, Science! The Science and Entertainment Exchange Brings Real Science to Hollywood

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 5 min read

3D illustration of two human head shapes made on crumpled paper facing each other on a grey background. The head on the left has red tape covering its mouth, representing censorship.

Police Removed Prominent Scientists from the ADA Meeting. Researchers Respond

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 6 min read

A vector illustration of blue background with a human arm extending from the left of the image holding up their hand against a robot arm entering from the right of the frame holding a pencil. Above the human’s hand, the word “No” is written in white with a white exclamation point beside it. This represents opposition to improper AI use in science writing.

arXiv Takes the First Step to Combat “AI Slop” in Submissions

By Shelby Bradford, PhD | | 5 min read

Page 2 of 21 - 252 Total Items

1 2 3 4 5

August 2026 Digest cover

August 2026

Epic Fail: Sea-Monkeys Sabotage Fieldwork

When Barry Hicks set out to photograph thrombolites, thousands of unexpected visitors photobombed his underwater images.

View this Issue

Research Resources

Podcasts

Webinars

Videos

Infographics

eBooks

Improving rAAV Production for Viral Vector Manufacturing

Improving rAAV Production for Viral Vector Manufacturing

Explore strategies for improving recombinant adeno-associated virus production in transient HEK293 suspension cultures while maintaining vector quality and supporting scalable viral vector manufacturing.

Advancing Respiratory Immunity Through Tissue-Resident Memory T Cell Research

Advancing Respiratory Immunity Through Tissue-Resident Memory T Cell Research

Discover how tissue-resident memory T cells develop within the respiratory tract and how these findings are advancing respiratory virus immunity, vaccine research, and high-throughput immune profiling.

Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance in Liver Cancer

Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance in Liver Cancer

Explore emerging mechanisms of immune checkpoint inhibitor resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and how combination immunotherapy strategies may improve antitumor immune responses and patient-specific treatment approaches.

Optimizing NGS Library Preparation for Reliable Sequencing Data

Optimizing NGS Library Preparation for Reliable Sequencing Data

Learn practical strategies for optimizing sample preparation, fragmentation, library construction, and quality control to generate high-quality next-generation sequencing (NGS) data across a range of sample types.

Products

Product News

Sino Biological Launches European Newsletter Campaign with Exclusive Welcome Gifts

European customers can now subscribe to Sino Biological’s newsletter to receive a special gift and unlock access to EliteScience benefits.

Sino Biological Launches SuperNuclease ® Pro with Free Trial Program

Sino Biological’s trial program enables qualified customers to evaluate SuperNuclease Pro in their specific bioprocessing applications, facilitating faster technology assessment and informed decision-making during process development

Sino Biological Launches Precisely Characterized Full-Length p-Tau217 Protein to Advance Next-Generation Alzheimer’s Biomarker Assay Development

This release expands on Sino Biological's comprehensive Tau protein product portfolio, designed to accelerate neurodegenerative disease research.

A photo of a scientist placing the Resipher device on a 96-well plate.

Resipher: Continuous Live-Cell Mitochondrial Respiration Monitoring in 96-Well Plates

Resipher measures cellular respiration (OCR) continuously in standard 96-well plates inside your incubator, for days to weeks. No media swaps, dyes, or transfers. A live-cell functional readout for drug safety, metabolism, and mitochondrial health.