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

3D illustration of a yellow tumor in the bottom left corner on a black background. A gold liposome toward the top right of the image delivers pink, multi-faceted diamonds representing a nanodrug to attack the tumor.

Tuning Cancer Therapy with Acoustic Drug Delivery

An older woman with short, gray hair is wearing a VR headset, reaching up to point to something simulated in her view.

How Augmented Reality is Advancing Brain and Mental Health Treatment

Illustration of transplanted beta-cell islets and surveilling host immune cells.

Cell Therapy is Poised for Sweet Victory in Diabetes

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Advancing Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes Treatment

Illustration of a scientist staring down at a broken glass flask with a powdered sample.

Shattered Glass, Salvaged Synthesis

Photograph of two Arabidopsis plants that either are from a genotype deficient in DNA methylation and small interfering RNAs from transposable elements (right) or has been rescued with the introduction of short hairpin RNAs. Whereas the plant on the left has four white petals like a normal plant, the plant on the right lacks these petals.

Small RNAs Save Plant Centromeres

Photograph of a person standing behind a box of office supplies from cleaning out their desk.

Federal Employee Firings Threaten the Future of American Research, Scientists Fear

Illustration of a scientist (right) demonstrating to an actor (left, in a white lab coat) how to pipette and explaining something (depicted by a virus and strand of DNA in a text bubble). Behind them is a movie set created to look like a laboratory, with stage lighting above and a film camera pointed at the set from the left side and straight ahead from a camera in the foreground. A director sits in a chair facing the set at the bottom left of the image.

The Guardians of Science in Sci-Fi Movies

Illustration of multiple blue and yellow neurons connected into a complex network.

Exploring New Ways that the Brain Rewires

Illustration of a light blue strand of DNA with one base highlighted in a light pink.

A Gene Drive with a Disappearing Act Can Aid Pest Control

3D illustration of blue and yellow ribosomes translating red mRNA into purple polypeptides.

Ribosomes Team Up to Translate Tricky mRNA Segments

3D illustration of a tumor on a black background. The tumor has recruited blood vessels to grow into it from a main artery running at the bottom of the photo. Around the tumor, purple, pink, and blue immune cells try to enter the tumor microenvironment but are stopped.

Inducible CAR T Cells Target Solid Tumors Better

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