From his earliest days in the laboratory, Joel Pomerantz got caught up in “the thrill that you can actually discover new things with your own hands, with your own mind.” As an undergraduate at Brandeis University, he spent a summer learning how to detect biochemical changes that enable…

Early-career biomedical researchers to examine the underpinnings of human behavior, cancer and chronic pain The Rita Allen Foundation has named its 2016 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars, recognizing seven young leaders in biomedical science whose research holds great promise for revealing new pathways to advance human health.

A chance introduction to the tricky issue of water pollution first attracted Diana Bautista to science. Growing up in Chicago, she was the first member of her family to finish high school, and she began college as a fine art major. But she floundered, and soon dropped out…

Since the current outbreak of Zika virus was first recognized in Brazil last year, scientists have been steadily uncovering new knowledge about the pathogen, including how it can cause developmental defects in infants born to infected mothers. A new study complements clinical observations of the virus’s effects, revealing that Zika…

Early on in his medical training, Douglas Fearon relished the “scientific problem solving” required to find effective treatments for patients. But as he progressed through his medical degree, internship and residency at Johns Hopkins University, Fearon also grew frustrated by the inability to truly cure diseases.

As an undergraduate studying biophysics, Jon Levine didn’t see himself going into medicine. He trained as a neuroscientist, first earning a Ph.D. at Yale, and then beginning a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, on the genetics of flight in fruit flies. It was 1972, and on…

With epidemics and outbreaks of Ebola virus, Zika virus, West Nile virus and others posing serious threats, many virologists are scrambling to learn how to better fight these human pathogens. Luis Villarreal has studied viruses for nearly 50 years, and considers them much more than infectious agents. For…

Hao Wu was a medical student in Beijing when she first saw the images that would change the course of her career. At an international biochemistry meeting, Michael Rossmann of Purdue University presented the intricate three-dimensional structures of viruses that his group had elucidated…

David Tuveson was born a naturalist. Growing up in Michigan, he says, “I was always outside—looking under a rock, going out on the water to observe and catch things and let them go…I’ve loved science ever since I was conscious.” David Tuveson(Photo: Courtesy of David…