I have written a little bit of everything: newsletters, brochures, op-eds, case statements, blog posts and web pages. Here’s my resume and a few samples to show what I can do.
Articles Maya has a rare neurodegenerative condition—a form of Batten disease called atypical TPP1 deficiency. The word “rare” hardly does it justice: ultra rare, hyper rare, twenty-people-in-the-entire-world rare? How to Survive a Rare Disease
Remember the kids’ song “There Ain’t No Bugs on Me”? Totally untrue. There are lots of “bugs” on us—bacteria, viruses, fungi—trillions of them. They’re on our skin, throughout our guts, possibly in our brains, pretty much everywhere. Don’t recoil; it’s a good thing. Your Body is Bugged
Cancer is not like other diseases. Most conditions have external causes — bacteria, viruses, injury — but cancer comes from inside us. Cells go rogue, divide recklessly, invade other tissues and spread throughout the body. Taking Aim at Five Deadly Cancers
In the early 1980s, Savita Pahwa, M.D., was director of immunology at North Shore University Hospital in Long Island, New York, when an unnamed disease began killing children. She thinks about them often. “I remember all the beautiful children,” she said. “I had such close relationships with them.” Is This the End of HIV
What is aging? That question is more complex than it may appear. On an intuitive level, it’s our bodies becoming less resilient. Strenuous exercise, minor muscle strains, late nights out with friends—we just can’t bounce back like we used to. The Aging Puzzle Comes Together
In theory, genetic therapies could treat many diseases: rare monogenic conditions, more common and complex cardiovascular and metabolic issues, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer. Unfortunately, the reality has been disappointing. Early gene therapies have been plagued with mixed efficacy, off-target effects, and other issues. The Next Leap in Genetic Medicine
Viruses have limited genetic material—and few proteins—so all the pieces must work extra hard. Zika is a great example; the virus only produces 10 proteins. Now, in a study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys have shown how the virus does so much with so little and may have identified a therapeutic vulnerability. Study reveals Zika’s shape-shifting machinery—and a possible vulnerability
Consider a soap bubble. The way it contains the minimal possible surface area is surprisingly efficient. This is not a trivial issue. Mathematicians have been looking for better ways to calculate minimal surfaces for hundreds of years. A Brief History of Minimal Surfaces and the Ants That Love Them
Call it archaeology by other means. Rather than sifting through tons of dirt and carefully cataloguing human artifacts, Eske Willerslev and his colleagues have used Illumina NovaSeq Systems to sequence 5000 ancient human genomes, revealing previously unseen historical nuance. This research tour de force, which is being published this month in four papers in the journal Nature, offers a rich view of early human migrations, mating habits, and disease variants, and their impact on modern Europeans. What 5000 ancient human genomes can reveal about European health and heritage