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A medical worker wears gloves as she prepares to swab the nose of a female patient.

Measuring the Accuracy of PCR Tests Can Improve Health Care Beyond COVID-19

September 11, 2023

Many of us have taken a COVID-19 test. But, have you ever wondered, after your sample goes off to a lab, exactly how they arrive at a positive or negative result?

Ming Zheng stands outside smiling and holding a model of a nanotube made of a lattice of smaller tubes.

To See Life in a Drop of Blood

July 7, 2022

Ming Zheng

A NIST researcher shares his excitement about the promise of a hybrid molecule that can detect disease.

a small box with cable pairs of cable outlets coming out of either end. the box top is open and there is circuitry and a white nipple shaped piece in the center.

Working to Improve Small-Scale MRIs: My Summer as a SURF Student at NIST

September 28, 2021

Emily Buchanan

I didn’t really know what to expect on the first day of my virtual Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). At 12:00 p.m., with my second cup of coffee in hand, I sat down at my desk and hopped on the first of many video

overlapping wavelengths of light enter from the left and pass into the optical frequency comb device. The image shows a visualization of the different wavelengths separated into even increments.

Making Measurements With a Fine-Toothed Comb

September 15, 2021

Rebecca Jacobson

To many people, a measurement sounds mundane, like marking ticks on a ruler or reading the line on a thermometer. It’s a piece of data. And they tend to think that improved measurements look like finer and finer ticks on a ruler — which doesn’t seem very exciting. But making new measurements is more

NIST Charleston researchers Ashley Boggs-Russell (sitting) and Amanda Moors (standing) work with researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Mammal Foundation to process tissue samples during veterinary assessments of wild bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. No dolphins were harmed in this process.

Tracking Hormones on Land and at Sea

September 22, 2020

Ashley Boggs

It’s usually pretty straightforward to explain how my work on clinical measurements is a benefit to society, but sometimes I get confused looks when I tell people about my work on whales, alligators and fish, to name a few. At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), I work on

a photo of two bottles about the size of spice bottles. On one is written 4351 Human lung for 239+240 Pu measurements, and on the other is written 4352 Human liver for 239+240 Pu measurements

Making Radioactive Lung and Liver Samples for Better Human Health

October 25, 2019

Kenneth G.W. Inn

It was 1978, and the United States was embroiled in a Cold War. Nuclear weapons were being produced and numerous countries were carrying out atmospheric nuclear tests. Nuclear power plants were also being built and fueled. As an unintended result, people were sometimes contaminated and injured when

Doctor in futuristic medical concept pressing button

The Next Big Health Care Merger: Biomedical Imaging and Artificial Intelligence

May 21, 2018

Denis Bergeron, Michael Garris

Two worlds just collided at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. On May 16, 2018, experts from the medical imaging and artificial intelligence communities gathered for a two-day workshop on the high-tech future of medical decision-making. Their vision

Researcher Erica Stein pipetting under chemical hood

Down for the Count: How NIST is Helping Defeat Cancer

September 20, 2017

Erica Stein

Anyone who has met me knows that I’m a proud Buffalonian. Buffalo, New York, is best known for being the birthplace of “Buffalo” chicken wings, a gateway to Niagara Falls, home to a professional football team that lost four consecutive super bowls, and, most notably, blizzard-prone. Another amazing

showing representations of various microorganisms

Say Hello to Our Little Friends: Toward Microbial BiotheraPOOtics and Diagnostics

May 13, 2016

Scott Jackson

My fascination with the microbial world began when I was around 7 years old and my mother bought me a book called “ The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur”. Nearly four decades later, I still vividly remember the story about the little boy Joey and the “invisible enemy” that

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Clinical diagnostics

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