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Thomas Forbes wears safety glasses as he looks at the screen attached to a piece of equipment in the lab.

Your Future Medications Could Be Personalized for You on a 3D Printer

May 28, 2024

Your future medications could be made on a 3D printer, and a NIST researcher is working to make sure that process is safe.

Jerilyn Izac sits at a lab bench with her hands inside a plastic shield, using a device to draw liquid from a plastic container into a tube.

How Measurement Science Can Help Protect Us From Viruses

October 25, 2023

Jerilyn Izac

Imagine if for the next dangerous virus, we could quickly and easily test everyone’s levels of defenses — known as antibodies.

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

Robert DeJaco

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?

Colorized micrograph shows cells with pink centers and turquoise edges on a black background.

How Henrietta Lacks Changed My View of Human Cells as a Physicist

May 27, 2022

Greta Babakhanova

A NIST researcher has developed a whole different kind of appreciation for her samples.

$close up of a clear fractured glass like substance with some rainbow distortions$

Clear as Glass: Studying Drug-Delivery Materials as a NIST SURF Student

October 1, 2021

Claire Lamberti

This summer was an interesting one, to say the least. I was in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program offered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). As my summer project, I studied organic glasses, solid materials composed of molecules that are arranged in

see through human body with organs on the left with an arrow pointing to a schematic of the body cube, represented by a CAD drawing with some multicolor inlaid chips that culture cells for different organs

Creating and Commercializing a Human ‘Body Cube’ for Testing New Drugs

May 26, 2021

Mandy Esch

Growing up, I always had a love for living things, so I went off to college and got an undergraduate degree in biology. After that, I realized I wanted to specialize in an area that could help people live better lives and conquer diseases, so I decided to get a Ph.D. in biotechnology. During my Ph.D

RNA Structure and Dynamics: The One-Two Punch in the Fight Against COVID-19

February 17, 2021

Christina Bergonzo

We are all well aware of COVID-19, and by now most people have seen pictures of the spike protein that forms the “handshake” interaction between virus and host cells and is the basis of two new vaccines. The COVID-19 virus is made of RNA, which manufactures the spike protein and all the other

The Rapid Microbial Testing Methods Consortium: Enabling Safe, Effective and Timely Advanced Therapies

August 14, 2020

Advanced therapies are poised to change the face of medicine, promising to cure diseases that have long resisted us. But there are many challenges to overcome before we can make full use of these life-saving therapies, including detecting microbial contamination quickly. We sat down with Nancy Lin

black background with many multicolored symbols representing a clipboard, a computer screen, test tubes, gears and a petri dish. On the computer screen it reads "World Metrology Day 2020"

World Metrology Day: Measurements for Medicine

May 19, 2020

Walter Copan

Today is World Metrology Day. Have you put up the decorations and baked a cake yet to celebrate?! You should! Metrology, the science of measurement, makes modern life possible. Measurement science provides the common language that enables manufacturing quality, equitable global trade and the

a latex gloved hand holds a syringe that has been loaded with medicine

Manufacturing Standards for Biopharmaceuticals: A Q&A With NIST’s Sheng Lin-Gibson and Vijay Srinivasan

January 21, 2020

Biopharmaceuticals, also known as biological drugs or biologics, are manufactured from living organisms or contain living organisms that have been genetically engineered to prevent or treat diseases. Biologics are chemically and structurally complex, and often highly heterogeneous; therefore

image of a subway train as it rushes past, the words "mind the gap" appear on the subway platform

Mind the Gap: Bridging the ‘Valley of Death’ for U.S. Biomanufacturing

January 6, 2020

Kelvin H. Lee

Biopharmaceutical manufacturing uses living cells to produce therapies that treat diseases like cancer, diabetes and autoimmune disorders. Manufacturing medicine using biology presents different challenges from the traditional chemical manufacturing processes that stamp out identical pressed pills

Mathematician Ryan Evans in front of a whiteboard covered in mathematical equations

It All Adds Up: Being a NIST NRC Postdoc in Applied Mathematics

August 21, 2018

Ryan Evans

I first learned about the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) while a graduate student in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Delaware, which has an active student chapter of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). They regularly invite

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

Photo of scientists checking vaccine temperatures.

Sticking Point: Temperature Control Vital to Vaccine Viability

January 21, 2016

Michal Chojnacky

Flu season typically peaks between December and February, but by the time the winter holidays roll around, many of us will have already waited in line at area clinics, grocery stores, and pharmacies to get our annual flu shot. The Centers for Disease Control reports that U.S. vaccination efforts

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