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Living & Wellbeing

Using ‘Omics to Understand the Rise in Breast Cancers Among Young Asians

By Get Science Staff - This article originally published on Get Science Asian women, compared to their counterparts in western countries, are diagnosed with breast cancer at earlier ages and face a worse prognosis. In an effort to better understand this patient population, scientists from Pfizer and Samsung Medical Center (SMC) in Seoul, Korea, have embarked on a multi-phase project to do multi-omic profiling of the tumors of some 187 younger Korean breast cancer patients. Multi-omics refers...

Science & Innovation

Attacking Cancer Cells That Develop Resistance

By Get Science Staff - This article originally published on Get Science When cancer patients receive therapy for an extended time, they often face the specter of drug resistance as tumor cells mutate and find ways to evade the cancer-killing medicines. Exploring new ways to disarm rogue cells that have developed resistance is a major field of modern cancer research. One way to address the issue of resistance is to attack cancer through the fundamental processes that drive their core mission —...

Purpose & Ideals

Steps to a Stronger Doctor-Patient Relationship

ul.custom-margin { margin-top: 15px; } We’re dedicated to sharing the perspectives of people affected by chronic inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). That’s why we created Arthritis.com, a place where people living with RA can find inspiration, lifestyle advice, tools and disease information. Following is an article from Arthritis.com contributor and editorial board member Ara Dikranian, M.D. Dr. Dikranian was compensated by Pfizer to share his perspective as a...

Living & Wellbeing

Four Things to Know About Managing Your Rheumatoid Arthritis with Your Doctor

We’re dedicated to sharing the perspectives of people affected by chronic inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). That’s why we created Arthritis.com, a place where people living with RA can find inspiration, lifestyle advice, tools and disease information. Following is an article from Arthritis.com contributor and editorial board member Ara Dikranian, M.D.Managing a chronic condition like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) requires an equal partnership between doctors and patients. Here...

The Table of Everything: A Scientist’s Quest to Make Human Genetic Data More User-Friendly

Since the human genome was first sequenced in 2003, scientists have collected a wealth of genetic information that could potentially be used to help create new medicines. Remarkably, as sequencing technology gets faster and cheaper, the amount of human genetic data now doubles every seven months. But in order to keep pace with the rapid generation of genetic information and to make use of it in drug discovery, this information needs to be made more accessible for scientists of all stripes, not...

Partnering to Turn the 'Undruggable' into Promising Targets

In the world of drug discovery, “undruggable” targets are like the stubborn children of biology, proteins that are considered too challenging to bind with conventional molecules. With the rapid pace of scientific advancement, however, the “undruggable” targets of yesterday now represent a promising new area of research. Such is the case with deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs), a family of some 100 proteins that play a role in regulating the right balance of proteins in cells. In 2017, academic...

Living & Wellbeing

Three Things to Know About Venous Thromboembolism and Cancer

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) can be a dangerous, potentially deadly medical condition that is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide and the third most common cause of vascular death after heart attack and stroke.1 VTE encompasses two serious conditions: deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot in a deep vein, and pulmonary embolism (PE), a potentially life-threatening condition in which a blood clot blocks a blood vessel in the lungs. Despite the potential dangers of this condition...

Cachexia Insights: Helping Improve Quality of Life in Chronically Ill Patients

It’s an experience familiar to almost anyone with a family member or friend who has fought a terminal illness, such as cancer or heart failure. In the final stages of life, it can seem as though their loved one is wasting away. This dramatic loss of muscle and fat is caused by cachexia, a wasting disorder that afflicts patients in the late stage of nearly every chronic illness. It’s the immediate cause of death in nearly 20 to 40 percent of cancer patients. “So many people can relate to someone...

From Nĭ Hăo to Better Potential Medicines: How Language Translation Technology Is Being Applied to Drug Design

This is the first in a two-part series. If you’ve ever used Google Translate, you’ve seen how the app can effortlessly translate between two very different languages, such as going from English to Chinese. Now, the same technology is being applied to a new challenge: building better medicines. This technology, known as sequence-to-sequence (Seq2Seq), is a type of machine learning framework behind many of the language-processing apps we use today — from Siri and Alexa to customer service...

Real People

New Podcast, ‘The Antigen,’ Takes a Deep Dive into the Story of Vaccines

When we decided to create a podcast about vaccines, Yasmeen Agosti, MD was a natural choice to host . For many years, vaccines have been an enormous part of Agosti’s life, first as a pediatrician, now as the global medical affairs lead for viral vaccines at Pfizer. In our new audio series, called “The Antigen,” she delves into in the fascinating world of immunization, exploring the science and story behind vaccines, the rise of the anti-vaccination movement and the many social, cultural and...

Meet the Team: Homegrown Therapies Get Ready to Fight NASH

One of the biggest public health problems of our time is likely soon to face off with a new wave of cutting-edge medicines. As non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a severe form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, continues to be a growing public health threat, scientists are racing to develop treatments. There is currently no FDA-approved medicine for NASH, but nearly 50 candidates, including three from Pfizer, are in clinical testing — one or more which will hopefully be the next...

How Next-Generation Sequencing Is Helping to Build Better Vaccines

If you’ve ever tried an at-home genetic testing kit, you’re familiar with whole-genome sequencing, the technology that allows people to quickly and easily map their DNA. This same technology is now being used to track the genomes of potentially deadly microbes. During global disease outbreaks, scientists have long used genotyping tools to understand pathogens and track genetic changes. But in recent years, as the sequencing technology has become faster and more affordable, researchers are...