February 8, 2021
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Clockwise from left: Clark Burnett ’19, Ken Burns, Thomas Allen Harris, Sarah Burns ’04
When told well, stories provide people a way to relate, forge connections, and convey culture and values that unite communities. But stories can also be used to promote bias, distort perceptions, and shape false realities.
With the advent of digital media and social platforms, stories including false and dubious ones reach millions of people at the click of a button. This has led to what some observers call “an information crisis” and to unprecedented cultural divides over science, shared values, and the truth itself.
By William Weir
February 1, 2021
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Bioadhesive nanoparticles (white) after being taken up by skin cancer tumor cells during in vitro culture. (Image credit: Julia Lewis)
Yale researchers are developing a skin cancer treatment that involves injecting nanoparticles into the tumor, killing cancer cells with a two-pronged approach, as a potential alternative to surgery.
“For a lot of patients, treating skin cancer is much more involved than it would be if there was a way to effectively treat them with a simple procedure like an injection,” said Dr. Michael Girardi, professor and vice chair of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study. “That’s always been a holy grail in dermatology to find a simpler way to treat skin cancers such as basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.”
By William Weir
January 28, 2021
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This article originally appeared in
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Inside a tumor, chatter abounds. Multiple cell types are constantly communicating with each other, exchanging various types of information. Some are working together against the tumor, while others help the tumor grow. Researchers have a good handle on who the main players are, but it can be difficult to tell the good ones from the bad ones, and who’s communicating with whom. To make things even more complicated, sometimes good cells turn bad and researchers don’t know why.
By Jim Shelton
January 28, 2021
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Left to right; Nicholas Huston, Han Wan, Madison Strine, and Rafael Araujo Tavares working in Anna Marie Pyle’s lab. (Photo: Dan Renzetti)
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have tried to understand and track SARS-CoV-2 without a proper parts list.
Much of the research emphasis has been on proteins such as the “spike” proteins that cover the COVID-19 virus and attach themselves to human cells. Scientists continue to study how these proteins function and interact.
But Yale biochemist Anna Marie Pyle says there is also much to be gained by understanding the RNA of the virus and the structures within it. The “shapes” formed by the RNA in a viral genome influence its efficiency at copying itself, making proteins, and packing into the viral particle, which is a key factor in pathogenicity.