Sabrina Richards

Seattle

Science Writer at Fred Hutch News Service

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Articles

New horizons in infectious disease treatment and prevention in immunocompromised patients

5 days ago | fredhutch.org | Sabrina Richards

Infectious disease specialist Camille Kotton, MD, clinical director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Transplant Infectious Disease and Immunocompromised Host Program, discussed novel vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for respiratory viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. This virus causes a lot of disease in immunocompromised people, but those younger than 60 are not currently included in the Center for Disease Control’s RSV vaccination guidelines.
Dr. Peter Gilbert receives Marvin Zelen Leadership Award in Statistical Science

1 month ago | fredhutch.org | Sabrina Richards

After receiving his PhD in biostatistics at the University of Washington, Gilbert moved to Zelen’s department at Harvard, focusing on analyzing and designing clinical trials to test treatments for HIV. From the beginning, he integrated students into his research, a theme that would continue throughout his career. In 2001, Gilbert’s doctoral mentor, UW biostatistician Steven Self, PhD, enticed him back to Seattle to support the rapidly expanding statistical science developments at Fred Hutch.
RNA “typos” can highlight leukemia cells for immune attack

2 months ago | fredhutch.org | Sabrina Richards

Bradley and Abdel-Wahab have a long-standing collaboration working out how mutations in certain splicing factor genes drive leukemia, with an eye toward leveraging the knowledge to develop new treatments. “We were wondering, could cancers with mutations in the splicing machineries just on their own generate novel proteins that could be really amazing therapeutic targets — if we could figure out what those novel proteins are and what the immune cells that recognize them are,” Abdel-Wahab said.
Drs. Keith Jerome and Jesse Bloom elected fellows of American Academy of Microbiology

Mar 20, 2025 | fredhutch.org | Sabrina Richards

Jerome’s lab, in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutch, focuses on viruses that persist in their hosts and evade the immune system. While viruses like influenza come and go, others can set up permanent homes in our cells. Viruses like herpes simplex virus (HSV), hepatitis B, HIV and (occasionally) human papillomavirus, have found different ways to stick with us.
TRACER Initiative Targets Rare Cancers

Feb 16, 2025 | jons-online.com | Sabrina Richards

Brand-new cancer drugs typically take about 10 to 20 years to develop. And that’s just too long, as far as Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s Taran Gujral, PhD, is concerned — especially when it comes to rare cancers that are less likely to get attention from the pharmaceutical industry.
February 2025, Vol 15, No 2

Feb 10, 2025 | oncpracticemanagement.com | Dawn Holcombe |Diane Mapes |Sabrina Richards |Jan Hailey

By Diane Mapes; Sabrina RichardsA lab created a drug-matching platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help researchers, clinicians and, most importantly, patients find additional uses for drugs that have already gone through clinical trials and received approval from the FDA. Read More ›Patient experience has become a cornerstone of medical office operations. It significantly influences patient outcomes, satisfaction, and overall well-being.
Crunching the numbers for next-gen COVID-19 vaccines

Jan 7, 2025 | fredhutch.org | Sabrina Richards

To ensure that vaccines work, they need to be tested in as wide an array of people as possible. In most vaccine trials, volunteer have their blood drawn in a clinical setting, but constraints in scheduling and commuting can make it difficult for many people to participate in these trials. To get more people involved, scientists are testing strategies that require less effort, less blood and — hopefully — fewerphlebotomy needles.
‘Action and progress link our globe’

Dec 9, 2024 | fredhutch.org | Sabrina Richards

Driffin is no stranger to the challenges posed by an HIV diagnosis, nor to how critical good information is to ensuring someone can make the best decisions for themselves. Initially planning to become a doctor, he knew he wanted to improve health equity and help people stay healthy, but an HIV diagnosis shortly after Driffin graduated with his Bachelor of Science in biology appeared to be a roadblock.
Proposing a Clinical Trials Network for Patients With Weakened Immune Systems [VIDEO]

Dec 5, 2024 | poz.com | Sabrina Richards

The COVID-19 pandemic made plain what many patients, clinicians and researchers have known for decades: people with weakened immune systems are much more vulnerable to infectious diseases. But immunocompromised patients are usually left out of large clinical trials that assess new treatments and vaccines, leaving a data gap that hampers clinical care.
How protective antibodies get in malaria’s way

Nov 20, 2024 | fredhutch.org | Sabrina Richards

Antibodies are immune proteins that our bodies produce to help fight off infection. Where they recognize and bind a pathogen — and how — can give important clues to the microbe’s vulnerabilities. Fred Hutch Cancer Center structural biologists Marie Pancera, PhD, and Nicholas Hurlburt, PhD, understand how subtleties of antibody-target interaction can guide development of better treatments and vaccines.