Joanna Owens, PhD
Joanna brings more than 20 years’ experience writing about a wide range of scientific topics in biosciences, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. After a PhD in Molecular Toxicology, Joanna began a career in science publishing, as associate editor on Drug Discovery Today and later as senior editor, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. In 2007, she joined one of the world’s largest biomedical charities, Cancer Research UK, specializing in plain language science communications for patients and the public. Joanna has been a freelance writer since 2017, covering all biomedical topics with a focus on oncology, pharmacology and drug discovery.
Latest Content
Article
Cryopreservation: Applications and Advances
In this article, we explore the challenges with cryopreservation and the emerging advances that could improve these methods.
Article
Advances in Antibody Screening
In this article, we explore recent developments in antibody screening that can quickly identify and prioritize antibodies for further development.
Article
Exploring the Human Chronobiome and Precision Medicine Approaches
We recently spoke with Carsten Skarke, MD, the McNeil Fellow in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania to learn more about his work on the human chronobiome, its relevance in terms of timing the delivery of therapeutics and developing precision medicines.
Article
New Frontiers in Pharmacokinetics
In this article, we look at two factors that may impact the pharmacokinetics of drugs; our gender, and the microbes we share our body with.
Article
The Global Push for a COVID-19 Vaccine
Worldwide, researchers are racing to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Many different parties within the scientific community are working to develop a vaccine – from scientists who have dedicated their careers to the study of coronaviruses, to specialists in vaccine design from both academia and industry, to those in other disciplines who have redirected their efforts to combat this global health threat. In this article, we meet some of the teams who are at the forefront of this endeavor.
Listicle
Six Steps Towards Understanding the Microbiome and Cancer
In cancer, rapidly emerging evidence suggests that the microbiome influences disease progression in a myriad of direct and indirect ways. In this listicle, we look at recent research developments directed towards exploring the emerging “oncomicrobiome”.
Article
Diverse Applications of High-Content and High-Throughput Screening
In this article, we use COVID-19 and cancer to illustrate the range of screening tools at our fingertips today.
Article
Targeting the Tumor Microenvironment
In this article, we learn why it’s not just the tumor itself that needs to be targeted and hear about research that aims to exploit the tumor microenvironment.
Article
Advances in High-Throughput Screening
Ever since the advent of the multi-well plate, researchers have been pioneering new ways to miniaturize assays for high-throughput screening (HTS). Here, we share two examples that illustrate the power of modern HTS in drug discovery.
Article
Advances in Cancer Drug Discovery
From optimizing immunotherapy to second-guessing cancer’s next evolutionary step – there has never been a more innovative era in cancer drug discovery.
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