Featured Posts
How AI Is Accelerating Drug Discovery
Machine learning models can screen compounds faster than traditional methods. This post explains how AI reduces early-stage research timelines.
Detecting Disease Outbreaks
Algorithms can analyze patterns in health data to flag potential outbreaks. This post explores this history of epidemiology and how predictive modeling supports public health.
Public Trust in Science After a Pandemic
Trust influences how people respond to health guidance. We explore the factors that shape public perception and behavior following a pandemic.
At The Moving Target, we track both sides of the race: how the threats are shifting and how the tools to fight them are evolving even faster.
welcome to moving target
We're a platform exploring how infectious disease and technology are evolving in lockstep, and what that means for all of us.
On one side, diseases are changing: post-COVID immune systems behave differently, viruses mutate faster than ever, and familiar illnesses feel worse than they used to. On the other side, technology is racing to keep up, with AI-driven drug discovery, mRNA breakthroughs, and real-time genomic surveillance reshaping how we fight back. The Moving Target sits right at that collision point.
Here are some things we will cover here
01
Your Immune System After COVID
Explore what researchers are learning about how COVID changed immune responses long-term, why common colds and flus feel different now, and what the science actually says versus the speculation.
02
AI in the Lab
Learn how artificial intelligence and machine learning are accelerating drug discovery, predicting outbreaks before they happen, and helping researchers identify treatment targets in a fraction of the time it used to take.
03
Viruses That Adapt
Understand how and why pathogens mutate, what makes some variants more dangerous than others, and how scientists track viral evolution in real time using genomic sequencing.
04
mRNA and What Comes Next
Go beyond the COVID vaccine headlines and explore how mRNA technology is being applied to other infectious diseases, cancers, and conditions that were previously untreatable.
05
The Tech Changing Clinical Research
Discover how new tools, from tissue-on-a-chip models to computational biology, are transforming how treatments are tested and developed before they ever reach a patient.
06
Outbreaks We Should Be Watching
Follow emerging infectious disease threats around the world and the technological infrastructure (or lack of it) being used to monitor and respond to them.
07
Conversations with Researchers
Hear directly from scientists and technologists who are working at this intersection: what they're building, what keeps them up at night, and what gives them hope.
why is this important?
The relationship between infectious disease and technology is the defining health story of this generation.
The threats are getting more complex, but so are the tools. The Moving Target helps young readers understand both sides so they can be part of the response, not just spectators.
About the
founder
Pathogens are moving targets - they, evade, adapt and evolve. Science itself is a moving target: experiments fail, assumptions change and every answer creates another question. After two summers conducting infectious-disease research at UT Southwestern, Anya developed a deeper interest in the questions surrounding tuberculosis, immunology, and emerging biomedical technologies.
Anya created The Moving Target to explore the questions that she has had since her 6th grade research paper on the plaque and those that kept following her outside the lab.
Anya Sabanayagam
Outside the laboratory, Anya is a volleyball and golf team captain, tutors English-language learners at a local middle school, and contributes to a diverse school community. She also pursues ceramics, 2-D art, and clothing design, interests that provide a creative counterpoint to her work in science.
