<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[The Moving Target]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Moving Target]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 15 Oct 2026 01:08:42 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.themovingtarget.net/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Interview with Dr. Michael Shiloh - Part 4: The Reality of Being a Scientist]]></title><description><![CDATA[I wanted to end the interview with a question that was less about technology and more about the experience of doing science. After spending time in a research lab, I've learned that experiments don't always work the way you expect them to, and that research can take a lot of patience. What advice would you give students interested in this field? Michael Shiloh: My advice to students interested in infectious disease, or really any field, is to pursue something that genuinely interests and...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/interview-with-dr-michael-shiloh-part-4-the-reality-of-being-a-scientist</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6ac1a30acb756d1cb9d965bd</guid><pubDate>Sat, 26 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Interview with Dr. Michael Shiloh - Part 3: Looking Toward the Future]]></title><description><![CDATA[After asking about the technologies being used now, I wanted to ask what the future of infectious disease research might look like. How do you see your field evolving over the next five to 10 years? Michael Shiloh: One area where I think clinical infectious disease will evolve substantially is rapid molecular diagnostics. Ideally, we'll be able to determine not only what organism is causing an infection, but also which antibiotic or antiviral is most likely to treat it, much more quickly than...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/interview-with-dr-michael-shiloh-part-3-looking-toward-the-future</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6ac1a29bcb756d1cb9d964ab</guid><pubDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Interview with Dr. Michael Shiloh - Part 2: The Changing Tools of Research]]></title><description><![CDATA[One of the things that interested me while working in the lab was how many different tools can be used to answer questions in infectious disease. I wanted to ask Dr. Shiloh how his own research has changed and how he thinks newer technologies, including AI, are affecting the field. What tools or technologies do you use most often? Michael Shiloh: Personally, the tool I probably use most often is a computer. Much of my job now involves writing: grants to fund our research, papers to...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/interview-with-dr-michael-shiloh-part-2-the-changing-tools-of-research</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6ac19a3b7babcebbad142770</guid><pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2026 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Interview with Dr. Michael Shiloh - Part 1: Understanding Infectious Disease]]></title><description><![CDATA[After spending two summers working in infectious disease research, I wanted to learn more about the field beyond the specific questions we were studying in the lab. I interviewed Dr. Michael Shiloh about what originally drew him to infectious disease, what people misunderstand about the field, and what challenges he thinks deserve more attention. What drew you to this field? Michael Shiloh: I'm both an infectious disease physician and a scientist who studies infectious diseases. I've always...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/interview-with-dr-michael-shiloh-part-1-understanding-infectious-disease</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6ac17ce07babcebbad13e6fe</guid><pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2026 00:11:01 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Detecting Disease Outbreaks]]></title><description><![CDATA[How can scientists spot an outbreak before it becomes a crisis? Scientists have been tracking diseases for much longer than computers have existed. During the tuberculosis epidemics of the past, public health officials began collecting information about cases, monitoring transmission, and developing strategies to control the spread of disease. These efforts helped shape the foundations of modern epidemiology and disease surveillance. Today, technology has made outbreak detection much more...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/detecting-disease-outbreaks</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78f2a8421979b2d9781136</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Tech Changing Clinical Research]]></title><description><![CDATA[Technologies such as calcium imaging, advanced microscopy, genomic sequencing, and high-throughput screening have changed what researchers can investigate. Scientists can now introduce specific genes into cells, watch cellular signals change, analyze enormous amounts of genetic information, and screen many potential treatments or experimental conditions in parallel. Cell engineering is especially useful in infectious disease research. Scientists can modify cells to produce specific proteins...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/the-tech-changing-clinical-research</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78f2321b163fc3edb420c3</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Mar 2026 21:33:54 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[mRNA and What Comes Next]]></title><description><![CDATA[What if your cells could temporarily receive instructions for making a protein? That's essentially the idea behind mRNA vaccines. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, carries genetic instructions that cells can use to make proteins. Instead of putting an entire virus into the body, an mRNA vaccine gives cells temporary instructions for making a harmless piece of a pathogen. The immune system can then learn to recognize that protein and prepare for a future infection. The mRNA doesn't permanently change...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/mrna-and-what-comes-next</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78f16c2dc76a37da44e878</guid><pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Viruses That Adapt]]></title><description><![CDATA[Viruses constantly accumulate genetic changes as they replicate, and some of those changes can affect how easily they spread or how well our immune defenses recognize them. Influenza is a great example. Scientists developed the first influenza vaccines in the 1940s, but they soon discovered a major challenge: influenza viruses could change enough that a vaccine designed for one strain might not work as well against a newer strain. In the 1946–47 flu season, a significantly different influenza...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/viruses-that-adapt</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78f0ef2dc76a37da44e75e</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 Mar 2026 22:28:57 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[AI in the Lab]]></title><description><![CDATA[Artificial intelligence is becoming a powerful tool in scientific research. AI systems can analyze huge amounts of data, recognize patterns, predict protein structures, and help researchers identify promising drug candidates. Instead of having scientists examine every possibility one at a time, AI can help narrow down the possibilities and suggest which experiments may be worth testing. But AI doesn't replace the laboratory. A computer can predict that a molecule might work or that two...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/ai-in-the-lab</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78ef641b163fc3edb419c7</guid><pubDate>Sun, 22 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Your Immune System After COVID]]></title><description><![CDATA[Your immune system doesn't simply forget an infection when you recover. After an infection, the immune system can develop memory that helps it recognize a pathogen if it encounters it again. Scientists continue to study how infections such as COVID-19 affect immune memory, reinfection, and inflammation over time. These questions have become especially important as researchers try to understand why different infections can affect the body in very different ways. COVID-19 and tuberculosis...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/your-immune-system-after-covid</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78ecb87e238b0b8ae43aee</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Protein We Couldn't Find]]></title><description><![CDATA[What happens when an experiment doesn't work? Science isn't always about getting the result you expect. In our project, we needed to detect a protein called MD2, which works together with TLR4 and CD14 in recognizing certain bacterial molecules. Even though other parts of our experiment appeared to work, MD2 repeatedly failed to show up clearly on our Western blots. We tried different antibodies and conditions and even looked for MD2 in the cell culture media because the protein can be...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/the-protein-we-couldn-t-find</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78ec6b421979b2d9780246</guid><pubDate>Sun, 08 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How Scientists Make More DNA Using Bacteria]]></title><description><![CDATA[Scientists often need large amounts of plasmid DNA for experiments. To make more, researchers can introduce a plasmid into E. coli through a process called transformation. Once inside the bacteria, the plasmid is replicated as the bacteria grow, producing many copies of the same DNA. After the bacteria have multiplied, scientists can collect and purify the plasmid DNA using a process called a maxiprep. Instead of manually copying DNA over and over, researchers let rapidly reproducing bacteria...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/how-scientists-make-more-dna-using-bacteria</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78ec422dc76a37da44dba6</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 Feb 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Is a Plasmid?]]></title><description><![CDATA[What if scientists could give a cell a tiny set of genetic instructions? A plasmid is a small, circular piece of DNA that exists separately from a cell’s chromosomes. Scientists can design plasmids to carry specific genes and use them as tools to introduce those genes into cells. Once inside, the cell can use its normal gene-expression machinery to read the DNA, make mRNA, and ultimately produce the corresponding protein. Plasmids are incredibly useful in biotechnology because they let...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/what-is-a-plasmid</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78eaf92dc76a37da44d92d</guid><pubDate>Sun, 25 Jan 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Investigating The Role of TLR4]]></title><description><![CDATA[How does a cell know that something is there? Cells use proteins called receptors to detect signals around them. You can think of a receptor like a lock and the molecule it recognizes, called a ligand, like a key. When the right molecule interacts with a receptor, it can trigger a signal inside the cell. One of these receptors is Toll-like receptor 4, or TLR4, which is part of the innate immune system and can recognize certain molecules associated with bacteria. Because researchers suspected...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/investigating-the-role-of-tlr4</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78e8d0421979b2d977fb55</guid><pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:01:57 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Is PGL?]]></title><description><![CDATA[What if a molecule made by a bacterium could talk to your nerves? Phenolic glycolipid, or PGL, is a lipid molecule produced by some strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. While we usually think of bacterial molecules as interacting with immune cells, research has shown that PGL can also activate sensory neurons that innervate the lungs. These neurons help detect changes in the airways and can contribute to the cough reflex. That makes PGL especially interesting in tuberculosis research. PGL...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/what-is-pgl</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78e4792dc76a37da44cc95</guid><pubDate>Sun, 11 Jan 2026 21:46:12 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Why Does Tuberculosis Make You Cough?]]></title><description><![CDATA[What if a disease could make you cough on purpose? Coughing is one of the ways tuberculosis spreads, but scientists have found evidence that TB may do more than simply cause a cough. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for TB, produces a molecule called phenolic glycolipid (PGL), which can interact with sensory neurons involved in the cough reflex. In animal studies, PGL was shown to activate these sensory neurons and promote cough-related responses, even without the entire...]]></description><link>https://www.themovingtarget.net/post/why-does-tuberculosis-make-you-cough</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a78e1c78fa4989e0aca1e94</guid><pubDate>Sun, 04 Jan 2026 21:29:36 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>anyasabanayagam</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>