Dr. Catherine Shaffer

Feature Writer

Ph.D

Life Sciences, Cell Biology

Catherine Shaffer is a freelance science and health writer from Michigan. She has written for a wide variety of trade and consumer publications on life sciences topics, particularly in the area of drug discovery and development. She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry and began her career as a laboratory researcher before transitioning to science writing. She also writes and publishes fiction, and in her free time enjoys yoga, biking, and taking care of her pets.

Articles from Catherine

Bioprinting in Medicine

Bioprinting can be applied to the fields of medical imaging, cardiology, muscle and bone repair, and skin damage recovery.

7 Jun 2018

Dielectric Spectroscopy

Dielectric spectroscopy is a type of impedance spectroscopy that measures the dielectric properties of a system as a function of frequency. The external field interacts with the dipole moment of the sample which is expressed as its permittivity.

7 Jun 2018

Cloning Unicellular Organisms

Molecular cloning is usually carried out on one gene or small DNA segment at a time. However, cloning technology has advanced to the stage that scientists have begun cloning genomes of entire unicellular organisms. This approach could be valuable for engineering organisms that thus far have not been amenable to propagation and engineering through conventional laboratory method

7 Jun 2018

Biofilms in Human Disease

A biofilm is a community of microbes on a surface that is encased in a polymer coating. Bacteria that grow attached to surfaces rather than floating in a liquid are called sessile. Most bacteria in nature are sessile, and aggregates of sessile bacteria can form biofilms.

7 Jun 2018

Live-cell Lattice Light-sheet Microscopy (LLSM) Applications

Live-cell lattice light-sheet microscopy (LLSM) is a technique for imaging cells rapidly. It has applications in nanoscience and cell membrane visualization.

5 Jun 2018

Krebs Cycle Enzymes

The Krebs cycle, also known as the citric acid cycle, is a series of enzymatic reactions that releases energy from stored carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

4 Jun 2018

Organism Cloning

There are a number of technologies that have been used for cloning, including those used to clone genes, single cells and whole organisms.

4 Jun 2018

What is Elastin?

Elastin is an extracellular matrix protein that lends elasticity and resilience to tissues such as the arteries, lungs, tendons, skin, and ligaments. Elastic fibers have two components, one of which is encoded by the ELN gene.

30 May 2018

What are Bacteriophages?

Bacteriophages are small, virus-like organisms that infect bacteria. They are comprised of a protein capsule around an RNA or DNA genome.

30 May 2018

Molecular Cloning

Molecular cloning refers to the replication and recombination of DNA molecules. The first cloning experiments were carried out in the 1970s, when restriction endonucleases were discovered. Restriction endonucleases are enzymes that selectively cleave and cut DNA like a pair of scissors.

29 May 2018