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Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Medical Writer

Medical writing is an esteemed profession. Every day, medical writers are detailing, documenting, and sharing news and research that is improving health outcomes and saving lives. Their roles and opportunities are always evolving, whether they’re crafting peer-reviewed articles reporting on clinical trials, marketing cutting-edge devices, educating health care professionals or even the general public about new treatments, or writing grant proposals to fund innovative research.

This guide provides information and resources on what medical writers do, the companies they work for, and what you need to know to embark on this growing, rewarding—and lucrative—career.

What Is Medical Writing?

Medical writing involves the development and production of print or digital documents that deal specifically with medicine or health care. The profession of medical writing calls for knowledge in both writing and science, combining a writer’s creative talent with the rigor and detail of research and the scientific process. 

With the constant advancement and innovation in medicine and health care, the need to communicate about research findings, products, devices, and services is growing. Medical writers are increasingly in demand to convey new information to health care professionals as well as the general public.

Depending on their position and the scope of their duties, medical writers are involved in communicating scientific and clinical data to many audiences, from doctors and nurses to insurance adjusters and patients. They work in a variety of formats, including traditional print publications to electronic publications, multimedia presentations, videos, podcasts, website content, and social media sites.

Medical writers often work with doctors, scientists, and other subject matter experts (SMEs) to create documents that describe research results, product use, and other medical information. They also ensure that documents comply with regulatory, publication, or other guidelines in terms of content, format, and structure. 

Medical writers are also key players in developing applications for mobile devices that are used in multiple ways, such as

• Disease management
• Continuing education and training
• Medical reference and information-gathering
• Practice management and monitoring

Medical communicators may be writers, editors , health care journalists, supervisors, project managers, media relations specialists, educators, and more. At their core, they are exceptionally skilled at gathering, organizing, interpreting, evaluating, and presenting often complex information to health care professionals, a public audience, or industry professionals such as hospital purchasers, manufacturers and users of medical devices, pharmaceutical sales representatives, members of the insurance industry, and public policy officials. For each of these audiences, the language, documents, and deliverables are distinct.  For beginning to mid-level medical communicators who want to enhance and fine-tune their medical editing skills, AMWA provides a Certificate in Medical Editing .  

What Are Examples of Medical Communication Jobs?

Medical communication positions in writing and editing vary greatly across industries, companies, organizations, and other entities. 

In addition to the title of medical writer, medical communicators may be known as scientific writers, technical writers, regulatory writers , promotional writers, health care marketers, health care journalists, or communication specialists. Both medical writers and medical editors may work for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, medical communication agencies, medical education companies, health care professionals associations, academic institutions, medical and health care book publishers, trade publications, and more. 

What Do Medical Writers Write?

The expertise and contributions of medical writers and editors can be found throughout the medical community. Examples of their work include

• Abstracts for medical journals and medical conferences
• Advertisements for pharmaceuticals, devices, and other products
• Advisory board summaries
• Continuing medical education materials
• Decision aids for patients
• Grant proposals
• Health care policy documents
• Health education materials
• Magazine and newspaper articles
• Medical and health care books
• Medical and scientific journal articles
• Marketing materials
• Poster presentations for medical conferences
• Regulatory documents, including FDA submissions
• Sales training
• Slide presentations for medical conferences
• White papers

Who Hires Medical Writers?

Right now, there is tremendous growth in the medical industry. Pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs more quickly, and new medical devices and diagnostic tools are being released every day. With this comes the increased need to meet regulatory and insurance requirements and to relay medical and consumer information. All of this results in greater opportunities for medical writers and communicators. 

Medical writers can find positions with a variety of employers, reaching a multitude of audiences with different communication needs and styles. These may include

• Associations and professional health care societies
• Authors or investigators
• Biotechnology companies
• Clinical or contract research organizations   (CROs)
• Communications, marketing, or advertising agencies
• Government agencies
• Health care organizations or providers
• Medical book publishers
• Medical device companies
• Medical education companies
• Medical schools or universities
• News outlets   for health/medical news
• Peer-reviewed medical journals
• Pharmaceutical companies
• Trade journals   for health care professionals

AMWA members can access a current list of available openings on   AMWA Jobs Online . (Not a member?   Join here. )

How Much Do Medical Writers Make?

Medical writer salaries vary from city to city and region to region. Compensation also depends on the writer’s experience, the type of employer, and the type of work.

Sites such as Salary.com , PayScale.com , and Glassdoor.com indicate that a salary range for a junior-level or beginning medical writer is $52,000 to $80,000 annually and a salary range for a junior-level or beginning medical editor as $57,000 to $75,000 annually.

The AMWA Medical Communication Compensation Report provides an in-depth analysis of medical communication salary data by experience level, degree, industry categories, and much more.

Join our professional community of skilled medical communicators.

What Does It Take to Be a Medical Writer?

While medical writers come from all educational and professional backgrounds, they do share some traits.  Medical writers have an interest and flair for both science and writing. They also have a clear understanding of medical concepts and ideas and are able to present data and its interpretation in a way the target audience will understand.

Although it’s not required, many medical communicators hold an advanced degree. Some have a medical or science degree (eg, PhD, PharmD, MD) or experience in academic settings or as bench scientists, pharmacists, physicians, or other health care professionals. Others have an MFA or a PhD in communications or English.

Certificates and certifications are additional credentials that demonstrate your knowledge and proficiency in the medical communication field. Many are described in this guide.

How Do I Become a Medical Writer?

Medical communication can be a flexible, rewarding, and well-paying career in a growing field of both full-time and freelance opportunities. To get started, follow these steps. 

1. Determine a focus

Based on the wide range of companies and organizations that employ medical communicators, the field is generally divided into different writing settings and specializations, each requiring specific technical writing skills or knowledge of medical terminology and practices. In this step, it’s important to focus on an area you’re most interested in and that best matches your skill set.

• Continuing education for healthcare professionals
• Health communication
• Marketing/Advertising/PR
• Patient education
• Publications for professional audiences (non-peer reviewed)
• Regulatory writing
• Sales training (biotech or pharma industry)
• Scientific publications (peer-reviewed journals)

2. Assess your knowledge and skills

Medical communicators come to the field from a variety of different disciplines. Those with a medical or science background commonly need refreshers in writing and editing mechanics, whereas medical terminology and statistics are typically more difficult for those with a writing or communications background. No matter what your training has been, you should take an inventory of your essential skills .

Basic Grammar and Usage

• Parts of speech and grammatical principles form the foundation of writing in every discipline. Can you identify a dangling modifier or notice the lack of a pronoun referent?

Sentence Structure

• Even if you know grammar, you may need a refresher on achieving emphasis and organizing your sentences for clarity. Do you know the difference between an independent and a dependent clause? Do you understand parallel structure?

Punctuation

• A single misplaced comma can create a very different meaning, which can have serious implications in medical writing. Are all your commas in the right places? What about your semicolons?

Medical Terminology

• It’s not enough to know medical terms. You gain more insight into medical vocabulary by learning about the prefixes, combining forms, and suffixes that make up all your favorite medical words. Do you know the rules for eponyms? Do you know the difference between an acronym and an initialism?

Professional Ethics

• Every profession has a code of ethics, and medical communication is no different. Make sure you know the steps to ethical decision-making and the ethical principles to uphold.
• If you’re working with medical research, it’s essential to have a basic understanding of statistics. Can you describe the difference between mean, median, and mode? Can you define a hazard ratio?

Tables and Graphs

• Tables and graphs are essential tools for communicating complex information. Do you know what kind of graph to use for continuous data? Are your table column headings doing their job?

If you need to fill gaps in your knowledge, AMWA offers a variety of educational activities , including the AMWA Essential Skills Certificate Program , which addresses all of these topics.

3. Explore resources

As you explore the medical writing profession, the next step is to become aware of the resources available to you. AMWA offers many opportunities to support new medical communicators and a wealth of professional development resources to help throughout an evolving career. The following are some examples.

• AMWA Online Learning activity: A Career in Medical Communication: Steps to Success
• AMWA Career Services : Jobs Online ,  Freelance Directory
• Live   webinars
• AMWA Essential Skills Certificate Program
• Comprehensive Guide to Medical Editing
• Medical Editing Checklist
• How to Identify Predatory Publishers eBook

Other resources include a number of recommended books on medical writing , listed in the "Medical Writer Resources" section below.

Although there are plenty of opportunities in medical communication, it is important to recognize that it can be a difficult field to break into.   Networking   is a crucial part of gaining success as a medical writer.

Throughout your career, but especially at the start, it’s important to connect with other medical communicators in your local area as well as   across the country .

Networking   is an excellent way to connect with other medical communicators. Not only does it provide informal learning opportunities, but some experts say that 70% to 80% of people found their current position through networking.   Others say it’s closer to 85%. Whether you are using LinkedIn ,   Facebook ,   Twitter , community boards, or conference attendance , it is important to seek out ways to stay connected.

Take the leap!

New and experienced medical writers are finding ways to advance in a solid career and contribute to positive health outcomes through the power of communication. With a greater understanding of the role of the medical communicator and the available opportunities, people with a passion for writing and science can excel in this interesting and ever-changing field.

Medical Writer Resources

Books about medical writing.

• The Accidental Medical Writer . Brian G. Bass and Cynthia L. Kryder. Booklocker.com, Inc, 2008.
• Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers . 2nd ed. Mimi Zeiger. McGraw-Hill, 2000.
• Health Literacy from A to Z: Practical Ways to Communicate Your Health Message . Helen Osborne. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2005.
• How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 8th ed .   Barbara Gastel and Robert A. Day. Greenwood, 2016.
• Targeted Regulatory Writing Techniques: Clinical Documents for Drugs and Biologics . Linda Fossati Wood and MaryAnn Foote, eds. Birkhauser, 2009.

Style Guides

• AMA Manual of Style
• Associated Press Stylebook 
• Chicago Manual of Style
• American Psychological Association Style
• Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers

Publication Ethics

• Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors   (Committee on Publication Ethics)
• White Paper on Publication Ethics  (Council of Science Editors)
• Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals   (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors)
• Good Publication Practice Guidelines - GPP3   (International Society for Medical Publication Professionals)

Professional Associations & Societies

• American Medical Writers Association
• Association of Health Care Journalists
• Board of Editors in the Life Sciences
• Council of Science Editors
• Drug Information Association
• Editorial Freelancers Association
• International Society for Medical Publication Professionals
• National Association of Science Writers
• Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society
• Society for Health Communication
• Society for Technical Communication

Medical Communication Programs – Universities, Colleges, Associations

This list is not comprehensive and was last updated on 11/23/2022.

Graduate Programs in Medical/Health Communication/Writing/Journalism

• Master of Science in Health Communication (Online)
• Master of Science: Science & Medical Journalism
• Carnegie Mellon University  - Master of Arts: Professional Writing
• Johns Hopkins University  - Master of Arts: Science-Medical Writing
• New York University  - Master of Arts / Master of Science: Health and Environmental Reporting
• Texas A&M University  - Master of Science: Science and Technology Journalism
• Towson University  - Master of Science: Professional Writing
• University of Houston-Downtown  - Master of Science: Technical Communication
• University of Illinois  - Master of Science: Health Communication
• University of Minnesota  - Professional Master of Arts: Health Communication
• University of North Carolina  - Master of Arts: Medical Science & Journalism

Undergraduate Programs in Medical/Health Communication/Writing/Journalism

• Juniata College  - Degree in Health Communication
• Missouri State University  - Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Science: Science/Professional Writing
• University of Minnesota   - Bachelor of Arts: Technical Writing and Communication 

Tracks or Minors in Medical Communication

• Ferris State University  - Bachelor of Science: Journalism and Technical Communication
• University of Tennessee at Knoxville  - Science Communication Program  

Degree Programs in Regulatory Affairs

• George Washington University -  Dual Degree: BSHS/MSHS in Clinical Operations & Healthcare Management
• University of Washington School of Pharmacy -  Master of Science in Biomedical Regulatory Affair s  

University Certificate Programs

• Harvard Medical School - Effective Writing for Health Care
• UC San Diego Extension - Medical Writing Certificate
• University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies -  Medical Writing and Editing Certificate

AMWA acknowledges the contributions of Lori Alexander, MPTW, ELS, MWC, Lori De Milto, MJ, and Cyndy Kryder, MS, MWC in the development of this AMWA resource. 

WANT A PORTABLE VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE?  DOWNLOAD IT HERE.

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Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

Jonathan Lambert

If you're like many digitally savvy Americans, it has likely been a while since you've spent much time writing by hand.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, where text messages and thumb-typed grocery lists have replaced handwritten letters and sticky notes. Electronic keyboards offer obvious efficiency benefits that have undoubtedly boosted our productivity — imagine having to write all your emails longhand.

To keep up, many schools are introducing computers as early as preschool, meaning some kids may learn the basics of typing before writing by hand.

But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

Is this some kind of joke? A school facing shortages starts teaching standup comedy

In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

"There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand," says Ramesh Balasubramaniam , a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. "It has important cognitive benefits."

While those benefits have long been recognized by some (for instance, many authors, including Jennifer Egan and Neil Gaiman , draft their stories by hand to stoke creativity), scientists have only recently started investigating why writing by hand has these effects.

A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting's power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page.

Your brain on handwriting

Both handwriting and typing involve moving our hands and fingers to create words on a page. But handwriting, it turns out, requires a lot more fine-tuned coordination between the motor and visual systems. This seems to more deeply engage the brain in ways that support learning.

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Feeling artsy here's how making art helps your brain.

"Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of," says Marieke Longcamp , a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université.

Gripping a pen nimbly enough to write is a complicated task, as it requires your brain to continuously monitor the pressure that each finger exerts on the pen. Then, your motor system has to delicately modify that pressure to re-create each letter of the words in your head on the page.

"Your fingers have to each do something different to produce a recognizable letter," says Sophia Vinci-Booher , an educational neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. Adding to the complexity, your visual system must continuously process that letter as it's formed. With each stroke, your brain compares the unfolding script with mental models of the letters and words, making adjustments to fingers in real time to create the letters' shapes, says Vinci-Booher.

That's not true for typing.

To type "tap" your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make three relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type.

Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing " sync up " with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.

"We don't see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all," says Audrey van der Meer , a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.

Other experts agree. "There seems to be something fundamental about engaging your body to produce these shapes," says Robert Wiley , a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "It lets you make associations between your body and what you're seeing and hearing," he says, which might give the mind more footholds for accessing a given concept or idea.

Those extra footholds are especially important for learning in kids, but they may give adults a leg up too. Wiley and others worry that ditching handwriting for typing could have serious consequences for how we all learn and think.

What might be lost as handwriting wanes

The clearest consequence of screens and keyboards replacing pen and paper might be on kids' ability to learn the building blocks of literacy — letters.

"Letter recognition in early childhood is actually one of the best predictors of later reading and math attainment," says Vinci-Booher. Her work suggests the process of learning to write letters by hand is crucial for learning to read them.

"When kids write letters, they're just messy," she says. As kids practice writing "A," each iteration is different, and that variability helps solidify their conceptual understanding of the letter.

Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples.

This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.

"This could be one of the ways that early experiences actually translate to long-term life outcomes," she says. "These visually demanding, fine motor actions bake in neural communication patterns that are really important for learning later on."

Ditching handwriting instruction could mean that those skills don't get developed as well, which could impair kids' ability to learn down the road.

"If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won't reach their full potential," says van der Meer. "It's scary to think of the potential consequences."

Many states are trying to avoid these risks by mandating cursive instruction. This year, California started requiring elementary school students to learn cursive , and similar bills are moving through state legislatures in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (So far, evidence suggests that it's the writing by hand that matters, not whether it's print or cursive.)

Slowing down and processing information

For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down.

During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you're not actually processing that information — you're just typing in the blind," says van der Meer. "If you take notes by hand, you can't write everything down," she says.

The relative slowness of the medium forces you to process the information, writing key words or phrases and using drawing or arrows to work through ideas, she says. "You make the information your own," she says, which helps it stick in the brain.

Such connections and integration are still possible when typing, but they need to be made more intentionally. And sometimes, efficiency wins out. "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer.

Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some scientists worry about the more diffuse consequences of offloading our thinking to computers.

"We're foisting a lot of our knowledge, extending our cognition, to other devices, so it's only natural that we've started using these other agents to do our writing for us," says Balasubramaniam.

It's possible that this might free up our minds to do other kinds of hard thinking, he says. Or we might be sacrificing a fundamental process that's crucial for the kinds of immersive cognitive experiences that enable us to learn and think at our full potential.

Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don't have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It's the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.

Jonathan Lambert is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who covers science, health and policy.

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• Published: 08 May 2024

Accurate structure prediction of biomolecular interactions with AlphaFold 3

• Josh Abramson   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0000-3496-6952 1   na1 ,
• Jonas Adler   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9928-3407 1   na1 ,
• Jack Dunger 1   na1 ,
• Richard Evans   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4675-8469 1   na1 ,
• Tim Green   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3227-1505 1   na1 ,
• Alexander Pritzel   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4233-9040 1   na1 ,
• Olaf Ronneberger   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4266-1515 1   na1 ,
• Lindsay Willmore   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4314-0778 1   na1 ,
• Andrew J. Ballard   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4956-5304 1 ,
• Joshua Bambrick   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0003-3908-0722 2 ,
• Sebastian W. Bodenstein 1 ,
• David A. Evans 1 ,
• Chia-Chun Hung   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5264-9165 2 ,
• Michael O’Neill 1 ,
• David Reiman   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1605-7197 1 ,
• Kathryn Tunyasuvunakool   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8594-1074 1 ,
• Zachary Wu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2429-9812 1 ,
• Akvilė Žemgulytė 1 ,
• Eirini Arvaniti 3 ,
• Charles Beattie   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1840-054X 3 ,
• Ottavia Bertolli   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8578-3216 3 ,
• Alex Bridgland 3 ,
• Alexey Cherepanov   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5227-0622 4 ,
• Miles Congreve 4 ,
• Alexander I. Cowen-Rivers 3 ,
• Andrew Cowie   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4491-1434 3 ,
• Michael Figurnov   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1386-8741 3 ,
• Fabian B. Fuchs 3 ,
• Hannah Gladman 3 ,
• Rishub Jain 3 ,
• Yousuf A. Khan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0201-2796 3 ,
• Caroline M. R. Low 4 ,
• Kuba Perlin 3 ,
• Anna Potapenko 3 ,
• Pascal Savy 4 ,
• Sukhdeep Singh 3 ,
• Adrian Stecula   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6914-6743 4 ,
• Ashok Thillaisundaram 3 ,
• Catherine Tong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7570-4801 4 ,
• Sergei Yakneen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7827-9839 4 ,
• Ellen D. Zhong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6345-1907 3 ,
• Michal Zielinski 3 ,
• Augustin Žídek   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0748-9684 3 ,
• Victor Bapst 1   na2 ,
• Pushmeet Kohli   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7466-7997 1   na2 ,
• Max Jaderberg   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9033-2695 2   na2 ,
• Demis Hassabis   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2812-9917 1 , 2   na2 &
• John M. Jumper   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6169-6580 1   na2  

Nature ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

• Drug discovery
• Machine learning
• Protein structure predictions
• Structural biology

The introduction of AlphaFold 2 1 has spurred a revolution in modelling the structure of proteins and their interactions, enabling a huge range of applications in protein modelling and design 2–6 . In this paper, we describe our AlphaFold 3 model with a substantially updated diffusion-based architecture, which is capable of joint structure prediction of complexes including proteins, nucleic acids, small molecules, ions, and modified residues. The new AlphaFold model demonstrates significantly improved accuracy over many previous specialised tools: far greater accuracy on protein-ligand interactions than state of the art docking tools, much higher accuracy on protein-nucleic acid interactions than nucleic-acid-specific predictors, and significantly higher antibody-antigen prediction accuracy than AlphaFold-Multimer v2.3 7,8 . Together these results show that high accuracy modelling across biomolecular space is possible within a single unified deep learning framework.

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Author information.

These authors contributed equally: Josh Abramson, Jonas Adler, Jack Dunger, Richard Evans, Tim Green, Alexander Pritzel, Olaf Ronneberger, Lindsay Willmore

These authors jointly supervised this work: Victor Bapst, Pushmeet Kohli, Max Jaderberg, Demis Hassabis, John M. Jumper

Authors and Affiliations

Core Contributor, Google DeepMind, London, UK

Josh Abramson, Jonas Adler, Jack Dunger, Richard Evans, Tim Green, Alexander Pritzel, Olaf Ronneberger, Lindsay Willmore, Andrew J. Ballard, Sebastian W. Bodenstein, David A. Evans, Michael O’Neill, David Reiman, Kathryn Tunyasuvunakool, Zachary Wu, Akvilė Žemgulytė, Victor Bapst, Pushmeet Kohli, Demis Hassabis & John M. Jumper

Core Contributor, Isomorphic Labs, London, UK

Joshua Bambrick, Chia-Chun Hung, Max Jaderberg & Demis Hassabis

Google DeepMind, London, UK

Eirini Arvaniti, Charles Beattie, Ottavia Bertolli, Alex Bridgland, Alexander I. Cowen-Rivers, Andrew Cowie, Michael Figurnov, Fabian B. Fuchs, Hannah Gladman, Rishub Jain, Yousuf A. Khan, Kuba Perlin, Anna Potapenko, Sukhdeep Singh, Ashok Thillaisundaram, Ellen D. Zhong, Michal Zielinski & Augustin Žídek

Isomorphic Labs, London, UK

Alexey Cherepanov, Miles Congreve, Caroline M. R. Low, Pascal Savy, Adrian Stecula, Catherine Tong & Sergei Yakneen

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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Max Jaderberg , Demis Hassabis or John M. Jumper .

Supplementary information

Supplementary information.

This Supplementary Information file contains the following 9 sections: (1) Notation; (2) Data pipeline; (3) Model architecture; (4) Auxiliary heads; (5) Training and inference; (6) Evaluation; (7) Differences to AlphaFold2 and AlphaFold-Multimer; (8) Supplemental Results; and (9) Appendix: CCD Code and PDB ID tables.

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Saudi Arabia's Neom is looking to fill 262 job vacancies. The roles show just how futuristic the megacity could be.

• Saudi Arabia's planned megacity, Neom, is billed as a chance to live in the "new future."
• Officials want to fill 262 vacancies. The unusual roles show what it will take to run the city.
• The responsibilities for one role involve creating a cheetah management plan. 

Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with its ambitious plans for Neom, a futuristic metropolis spread across 26,500 km² in the northwestern region of Tabuk.

First announced in 2017, Neom is the flagship project of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 — an initiative to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and reduce its reliance on oil revenues.

There have been reports of setbacks , but officials previously said the project was on track. If construction does goes to plan, Neom will include Oxagon, an octagonal port city; Sindalah, a luxury island resort; Trojena, a ski and adventure resort; and a tourism hub in the Gulf of Aqaba.

But the centerpiece of Neom is The Line — a planned zero-carbon city featuring two huge mirrored skyscrapers that extend 170 km across Tabuk.

Officials say Neom will be a "cognitive city." The idea is similar to a smart city, but expands on the concept. In this case, the idea is to use tech such as AI and robotics to provide an optimum experience for residents.

But once — or if — Neom is finally up and running, it will require a whole slate of unusual jobs to fulfill its vision as a revolutionary city.

Recruitment is already underway.

"Join us on a journey of visionary minds where you seek to understand, embrace culture, make a difference, and create a legacy," the project's jobs board invites prospective candidates.

There were 262 vacancies on Neom's website at the time of writing. Some would be common in any city planning project: construction manager, engineer, digital marketing web ops, and, maybe at a stretch, golf course design manager.

Other roles required to run Neom suggest just how futuristic, and perhaps a little dystopian, the city could be.

Tech services and system manager

Though it sounds like a standard tech job, this role is a managerial position for the Neom Community School. Candidates for Arabic and Islamic teachers, music teachers, and an "individuals and societies teacher" are also wanted for the city's wide-ranging education system.

The school is part of the wider Neom U project, a vast education arm that appears to be crucial to the city's vision as a hub of research and innovation.

Neom is also searching for someone to fill a head of student attraction role.

Job responsibilities include "ensuring that Neom is considered to be the most attractive place to live and work" and preparing the "brightest young minds" for careers within Neom.

Director of personalized health

Officials said The Line aims to prioritize its citizens' health and well-being over transportation and infrastructure, and it will "harness innovative technology" to do so.

Related stories

The personalized health director is expected to play a crucial role in delivering those promises by "steering and defining Neom's strategy for integrating genetics into personalized healthcare."

The job description says genetic data will be used to pinpoint health risks and develop health interventions.

It's unclear whether providing your genetic data will be a requirement for living in Neom. However, some experts have raised ethical issues about the plans , warning that Neom could become part of a sweeping surveillance program.

Water mobility station professional

Advanced, zero-emission transport systems are core to Neom's strategy; and the project's waterside estates, Oxagon and Sindalah, are planned to be equally futuristic.

The water mobility station professional is a role on offer for those willing to oversee the smooth running of Neom's "water mobility station," or in other words, boat services.

While this job doesn't seem to differ that much from traditional marina management, you'll need to speak fluent Arabic and English and be prepared to handle autonomous, futuristic vessels.

Aquaculture fish laboratory and biosecurity professional

Not a job that most cities deem to be a requirement, the aquaculture fish laboratory and biosecurity professional was one of the more unexpected roles on offer at Neom.

The chosen candidate will control and operate the fish laboratory, ensuring high standards of fish welfare and supporting surveillance and investigation activities into fish health and disease control.

The role falls in line with Neom's sustainability ambitions, where humanity progresses without damaging the health of the planet.

Plus, a thriving fish population would also support diving tourism. Developers have said they want the island resort Sindalah to act as an "exclusive gateway to the stunning Red Sea."

Lead rewilding

Another job that highlights Neom's supposed ecological considerations is lead rewilding .

This job requires someone willing to get involved in Neom's "trophic rewilding strategy." They will help build wildlife corridors, monitor species, and conduct vegetation assessments in order to "address historical degradation that left the land in a desolated state."

Perhaps the best job offered at Neom, the lead rewilding hire will develop and implement a cheetah introduction and management plan.

Those with a degree in conservation, ecology, natural sciences, or a related field can step forward.

Despite Neom's proclaimed efforts towards environmental protection, some have criticized the treatment of people who have reportedly been driven from the construction site.

In May 2023, it was reported that three men from the Howeitat tribe were charged with terrorism and sentenced to death for resisting evictions in the area where Neom is being developed.

Neom officials did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Watch: Filling Cambodian lakes with sand creates pricey new land. It also displaces families.

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Thousands Believe Covid Vaccines Harmed Them. Is Anyone Listening?

All vaccines have at least occasional side effects. But people who say they were injured by Covid vaccines believe their cases have been ignored.

Shaun Barcavage, 54, a nurse practitioner in New York City, said that ever since his first Covid shot, standing up has sent his heart racing. Credit... Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

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Apoorva Mandavilli spent more than a year talking to dozens of experts in vaccine science, policymakers and people who said they had experienced serious side effects after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.

• Published May 3, 2024 Updated May 4, 2024

Within minutes of getting the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, Michelle Zimmerman felt pain racing from her left arm up to her ear and down to her fingertips. Within days, she was unbearably sensitive to light and struggled to remember simple facts.

She was 37, with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and until then could ride her bicycle 20 miles, teach a dance class and give a lecture on artificial intelligence, all in the same day. Now, more than three years later, she lives with her parents. Eventually diagnosed with brain damage, she cannot work, drive or even stand for long periods of time.

“When I let myself think about the devastation of what this has done to my life, and how much I’ve lost, sometimes it feels even too hard to comprehend,” said Dr. Zimmerman, who believes her injury is due to a contaminated vaccine batch .

The Covid vaccines, a triumph of science and public health, are estimated to have prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths . Yet even the best vaccines produce rare but serious side effects . And the Covid vaccines have been given to more than 270 million people in the United States, in nearly 677 million doses .

Dr. Zimmerman’s account is among the more harrowing, but thousands of Americans believe they suffered serious side effects following Covid vaccination. As of April, just over 13,000 vaccine-injury compensation claims have been filed with the federal government — but to little avail. Only 19 percent have been reviewed. Only 47 of those were deemed eligible for compensation, and only 12 have been paid out, at an average of about $3,600 .

Some scientists fear that patients with real injuries are being denied help and believe that more needs to be done to clarify the possible risks.

“At least long Covid has been somewhat recognized,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist and vaccine expert at Yale University. But people who say they have post-vaccination injuries are “just completely ignored and dismissed and gaslighted,” she added.

In interviews and email exchanges conducted over several months, federal health officials insisted that serious side effects were extremely rare and that their surveillance efforts were more than sufficient to detect patterns of adverse events.

“Hundreds of millions of people in the United States have safely received Covid vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history,” Jeff Nesbit, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement.

But in a recent interview, Dr. Janet Woodcock, a longtime leader of the Food and Drug Administration, who retired in February, said she believed that some recipients had experienced uncommon but “serious” and “life-changing” reactions beyond those described by federal agencies.

“I feel bad for those people,” said Dr. Woodcock, who became the F.D.A.’s acting commissioner in January 2021 as the vaccines were rolling out. “I believe their suffering should be acknowledged, that they have real problems, and they should be taken seriously.”

“I’m disappointed in myself,” she added. “I did a lot of things I feel very good about, but this is one of the few things I feel I just didn’t bring it home.”

Federal officials and independent scientists face a number of challenges in identifying potential vaccine side effects.

The nation’s fragmented health care system complicates detection of very rare side effects, a process that depends on an analysis of huge amounts of data. That’s a difficult task when a patient may be tested for Covid at Walgreens, get vaccinated at CVS, go to a local clinic for minor ailments and seek care at a hospital for serious conditions. Each place may rely on different health record systems.

There is no central repository of vaccine recipients, nor of medical records, and no easy to way to pool these data. Reports to the largest federal database of so-called adverse events can be made by anyone, about anything. It’s not even clear what officials should be looking for.

“I mean, you’re not going to find ‘brain fog’ in the medical record or claims data, and so then you’re not going to find” a signal that it may be linked to vaccination, Dr. Woodcock said. If such a side effect is not acknowledged by federal officials, “it’s because it doesn’t have a good research definition,” she added. “It isn’t, like, malevolence on their part.”

The government’s understaffed compensation fund has paid so little because it officially recognizes few side effects for Covid vaccines. And vaccine supporters, including federal officials, worry that even a whisper of possible side effects feeds into misinformation spread by a vitriolic anti-vaccine movement.

‘I’m Not Real’

Patients who believe they experienced serious side effects say they have received little support or acknowledgment.

Shaun Barcavage, 54, a nurse practitioner in New York City who has worked on clinical trials for H.I.V. and Covid, said that ever since his first Covid shot, merely standing up sent his heart racing — a symptom suggestive of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome , a neurological disorder that some studies have linked to both Covid and, much less often, vaccination .

He also experienced stinging pain in his eyes, mouth and genitals, which has abated, and tinnitus, which has not.

“I can’t get the government to help me,” Mr. Barcavage said of his fruitless pleas to federal agencies and elected representatives. “I am told I’m not real. I’m told I’m rare. I’m told I’m coincidence.”

Renee France, 49, a physical therapist in Seattle, developed Bell’s palsy — a form of facial paralysis, usually temporary — and a dramatic rash that neatly bisected her face. Bell’s palsy is a known side effect of other vaccines, and it has been linked to Covid vaccination in some studies.

But Dr. France said doctors were dismissive of any connection to the Covid vaccines. The rash, a bout of shingles, debilitated her for three weeks, so Dr. France reported it to federal databases twice.

“I thought for sure someone would reach out, but no one ever did,” she said.

Similar sentiments were echoed in interviews, conducted over more than a year, with 30 people who said they had been harmed by Covid shots. They described a variety of symptoms following vaccination, some neurological, some autoimmune, some cardiovascular.

All said they had been turned away by physicians, told their symptoms were psychosomatic, or labeled anti-vaccine by family and friends — despite the fact that they supported vaccines.

Even leading experts in vaccine science have run up against disbelief and ambivalence.

Dr. Gregory Poland, 68, editor in chief of the journal Vaccine, said that a loud whooshing sound in his ears had accompanied every moment since his first shot, but that his entreaties to colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to explore the phenomenon, tinnitus, had led nowhere.

He received polite responses to his many emails, but “I just don’t get any sense of movement,” he said.

“If they have done studies, those studies should be published,” Dr. Poland added. In despair that he might “never hear silence again,” he has sought solace in meditation and his religious faith.

Dr. Buddy Creech, 50, who led several Covid vaccine trials at Vanderbilt University, said his tinnitus and racing heart lasted about a week after each shot. “It’s very similar to what I experienced during acute Covid, back in March of 2020,” Dr. Creech said.

Research may ultimately find that most reported side effects are unrelated to the vaccine, he acknowledged. Many can be caused by Covid itself.

“Regardless, when our patients experience a side effect that may or may not be related to the vaccine, we owe it to them to investigate that as completely as we can,” Dr. Creech said.

Federal health officials say they do not believe that the Covid vaccines caused the illnesses described by patients like Mr. Barcavage, Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. France. The vaccines may cause transient reactions, such as swelling, fatigue and fever, according to the C.D.C., but the agency has documented only four serious but rare side effects .

Two are associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is no longer available in the United States: Guillain-Barré syndrome , a known side effect of other vaccines , including the flu shot; and a blood-clotting disorder.

The C.D.C. also links mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to heart inflammation, or myocarditis, especially in boys and young men. And the agency warns of anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reaction, which can occur after any vaccination.

Listening for Signals

Agency scientists are monitoring large databases containing medical information on millions of Americans for patterns that might suggest a hitherto unknown side effect of vaccination, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the C.D.C.’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

“We toe the line by reporting the signals that we think are real signals and reporting them as soon as we identify them as signals,” he said. The agency’s systems for monitoring vaccine safety are “pretty close” to ideal, he said.

Those national surveillance efforts include the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). It is the largest database, but also the least reliable: Reports of side effects can be submitted by anyone and are not vetted, so they may be subject to bias or manipulation.

The system contains roughly one million reports regarding Covid vaccination, the vast majority for mild events, according to the C.D.C.

Federal researchers also comb through databases that combine electronic health records and insurance claims on tens of millions of Americans. The scientists monitor the data for 23 conditions that may occur following Covid vaccination. Officials remain alert to others that may pop up, Dr. Daskalakis said.

But there are gaps, some experts noted. The Covid shots administered at mass vaccination sites were not recorded in insurance claims databases, for example, and medical records in the United States are not centralized.

“It’s harder to see signals when you have so many people, and things are happening in different parts of the country, and they’re not all collected in the same system,” said Rebecca Chandler, a vaccine safety expert at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

An expert panel convened by the National Academies concluded in April that for the vast majority of side effects, there was not enough data to accept or reject a link.

Asked at a recent congressional hearing whether the nation’s vaccine-safety surveillance was sufficient, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the F.D.A.’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said, “I do believe we could do better.”

In some countries with centralized health care systems, officials have actively sought out reports of serious side effects of Covid vaccines and reached conclusions that U.S. health authorities have not.

In Hong Kong, the government analyzed centralized medical records of patients after vaccination and paid people to come forward with problems. The strategy identified “a lot of mild cases that other countries would not otherwise pick up,” said Ian Wong, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong who led the nation’s vaccine safety efforts.

That included the finding that in rare instances — about seven per million doses — the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine triggered a bout of shingles serious enough to require hospitalization.

The European Medicines Agency has linked the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to facial paralysis, tingling sensations and numbness. The E.M.A. also counts tinnitus as a side effect of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, although the American health agencies do not. There are more than 17,000 reports of tinnitus following Covid vaccination in VAERS.

Are the two linked? It’s not clear. As many as one in four adults has some form of tinnitus. Stress, anxiety, grief and aging can lead to the condition, as can infections like Covid itself and the flu.

There is no test or scan for tinnitus, and scientists cannot easily study it because the inner ear is tiny, delicate and encased in bone, said Dr. Konstantina Stankovic, an otolaryngologist at Stanford University.

Still, an analysis of health records from nearly 2.6 million people in the United States found that about 0.04 percent , or about 1,000, were diagnosed with tinnitus within three weeks of their first mRNA shot. In March, researchers in Australia published a study linking tinnitus and vertigo to the vaccines .

The F.D.A. is monitoring reports of tinnitus, but “at this time, the available evidence does not suggest a causal association with the Covid-19 vaccines,” the agency said in a statement.

Despite surveillance efforts, U.S. officials were not the first to identify a significant Covid vaccine side effect: myocarditis in young people receiving mRNA vaccines. It was Israeli authorities who first raised the alarm in April 2021. Officials in the United States said at the time that they had not seen a link.

On May 22, 2021, news broke that the C.D.C. was investigating a “relatively few” cases of myocarditis. By June 23, the number of myocarditis reports in VAERS had risen to more than 1,200 — a hint that it is important to tell doctors and patients what to look for.

Later analyses showed that the risk for myocarditis and pericarditis, a related condition, is highest after a second dose of an mRNA Covid vaccine in adolescent males aged 12 to 17 years.

In many people, vaccine-related myocarditis is transient. But some patients continue to experience pain, breathlessness and depression, and some show persistent changes on heart scans . The C.D.C. has said there were no confirmed deaths related to myocarditis, but in fact there have been several accounts of deaths reported post-vaccination .

Pervasive Misinformation

The rise of the anti-vaccine movement has made it difficult for scientists, in and out of government, to candidly address potential side effects, some experts said. Much of the narrative on the purported dangers of Covid vaccines is patently false, or at least exaggerated, cooked up by savvy anti-vaccine campaigns.

Questions about Covid vaccine safety are core to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. Citing debunked theories about altered DNA, Florida’s surgeon general has called for a halt to Covid vaccination in the state.

“The sheer nature of misinformation, the scale of misinformation, is staggering, and anything will be twisted to make it seem like it’s not just a devastating side effect but proof of a massive cover-up,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at Johns Hopkins University.

Among the hundreds of millions of Americans who were immunized for Covid, some number would have had heart attacks or strokes anyway. Some women would have miscarried. How to distinguish those caused by the vaccine from those that are coincidences? The only way to resolve the question is intense research .

But the National Institutes of Health is conducting virtually no studies on Covid vaccine safety, several experts noted. William Murphy, a cancer researcher who worked at the N.I.H. for 12 years, has been prodding federal health officials to initiate these studies since 2021.

The officials each responded with “that very tired mantra: ‘But the virus is worse,’” Dr. Murphy recalled. “Yes, the virus is worse, but that doesn’t obviate doing research to make sure that there may be other options.”

A deeper understanding of possible side effects, and who is at risk for them, could have implications for the design of future vaccines, or may indicate that for some young and healthy people, the benefit of Covid shots may no longer outweigh the risks — as some European countries have determined.

Thorough research might also speed assistance to thousands of Americans who say they were injured.

The federal government has long run the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program , designed to compensate people who suffer injuries after vaccination. Established more than three decades ago, the program sets no limit on the amounts awarded to people found to have been harmed.

But Covid vaccines are not covered by that fund because Congress has not made them subject to the excise tax that pays for it. Some lawmakers have introduced bills to make the change.

Instead, claims regarding Covid vaccines go to the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program . Intended for public health emergencies, this program has narrow criteria to pay out and sets a limit of $50,000, with stringent standards of proof.

It requires applicants to prove within a year of the injury that it was “the direct result” of getting the Covid vaccine, based on “compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence.”

The program had only four staff members at the beginning of the pandemic, and now has 35 people evaluating claims. Still, it has reviewed only a fraction of the 13,000 claims filed, and has paid out only a dozen.

Dr. Ilka Warshawsky, a 58-year-old pathologist, said she lost all hearing in her right ear after a Covid booster shot. But hearing loss is not a recognized side effect of Covid vaccination.

The compensation program for Covid vaccines sets a high bar for proof, she said, yet offers little information on how to meet it: “These adverse events can be debilitating and life-altering, and so it’s very upsetting that they’re not acknowledged or addressed.”

Dr. Zimmerman, the neuroscientist, submitted her application in October 2021 and provided dozens of supporting medical documents. She received a claim number only in January 2023.

In adjudicating her claim for workers’ compensation, Washington State officials accepted that Covid vaccination caused her injury, but she has yet to get a decision from the federal program.

One of her therapists recently told her she might never be able to live independently again.

“That felt like a devastating blow,” Dr. Zimmerman said. “But I’m trying not to lose hope there will someday be a treatment and a way to cover it.”

Apoorva Mandavilli is a reporter focused on science and global health. She was a part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the pandemic. More about Apoorva Mandavilli

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Vatican Museums faces unprecedented legal dispute over job conditions

Petition by 49 employees could lead to Holy See being taken to court for ‘undermining dignity and health’

Forty-nine employees at the Vatican Museums have started an unprecedented legal dispute over job conditions and workplace safety, which could lead to the Holy See being taken to court.

The staff, mostly custodians who have worked at the museums for years, claim they are treated as “commodities” by Pope Francis’s administration, according to a report in Corriere della Sera.

The Vatican Museums, a sprawling structure of 54 galleries containing a priceless collection, including Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, is among the most visited museums in the world. It employs more than 700 people.

The 49 staff have sent a petition to the Vatican’s governorate alleging that the city state’s labour rules “undermine each worker’s dignity and health”, including overtime hours paid at lower rates and insufficient health and safety provisions.

Other allegations include being forced to return salaries paid during Covid lockdowns because of a lack of provision for furlough schemes in Vatican labour law, according to Laura Sgrò, the lawyer representing the workers.

“They have tried so many times through individual petitions to resolve this situation,” she said. “So this move is quite extreme. After many years of discussion, this is the first class action. We have 49 people now but I think this number will increase over the next few days.”

Sgrò said staff had allegedly faced disciplinary action if off sick and found not to be at home during visits from a Vatican doctor, which are required to take place within 24 hours of the sick leave commencing.

“This is crazy,” she said. “They risk disciplinary action even if they go out for an hour to see their own doctor.”

The Vatican Museums attracted almost 7 million visitors in 2023, and custodians and tour guides have long raised concerns about overcrowding and safety conditions. The building contains a number of emergency exits but there are only two along the mile-long Sistine Chapel passageway – one at either end.

The museums are a major earner for the Vatican, bringing in millions of euros each year. The Vatican’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

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Unions are not permitted in Vatican City. The petition is the first formal step in an obligatory conciliation process overseen by Ulsa, the Vatican’s labour office.

Sgrò said: “This is not a courteous letter but the formal opening of a procedure … If the conciliation goes badly then we go to court.”

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Coordinates of elektrostal in degrees and decimal minutes, utm coordinates of elektrostal, geographic coordinate systems.

WGS 84 coordinate reference system is the latest revision of the World Geodetic System, which is used in mapping and navigation, including GPS satellite navigation system (the Global Positioning System).

Geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) define a position on the Earth’s surface. Coordinates are angular units. The canonical form of latitude and longitude representation uses degrees (°), minutes (′), and seconds (″). GPS systems widely use coordinates in degrees and decimal minutes, or in decimal degrees.

Latitude varies from −90° to 90°. The latitude of the Equator is 0°; the latitude of the South Pole is −90°; the latitude of the North Pole is 90°. Positive latitude values correspond to the geographic locations north of the Equator (abbrev. N). Negative latitude values correspond to the geographic locations south of the Equator (abbrev. S).

Longitude is counted from the prime meridian ( IERS Reference Meridian for WGS 84) and varies from −180° to 180°. Positive longitude values correspond to the geographic locations east of the prime meridian (abbrev. E). Negative longitude values correspond to the geographic locations west of the prime meridian (abbrev. W).

UTM or Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system divides the Earth’s surface into 60 longitudinal zones. The coordinates of a location within each zone are defined as a planar coordinate pair related to the intersection of the equator and the zone’s central meridian, and measured in meters.

Elevation above sea level is a measure of a geographic location’s height. We are using the global digital elevation model GTOPO30 .

Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia

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