Scientific Writing & Editing

Every sentence should survive peer review — and still make sense to the person who isn't a scientist.

I'm Nella C. Delva, Ph.D., a neuroscientist who writes and edits for three audiences at once: general readers, medical professionals, and fellow scientists. Below: my services, real work samples, and the full archive of what I've written.

Editor's markBefore / After

The findings may potentially have possibly had some positive effects on sleep duration in the participants we studied.

The intervention produced a small but statistically significant improvement in sleep duration (mean difference: +0.8 hrs, 95% CI: 0.3–1.3).

Actual edit, Starter Tier report
What I offer

Two ways to work with a scientist who writes.

Every engagement starts with a short discovery call so the scope and price match what you actually need. See the full rate card on the Services & Pricing page.

Writing

Scientific Writing

Original writing, tailored to who's actually going to read it — not a one-size-fits-all science voice.

  • 01
    Blog & general-audience contentFeature-style science writing, company blogs, and public-facing explainers that stay accurate without losing a non-scientist reader.
  • 02
    Medical professional communicationsClinical summaries, CME-adjacent content, patient education material, and trade content written for a clinically literate reader.
  • 03
    Scientist & academic writingManuscripts, grant narratives, and literature reviews for readers who will check every claim against the primary literature.
Editing

Scientific Editing

Manuscript and grant editing, delivered as tracked changes plus a short editorial report — the same format shown below.

Starter — Proofreading & Polish from €120 / 1,000 words
  • Grammar, syntax, and word-choice correction
  • Sentence clarity & verb-tense consistency
  • Hedging language tightened; vague claims made precise
  • Formatting, abbreviations, and reference-style checks
★★★ Advanced — Full Publication Package quoted per project
  • Everything in Starter, plus a substantive structural edit
  • Priority revisions flagged by severity (critical / high / medium / low)
  • Journal recommendations ranked by scope, fit, and impact factor
  • Submission-ready cover letter, customized to the target journal

Every edit ships as a tracked-changes document plus a short editorial report like the one the hero example above is drawn from — so you can see exactly what changed and why.

Portfolio

Writing samples, sorted by who they were written for.

A working sample of the range above — from accessible public-science pieces to a co-authored, citation-backed review. The full archive is further down the page.

Sample

Organoids vs. Animal Models: The Ethical and Scientific Debate

A comparative look at what organoids do well, where animal models remain indispensable, and how U.S. and German regulation handle each differently.

Read the piece →
Sample

Research Without Borders: Why My Work Is Now Global by Design

On building a career — and now a company — that doesn't sit inside one country's borders.

Read the piece →
Sample

The Future of Personalized Medicine: Targeting Psychological Disorders with Precision Pharmacology

How pharmacogenomics is starting to replace trial-and-error psychiatric prescribing — and where the ethical and access questions still stand.

Read the piece →
Sample

Bridging Cultures: The Role of Diversity in Scientific Innovation

What a Haitian immigrant path to a Berlin research institute taught me about why diverse teams build better science.

Read the piece →
Sample

The True Cost of a PhD: Understanding Opportunity Cost

The financial, personal, and health-related sacrifices behind six years of graduate training — and why they deserve to be discussed openly.

Read the piece →
Sample

My Journey in Leadership and Research: Embracing Strength in STEM

How growing up in Haiti became the foundation of a research career studying the neurobiology of stress resilience — and what community taught me about leading in science.

Read the piece →
Sample

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor: A Therapeutic Target for Depression

A peer-review-style survey of BDNF's role in major depressive disorder, and how antidepressants, exercise, and gene therapy each target it.

Read the piece →
Sample

Regulation of Mood by Interneuron Dopamine D1 Receptors

A dissertation research summary: what happens to stress resilience when D1 receptors are deleted from a specific population of cortical interneurons.

Read the piece →
Peer-reviewed record

Ten-plus years of bench research, published.

My peer-reviewed work spans HPV-related oncogenesis, targeted radiotherapy for uveal melanoma, and the neurobiology of stress resilience — the same background that grounds the writing and editing above in how research actually gets built, reviewed, and published.

3Research fields
3Countries worked in
10+Years bench research
Notes from the bench, the border, and beyond

The full archive.

Reflections on research, resilience, and building a life and career across Haiti, the US, and Germany — plus the occasional deep dive into the science itself.

Sample

Organoids vs. Animal Models: The Ethical and Scientific Debate

A comparative look at what organoids do well, where animal models remain indispensable, and how U.S. and German regulation handle each differently.

Read the piece →
Sample

Research Without Borders: Why My Work Is Now Global by Design

On building a career — and now a company — that doesn't sit inside one country's borders.

Read the piece →

Full Circle: How My Fulbright Fellowship Shaped the Scientist — and Person — I Am Becoming

Closing out a Fulbright year in Berlin, and what it changed about how I think, work, and belong.

Read the piece →

Redefining Freedom, Identity, and Belonging: What Living in Germany Taught Me

A year in Berlin reshaped how I define freedom — not as speed, but as the ability to feel grounded while moving forward.

Read the piece →

Closing One Chapter, Opening Another

On finishing six years of graduate school, and the question that follows every scientist out the door: does the learning ever really end?

Read the piece →
Sample

The Future of Personalized Medicine: Targeting Psychological Disorders with Precision Pharmacology

How pharmacogenomics is starting to replace trial-and-error psychiatric prescribing — and where the ethical and access questions still stand.

Read the piece →
Sample

Bridging Cultures: The Role of Diversity in Scientific Innovation

What a Haitian immigrant path to a Berlin research institute taught me about why diverse teams build better science.

Read the piece →
Sample

The True Cost of a PhD: Understanding Opportunity Cost

The financial, personal, and health-related sacrifices behind six years of graduate training — and why they deserve to be discussed openly.

Read the piece →

Being a Scientist Abroad: Observations on Work-Life Balance in Germany vs. the USA

A month into a Fulbright year in Berlin, questioning whether the stress of a scientific career is inherent to the work — or to the culture built around it.

Read the piece →
Sample

My Journey in Leadership and Research: Embracing Strength in STEM

How growing up in Haiti became the foundation of a research career studying the neurobiology of stress resilience — and what community taught me about leading in science.

Read the piece →
Sample

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor: A Therapeutic Target for Depression

A peer-review-style survey of BDNF's role in major depressive disorder, and how antidepressants, exercise, and gene therapy each target it.

Read the piece →
Sample

Regulation of Mood by Interneuron Dopamine D1 Receptors

A dissertation research summary: what happens to stress resilience when D1 receptors are deleted from a specific population of cortical interneurons.

Read the piece →

PhD-ing and Becoming after COVID

Notes from a late-stage PhD candidate on research, networking through a pandemic, and building STEM access for others.

Read the piece →

My Research Journey

From zebrafish in an undergraduate lab to a PhD in neurobiology — the path through HPV oncogenesis, targeted cancer radiotherapy, and dopamine signaling in the brain.

Read the piece →

My Story with Mentorship

On finding mentors as a first-generation immigrant in STEM, and why finding good ones is worth holding onto.

Read the piece →

STEM-azing Coaching, Mentoring and Tutoring

What years of tutoring, mentoring, and teaching taught me about the gap between talent and access — and how I try to close it.

Read the piece →

Scenes from Saturday Night

A slice-of-life reflection from early in the graduate school years.

Read on the archive site →

Have a manuscript, a blog, or a grant that needs a second, sharper pair of eyes?

Tell me what you're working on and I'll suggest the right service — writing, editing, or both.

Start a project →