Summer Internship Program Returns This Year, Continuing a Tradition of Success

Every year for the past three years, student interns Madelyne Xiao and Nikhil Gowda have competed in the Scientific Library’s Student Science Jeopardy Tournament, the annual science event for students that mirrors the popular TV show “Jeopardy.” And every year, for the past three years, Xiao and Gowda, who work with Randall Johnson, Ph.D. bioinformatics analyst, Basic Science Program Center for Cancer Research Genetics Core, have finished in one of the top three positions.

Joseph Barchi, Jr, Ph.D., calls teaching “the noblest and most important profession.” So it makes sense that Barchi, senior scientist and head of the Glycoconjugate and NMR Section, Chemical Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, NCI at Frederick, would encourage his lab to offer a fun, educational program at Take Your Child to Work Day (TYCTWD).

When the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infects a cell, the virus inserts a copy of its genetic material into the host cell’s DNA. The inserted genetic material, which is also called a provirus, is used to produce new viruses. Because the viral DNA can be inserted at many sites in the host cell DNA, the site of integration marks each infected cell.

Robin Winkler-Pickett has known Jim Cherry, Ph.D., scientific program director, and Craig Reynolds, Ph.D., director, Office of Scientific Operations, both NCI at Frederick, for many years. “We’ve been friends for a long time.” So when she heard about the chance to dunk each of them at Take Your Child to Work Day on June 25, Winkler-Pickett, a research biologist in the Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, NCI Center for Cancer Research, knew she had to make time to participate.

A new genetically engineered mouse model appears promising as an effective tool for preclinical testing of novel therapies for ovarian cancer, which tends to be diagnosed in late stage. There are few effective treatments for the disease.