Poster Quick Takes: Enhancing CAR T Cell Therapy for Solid Tumors

The August sun slanted through the Scientific Library’s windows, casting the remnants of the general collection in a warm glow. Cloistered in private rooms and seated at secluded desks and carrels, scientists studied in monastic silence. But it wasn’t business as usual.

NCI Frederick researchers and colleagues are improving therapies that modify and equip a patient’s own immune cells to target their solid tumors. Their modification, while still at an early stage of development, can potentially minimize the risk that the armed cells will be therapeutically rejected.

To the final team of Scientific Library staff, the library was both a physical location and an intangible purpose, a second home and a calling. The facility may have been measured in square feet, but to its employees, the Scientific Library was measured in experiences with each other and the patrons they helped.

The Frederick Postbac Committee, comprising NCI Frederick postbaccalaureate fellows, held their second annual Frederick Postbac Poster Day in March. The event, organized by the Committee and collaborating staff, showcased postbac research over the past year and gave postbacs an opportunity to practice sharing their science with an audience of their peers. All NCI employees were invited to attend, and the Frederick Postbac Committee was pleased with the turnout, which included postbacs, postdocs, and senior scientists alike.

A group of employees gathered this Earth Day for a brief ceremony to dedicate NCI Frederick’s Moon Tree and celebrate the spirit of scientific discovery. The campus’ Moon Tree is a sweetgum sapling. It was cultivated from a collection of seeds carried into lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft during the 2022 Artemis I mission.