NCI and FNL Researchers Turn Lessons Learned into Stepping Stones

Imagine you’re building a dresser. You find all the wood and hardware you need and have the instructions, the right tools, and a team of professionals to help. As you and your team put it together, you realize that while the frame is solid, the drawers don’t open and close correctly. You might be tempted to feel discouraged by the results. But a group of scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNL), and other collaborating institutions share a different perspective in their recent work published in PNAS. They weren’t trying to assemble furniture but rather generate a new, better mouse model of the most common kidney cancer, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).
Karolina Wilk, Editor, Staff Writer
 04.29.2025
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In the News

Community | ‘No Man Is an Island’: Remembering the Late George Vande Woude

George Vande Woude, Ph.D., former director of the Advanced Bioscience Laboratories–Basic Research Program at what is now NCI at Frederick, passed away in April. He was known for being a prudent leader and an outstanding scientist (he and his laboratory discovered the MET oncogene in 1984), as well as for his vibrant personality and seemingly limitless energy.
By Samuel Lopez, staff writer; image from the SPGM archives 06.07.2021
Community People June 2021

Science & Technology | With Expertise and Enthusiasm, SeroNet’s Hub Surges Ahead

The past year for Ligia Pinto, Ph.D., and her staff has been full of pressure and remote meetings at all hours of the day and night. It’s also been one of partnerships and progress. Pinto heads the Vaccine, Immunity, and Cancer Directorate, the group at the Frederick National Laboratory that’s leading the national SARS-CoV-2 Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet). At this time last year, her laboratories, which specialized in human papillomavirus, antibody science, and serology, had just been asked to help the Food and Drug Administration evaluate the quality of the new SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests that were flooding the market.
By Samuel Lopez, staff writer 04.29.2021
Science & Technology Community April 2021

People | In Memoriam: George Vande Woude, Ph.D. (1935-2021)

The CCR community is profoundly saddened by the recent passing of George Vande Woude, Ph.D., longtime National Cancer Institute (NCI) colleague, former director of the Advanced Bioscience Laboratories (ABL)-Basic Research Program and former director of the Division of Basic Sciences at NCI. George made many important contributions to the current understanding of the molecular biology of cancer.
By the NCI Center for Cancer Research; image from the SPGM archives 04.28.2021
People Community April 2021

History | Echoes from the Past: BRMP, Bastion of Progress, Resonates Decades Later

Though it lasted just 15 years, Frederick’s first clinical oncology program answered multiple fundamental questions in the fledgling field of immunotherapy and primed the local medical community to become the oncology research hub it is today. The Biological Response Modifiers Program (BRMP) received formal recognition from the Department of Health and Human Services 40 years ago today, on April 27.
By Samuel Lopez, staff writer 04.27.2021
History Community Features April 2021

Science & Technology | Trainee and Team Uncover Target for Some Lung Cancers

Researchers have found a potential therapeutic target for lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), the second most prevalent type of lung cancer. This may pave the way for a targeted therapy for LSCC, which currently has no approved targeted therapies.
By Karolina Wilk, staff writer 04.22.2021
Science & Technology April 2021