A Paradox and Alan Rein: Distinguished Retrovirologist Retires from the HIV DRP

The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNL) has a new installation: a wall featuring 34 plaques highlighting patents granted to FNL researchers in recognition of their inventions and the breakthrough work being done at the laboratory. The “Innovations in Research” wall represents the mission of FNL staff to address some of the most urgent challenges in the biomedical sciences.

The Scientific Library is moving into a new dimension: a “library without walls.” Capitalizing on its identity beyond its physical location, the library will adopt a greater focus on connecting people to information, ideas, and each other and will ultimately shed its brick-and-mortar space in Building 549. The Scientific Library as an online library will focus on being a transformational hub of resources, not just a transactional place to check out books.

Mickey Williams, Ph.D., jokes that he was “somewhat doomed to become a molecular biologist” from the very start, born within mere hours of a milestone in the field. The same day in 1953 that Francis Crick and James Watson heralded their discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure — “the secret of life,” Crick triumphantly called it at The Eagle pub in Cambridge—Williams’ own life began in a maternity ward half a world away.

If last year was any indicator, plenty of kids will be eager to participate in NCI Frederick’s Take Your Child to Work Day this summer. Last year’s event, the first since the pandemic began, welcomed more than 120 children. Volunteering to sponsor a program or hub activity will help guarantee this year’s crowd—which is expected to be larger—has a fun-filled and educational day in science.

The lockdowns during 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, temporarily paused most laboratory work, but they didn’t stop science from moving forward. Many scientists, including those comprising what’s now NCI’s Center for Structural Biology (CSB), seized the opportunity while out of the lab to revisit previously collected data. Those efforts are paying off.