NCI and FNL Researchers Turn Lessons Learned into Stepping Stones

NCI is a valuable asset to the Frederick community as a major employer, a purchaser of goods and services, and an educator and mentor for students from elementary through post-graduate school, Craig Reynolds told about 70 people, including many community leaders, at the Fort Detrick Alliance’s quarterly breakfast briefing at Hood College.

Genetically modified soya beans provide a scalable, low-cost method of producing microbicides that prevent AIDS, a technique sustainable for resource-poor countries where AIDS is spreading rapidly. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, more than 36 million people worldwide are living with HIV. While the number of AIDS-related deaths are decreasing, infection rates are still increasing, specifically in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Until recently, researchers studying RAS, a family of proteins involved in transmitting signals within cells, believed that the exchange of guanosine 5’-diphosphate (GDP) by guanosine triphosphate (GTP) was sufficient to activate the protein. Once activated, RAS can cause unintended and overactive signaling in cells, which can lead to cell division and, ultimately, cancer.

Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU) Advanced Academic Programs (AAP) division recently announced two classes that will be hosted at the Frederick Center for Research and Education in Science and Technology (CREST) this fall. According to a JHU press release, the classes are Biochemistry, which is part of the M.S. in Biotechnology program at JHU AAP, and Molecular Biology, a part of the M.S. in Bioinformatics program at JHU AAP.

Even the blazing heat could not stop people from enjoying the Occupational Health Services’ (OHS) most recent Take a Hike event, which promoted healthy living. The red, white, and blue–themed, 1.3-mile walk was the fifth such event since 2014 for NCI at Frederick. People got out of their offices to exercise, show off their patriotism, and win prizes.