Steve Hughes, Ph.D., compares HIV research to a war. He and his colleagues are entrenched on a microscopic battlefield, fighting a conflict where seemingly small victories could mean a leap forward. Right now, they are grappling with the emergence of HIV strains resistant to existing antiretroviral drugs, medicines that suppress the virus in people living with HIV.

The old adage that says two heads are better than one certainly seems true for Mitchell Ho, Ph.D., a senior investigator in the Center for Cancer Research, and Xiaolin Wu, Ph.D., a principal scientist in the Genomics Technology Laboratory, a CCR Core at the Frederick National Laboratory. Together, these two scientists are using next-generation genomics technology to develop, in an animal model, a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy that might help patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer.

A broadly based team from Frederick National Laboratory, NCI’s Technology Transfer Center, and NCI’s Office of Scientific Operations has been recognized with a 2020 NCI Director’s Award. The award, from the “Making an Impact” category, recognizes the team’s work to establish the annual Technology Showcase, an event that fosters scientific collaboration as well as licensing of NCI technologies.

The fourth annual Technology Showcase is making a big pivot this year, moving to an entirely virtual event on September 9, 2020. Although the move was made out of necessity, it also offers exciting new opportunities to reach more partners and licensees beyond Frederick, Md.

Cancer research generates a wide range of information, from genomic data about individual tumors to patients’ clinical histories to proteomic and imaging data. To help you, the Scientific Library at NCI at Frederick has compiled a list of websites related to Research Data Resources, including an overview of NCI data resources.

Like many Werner H. Kirsten student interns, Allison Kang didn’t know what to expect when she made the transition from the carefully managed environment of her high school science labs to a professional cancer lab at one of the nation’s premier research facilities. Kang had just finished her junior year at Urbana High School when she began working in the Neutrophil Monitoring Laboratory under Debbie Long Priel and Doug Kuhns, Ph.D. And it didn’t take long for her to realize that there were big differences between her school’s A.P. Biology lab and a working scientific research lab.

The NCI at Frederick Scientific Publications Database added 205 publications by NCI at Frederick researchers between April 1 and June 30, 2020.

For foreign fellows transitioning to life in the United States, NCI at Frederick employees are an integral resource. As citizens or residents of the country and the Frederick community, they represent valuable sources of information, emotional support, and scientific guidance. It’s true that the training staff fill many of these roles, but all staff can play a part in welcoming and helping foreign fellows. To help employees and principal investigators who work with new foreign fellows, current NCI at Frederick fellows and staff have offered the following tips.

Moving to a new place can be difficult, especially for young scientists coming to the U.S. for fellowships. There are the usual challenges of long-distance travel, adjusting to a new locale, and—in some cases—becoming proficient in another language. On top of that, there’s the added pressure to settle in and begin working as soon as possible. To help incoming and recently arrived fellows, current NCI at Frederick fellows and staff have offered the following advice.

Sharing a lab with another team may sound like an inconvenience to some, like the professional equivalent of sharing a bedroom with a sibling. But not for Alex Compton, Ph.D.; Alan Rein, Ph.D.; and their colleagues. In their case, sharing a lab led to a rich collaboration, mentoring opportunities, and a study that uncovered facets of how cells interact with viruses.