The Molecular Characterization Laboratory lies at the heart of an ambitious new approach for testing cancer drugs that will use the newest tools of precision medicine to select the best treatment for individual patients based on the genetic makeup of their tumors.

The protocol, called NCI-Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH), will start with tumor biopsies from as many as 3,000 patients to see if they have genetic defects for which a targeted cancer drug is available. Cancers will be treated based on their genetic profiles rather than by their location in the body, which is the conventional approach.

The Invention Development Fund (IDF) was piloted by the Technology Transfer Center (TTC) in 2014 to facilitate the commercial development of NCI technologies. The IDF received a second round of funding from the NCI Office of the Director and the Office of Budget and Management to establish the Invention Development Program (IDP) for fiscal year 2016. The IDP is using these funds to help advance a second set of inventions.

Background

One of the most popular new programs at Take Your Child to Work Day (TYCTWD) this year was “Who’s Blood Is It,” where children learned about different blood types and used that information to solve a mystery.

The 19th annual event, held June 24, attracted 150 children and their parents, and featured 26 programs and hub activities. Kids had a chance to design a rocket and launch it into the air, try their hands at the dunk tank target, stay cool by enjoying some ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, and decorate paper animals with lemon juice or ...

Platinum Publications are selected from articles by NCI at Frederick scientists published in 42 prestigious science journals. This list represents articles published during the time period shown above, as generated from PubMed.

Articles designated as Platinum Highlights are noteworthy articles selected by Dr. Craig Reynolds, associate director, National Cancer Institute, from among the most recently published Platinum Publications.

Eighteen student interns from various high schools and colleges competed in the Scientific Library’s Ninth Annual Student Science Jeopardy Tournament on July 24, in the auditorium of Building 549, in front of a large crowd of people watching in person and remotely from the Advanced Technology Research Facility.

Competing in teams of two, the nine teams played intently, trying to master the signaling devices so they could respond to the wide-ranging clues. Question topics included ancient science, lives of the scientist, periodic table, anatomy, double-letter ...

Editor’s note: This article was adapted from the Employee Diversity Team’s display case exhibit “Recognizing the NCI at Frederick Ebola Response Team,” in the lobby of Building 549. The Poster staff recognizes that this article does not include everyone who was involved in the response to the Ebola crisis, both at NCI at Frederick and in Africa.

When the Ebola crisis broke out in 2014 in West Africa, staff members from the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research responded quickly.

Members of the Clinical Monitoring Research Program (CMRP) were instrumental not only in setting up the clinical trials of the vaccine in Liberia, but also in providing training, community outreach, and recruitment strategies for the trials.

The Center for Cancer Research (CCR) and NCI at Frederick recently had the honor of hosting Professor Dr. Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol of Thailand.  Her Royal Highness has a special interest in scientific research related to the use of natural products for treating disease.

The purpose of her visit was to discuss the work on natural products being undertaken at NCI at Frederick. Her Royal Highness attended talks by researchers from both the Molecular Targets Laboratory (MTL), CCR, and the Natural Products Branch (NPB), Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP), Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD).

You may know the feeling. You have collected a lot of new data on an important experiment. Now you are faced with multiple groups of data, a sea of numbers, and a deadline for submitting your paper to a peer-reviewed journal. And you are not sure which data are relevant, or even the best way to present them.

The statisticians at Data Management Services (DMS) know how to help. This small group of experts provides a wide array of statistical and mathematical consulting services to the scientific community at NCI at Frederick and NCI-Bethesda.

Teams are forming for the third annual R&W Club Frederick Golf Tournament on Sept. 14. Last year’s tournament hosted more than 40 players and raised nearly $1,000 for the NIH Children’s Inn, Bethesda, Md. 

The tournament will be held at Maryland National Golf Club in Middletown, Md. 

“The Maryland National Golf Club course and location are beautiful, and the golf club staff is so accommodating  that we had no hesitation in booking the event there again this year,” said Tanya Ransom, biologist, NCI Center for Cancer Research, and the coordinator of the annual event. 

NCI and Frederick National Laboratory staff members were among those honored at the Spring Research Festival Awards Ceremony on May 28. The ceremony was the culmination of the festival, which was sponsored by the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research (NICBR), May 4–7.

Maj. Gen. Brian Lein, commanding general, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), presented the awards.