Antibody-drug conjugate. This complex vocabulary masks a straightforward idea: Tether a cancer-killing drug to an antibody, then administer it to a cancer patient for a two-in-one strike on their tumors. Martin Schnermann, Ph.D., and his team in the Chemical Biology Laboratory are trying to improve these conjugates. To do so, they’ve focused on neither antibodies nor drugs but rather the molecules that tether the two together.

A team of scientists from NCI, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, and industry has created a new basis for classifying cervical cancers based on their genetic mutations. With it, they’ve proposed and tested a potent approach for treating one subtype of cervical tumors.