August 2013

By Ashley Shoemaker, Guest Writer

In January 2013, a revised policy on personal protective equipment (PPE) was approved for all government and contractor employees at NCI at Frederick. This new policy was driven by a high number of eye injuries at NCI at Frederick (56 between 2007 and 2012) that were directly related to inadequate PPE.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act states that each employer is responsible for identifying hazards in the workplace and determining what kind of PPE is necessary.

By Peggy Pearl, Contributing Writer

It was not until the 1950s that organizations in the United States began to apply project management tools and techniques to complex construction and engineering projects (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_life_cycle).

By Nancy Parrish, Staff Writer

The competitors in the cellular and molecular biology category of the Frederick County Science and Engineering Fair on March 22–23 didn’t stand a chance against the Werner H. Kirsten student interns at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick.

These interns swept the entire category, with Madelyne Xiao, a rising intern, winning first place; Maria Hamscher, second place; Ashley Babyak and Dahlia Kronfli tying for third place; and Maham Ahmed receiving an honorable mention.

By Nancy Parrish, Staff Writer

The Werner H. Kirsten Student Internship Program (WHK SIP) has enrolled the largest class ever for the 2013–2014 academic year, with 66 students and 50 mentors. This enrollment reflects a 53 percent increase in students and a 56 percent increase in mentors, compared to 2012–2013 (43 students and 32 mentors), according to Julie Hartman, WHK SIP director.

By Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer

Summer interns learned how to read a scientific paper, present a poster, maintain a laboratory notebook, and much more, at the Science Skills Boot Camp in June.

“It was a great experience, and it was a great opportunity to meet some of the other interns also working on the campus,” said Alyssa Klein, a Werner H. Kirsten student intern in the Cellular Immunology Group, Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation. “The boot camp covered many topics essential to being a good scientist and science researcher.”

By Melissa Porter, Staff Writer

For the past 16 years, the annual Spring Research Festival has been sponsored by NCI at Frederick and Fort Detrick to acquaint fellow researchers, students, and the community at large with the important discoveries being made at this facility to fight cancer, AIDS, and other infectious diseases.

By Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer

Deborah Morrison, Ph.D., laboratory chief, Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Signaling, Center for Cancer Research (CCR), received an NIH Director’s Award in June “for major breakthroughs in elucidating the mechanisms of Ras/Raf signaling that will be critical for diagnosis and treatment of disease,” according to the NIH Director’s Awards Ceremony brochure.

She was nominated by Ira Daar, Ph.D., senior investigator, Developmental Signal Transduction Section, Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Signaling, CCR.

By Nancy Parrish, Staff Writer

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) targets specific immune cells in the body known as macrophages because these are the cells that eliminate foreign material such as bacteria or viruses. HIV is able to reproduce and spread throughout the body if it can avoid destruction by macrophages.

A recent study by Lue Dai, Ph.D., and colleagues revealed that the human cytokine IL-27 helps promote the body’s production of macrophages that are resistant to HIV. The study further found that IL-27 suppresses a gene known as SPTBN1, which facilitates the survival of HIV cells. This breakthrough research was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

By Nancy Parrish, Staff Writer

Earlier this year, the Office of AIDS Research (OAR) awarded two, two-year grants of $200,000 each to Anu Puri, Ph.D., and Robert Blumenthal, Ph.D., both of the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) Nanobiology Program, and to Eric Freed, Ph.D., of the HIV Drug Resistance Program, for their research on potential new treatments for HIV.

By Nancy Parrish, Staff Writer

The winner of the 2012 competition for the best collaborative publication was announced on May 7, as part of the lead-up to the Spring Research Festival sponsored by the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research (NICBR) and the National Cancer Institute at Frederick on May 8 and 9.