Werner H. Kirsten student interns Taylor Johnson and Isabella Pressimone, who worked with Occupational Health Services (OHS), demonstrated both leadership and compassion this spring by organizing a fundraiser titled “Spring Into Wins” on behalf of the Recreation and Welfare Club Frederick (R&WCF). The initiative raised over $1,000 for three organizations dedicated to helping children who have cancer. This project was more than a fundraising event—it was a powerful learning experience that deepened the interns’ awareness of the challenges faced by pediatric cancer patients and their families.

NCI Postbaccalaureate fellow Alana Thomas was thrilled to attend the HIV DRP Think Tank for her second time. Professor John Coffin, Ph.D., was attending for his 27th time—and was no less thrilled. Looking on, it was easy to see why. The 27th HIV Dynamics and Replication Program (DRP) Think Tank, hosted by NCI Frederick, was a decidedly intimate gathering as far as scientific meetings go. The 18 short lectures and small guest list played a part in that—just over 130 scientists attended this year, most of them federal or National Laboratory employees—but more pervasive was the current of passion and tight-knit camaraderie.

After a productive year in business, the NCI Frederick Media Laboratory is closing again. The service, with its longtime goal of sustainability, was in the hands of Nancy Martin and Dan McVicar, Ph.D. The move comes on the heels of Martin’s retirement from NCI. In light of the change, Poster recognizes her steadfast dedication for the past year.

This February saw Occupational Health Services host two lunch-hour activities to encourage employees to invest in cardiovascular health and healthy living. The 18th Chili Cook-off occurred on February 7, and a Heart Health Webinar occurred on February 12. Both coincided with American Heart Month.

In 1953, a teenaged Alan Rein read about what James Watson and Francis Crick famously called “the secret of life”—the double-helix structure of DNA, which had just been published in Nature. Captivated, Rein decided at that moment that he wanted to be a biochemist. Rein’s biochemistry aspirations shifted to virology during college, leading him to a 60-year career in the field, the last 45 years of which were spent at NCI Frederick, studying how retroviruses like murine leukemia virus and HIV assemble themselves and infect host cells while somehow evading the immune response.