The National Cancer Institute is currently supporting more than 6,700 clinical trials. That staggering statistic is dwarfed by the number of participants in those trials, many of whom are cancer patients. Even more astounding is that these numbers are for just this moment in time. The thousands of trials currently recruiting or underway are themselves a mere fraction of the studies NCI has conducted or supported since its creation in 1937.

Used successfully in several industries, digital twins have the potential to forge a path toward advances in cancer care and research. Frederick National Laboratory is a lead organization in the strategic interagency collaboration between the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy and has been instrumental in the development of innovative technologies for creating a cancer patient digital twin.

Researchers in the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research (CCR) and the Frederick National Laboratory’s Basic Science Program have discovered molecules that could keep the body from working against a cancer treatment.

Unsurprisingly, the new Basic Research Program at the Frederick Cancer Research Center took some time to gain momentum despite the preparations that had been made. Margaret Kripke, Ph.D., head of the program’s Immunobiology of Physical and Chemical Carcinogenesis Section at the time, recalls that her first year was dedicated to setting up her new laboratory, hiring staff, moving around, and finishing projects she had started in her former laboratory at University of Utah.

The Scientific Library recently hosted its first virtual discussion of 2021, featuring Yvonne A. Evrard, Ph.D., operations manager for the NCI Patient-Derived Models Repository at NCI at Frederick and the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. These virtual discussions are one way the Library uses its position as a research information hub to engage scientific researchers through collaboration, interaction, and discussion.