The National Cancer Institute and Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research will host the Technology Showcase on Wednesday, September 6, at the FNL’s Advanced Technology Research Facility in Frederick, Md. The seventh annual event highlights NCI and FNL inventions and capabilities available to the external healthcare and biotech communities and offers the opportunity for networking with others in the biomedical research field.

The next Biotech Connector will explore advances in protein production happening in the Frederick, Md., area with talks from three experts working in the field. It is set for 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 31, at the Frederick National Laboratory’s Advanced Technology Research Facility in Frederick.

Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in Maryland, spread by bacteria found in the bite of black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks. Though it’s common, the disease can be difficult to diagnose, sometimes resulting in debilitating symptoms that may have been prevented with proper, timely diagnosis and a simple course of antibiotics.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, before vaccines were available and while SARS-CoV-2 was wreaking havoc worldwide, Barry O’Keefe, Ph.D., and longtime collaborators in Brazil and Spain pooled their knowledge and resources to study cyanovirin-N (CV-N), a protein from cyanobacteria, photosynthetic bacteria commonly known as blue-green algae. O’Keefe had a hunch it could be developed to fight the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Former Werner H. Kirsten (WHK) Student Intern Program participant Lea Jih-Vieira followed a narrow path of interest and discovered a plethora of possibilities.