February is American Heart Month, and Feb. 7 was designated “National Wear Red Day” by the American Heart Association. The American Heart Association has sponsored the “Go Red for Women” campaign for 10 years. The message: heart disease is the number one killer of women. Did you know that more women die of heart disease than men?  In fact, it is more deadly than all forms of cancer combined. Over the years, the red dress has become the symbol of the fight against heart disease in women.

George Vande Woude, Ph.D., Van Andel Institute’s founding director of research, recently received the Fellowship Award in Biological Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The AAAS bestows this annual award to a select number of scientists who are honored for their meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications.

Nearly 700 researchers, scientists, and laboratory technicians convened in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, for the 2014 NCI Intramural Scientific Investigators Retreat on Jan. 14. The event featured presentations and posters exploring topics in cancer research from KRAS signaling to animal care. One of the highlights of the event was a presentation made by Valerie Beral, Ph.D., from University of Oxford, discussing “Rosalind Franklin and Cancer in Women.”

When Larry Keefer, Ph.D., first arrived at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) more than 40 years ago, he didn’t have a physical lab to call his own. Not immediately, anyway, due to a glitch in the construction schedule, he explained. So he spent his first few years in Bethesda doing administrative work, like reviewing proposals and serving as a project officer on contracts.

Whether in a research laboratory or an operations environment, past performance is frequently reviewed to plan for future improvements. Such was the case last year when management recognized the need to change the policy on the minimum set of personal protective equipment to be worn in the laboratories to reduce both the number and consequence of injuries at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research.