A new U.S. clinical trial will evaluate whether an at-home, self-collection technique to screen for cervical cancer is as accurate and effective as a Pap smear test done in a healthcare clinic. The Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research will coordinate the National Cancer Institute study to be conducted at 25 sites.
Scientists at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and their National Cancer Institute colleagues have developed a method that enhances the capacity to identify interactions between proteins and molecules that are critical to drug targeting. The study, reported in Science Advances, includes libraries to aid other researchers.
The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research has a new installation: a wall featuring 34 plaques highlighting patents granted to FNL researchers in recognition of their inventions and the breakthrough work being done at the laboratory. The “Innovations in Research” wall represents the mission of FNL staff to address some of the most urgent challenges in the biomedical sciences.
The lockdowns during 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, temporarily paused most laboratory work, but they didn’t stop science from moving forward. Many scientists, including those comprising what’s now NCI’s Center for Structural Biology, seized the opportunity while out of the lab to revisit previously collected data. Those efforts are paying off.
In cancer therapeutics, targeted therapies are a rapidly developing field of interest. These include antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), compounds that carry small-molecule anticancer drugs to specific antigens on tumors, directly killing tumor cells. Though the first ADC approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was brought to the clinic in 2000, it was later voluntarily removed due to high toxicity. Since then, more precise technologies have improved generations of ADCs, and there are currently 12 ADCs that are FDA-approved for clinical use. However, most available ADCs offer limited improvement and can still be toxic.
But a study conducted by researchers in the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research and published in Cell Reports in December 2023 highlights a new ADC—carefully engineered, screened, and purified—that can eradicate large tumors in animal models at a dose per body weight that humans can tolerate, showing that ADCs can be improved and made less toxic. Clinical trials with humans will be needed to prove efficacy.
Visualizing protein structures in three dimensions instead of two has given scientists new insights into biological processes, and now artificial intelligence is adding the capacity to predict molecular behaviors that could potentially be borne out in laboratory studies. For Kylie Walters, Ph.D., a structural biologist with the NCI Center for Cancer Research in Frederick, artificial intelligence, or AI, has revolutionized the way her laboratory works.
Viruses are often regarded as villains in the story of humanity, but what if they didn’t always have to be? What if these microscopic invaders could serve as our allies instead—for instance, helping us treat cancer, protect against infections, and kill drug-resistant bacteria? This isn’t wishful thinking. They already do, and scientists are exploiting them to help us further. Last year’s HIV Dynamics and Replication Program conference provided a peek behind that curtain.
For 2023, the National Institutes of Health held its first in-person NIH Research Festival in Bethesda, Maryland, since the start of the pandemic. The five-day event was well attended and included lectures, workshops, posters, and biotech vendor information booths spread across several areas of the campus.
While there was a plethora of events, several scientists agreed that the standout features of this year’s festival were the interactions.
With 100 online attendees, 180 in-person participants, 15 posters, 16 technologies, and 45 speakers, the 2023 Technology Showcase offered a whirlwind look into biotechnology innovation happening at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and National Cancer Institute.
After three years of COVID-19, science has learned much about the disease and the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2. But in the bigger biological and clinical picture, there are still many unanswered questions, says Ligia Pinto, Ph.D. That’s what keeps her group, the Vaccine, Immunity, and Cancer Directorate at Frederick National Laboratory, working hard to hunt down answers. Now, they and collaborators have filled in another gap in that bigger picture.
