Here I was, an 18-year-old student intern with a chance to interview a prominent research scientist and suddenly, face-to-face with her, I ran out of questions. Silence filled the room. Now what? My Urbana High School classes had not prepared me to answer that question. Well, they had not prepared me to interview a scientist, either.

“Here are lions.” This fanciful phrase for the unknown embellishes the blank areas of antiquated maps. Sometimes cartographers used the phrase “Terra Incognita” (“unknown land”) instead. Either way, the message was clear: we don’t know what’s beyond this point. The modern study of genetics is similar.

Frederick has become a key player in biomedical research. That was the clear message from the third annual Technology Showcase, hosted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. As usual, the event highlighted the numerous technologies developed by NCI and FNL scientists that are available to external groups for licensing and partnership. But this year, it also showcased the strength of the region.

Govind Kunduri, Ph.D., watched as a bright light illuminated a transparent tube full of mutant fruit flies. Then, as he prepared to collect data, something unexpected occurred: the flies began having seizures. The flies’ surprising behavior seemed epileptic, but Kunduri, a postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer and Developmental Biology Laboratory (CDBL), part of the Center for Cancer Research at NCI at Frederick, hadn’t intended to study epilepsy.

Dennis Klinman, M.D., Ph.D., says science is like the surface of a sphere—there are thousands of possible connections between different points. It is fitting, therefore, that on the eve of his retirement, the senior investigator has helped a young scientist connect with her passion.