The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNL) 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 (CSB), seized the opportunity while out of the lab to revisit previously collected data. Those efforts are paying off.

Most available antibody-drug conjugates 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.

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.