Science

The NCI at Frederick Scientific Publications Database added 205 publications by NCI at Frederick researchers between April 1 and June 30, 2020.

Sharing a lab with another team may sound like an inconvenience to some, like the professional equivalent of sharing a bedroom with a sibling. But not for Alex Compton, Ph.D.; Alan Rein, Ph.D.; and their colleagues. In their case, sharing a lab led to a rich collaboration, mentoring opportunities, and a study that uncovered facets of how cells interact with viruses.

To say Cathy Cullen’s “lab” in Building 427 is nontraditional would be a bit of an understatement. Instead of pipettes, there are pipe cleaners. The chemical reactants are baking soda and lemon juice. And the “animal” is a blue plastic robotic mouse. Cullen’s operation is the epicenter of Education Outreach Services in the Office of Scientific Operations for NCI at Frederick. She is tasked with bringing extracurricular science to young people in Frederick County Public Schools and organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Frederick County and the Housing Authority of the City of Frederick.

As we try to stay connected to work, friends, and family while social distancing, we’re reaching for our cell phones more often—but is there any reason to worry? The best evidence says no.

A team from the Biopharmaceutical Development Program is developing a new autologous cell therapy line that uses engineered chimeric antigen receptor T cells to treat acute myeloid leukemia, a particularly aggressive form of pediatric blood cancer. This foray into cell immunotherapy represents a new avenue of research and development for the BDP, which has traditionally focused on biologics to fight cancer, HIV, and rare diseases.

As the director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, Gordon Whiteley has one message for his team: “Treat every sample as if it were your own, your mother’s, or (from) someone you care about.” Whiteley and his team, part of the Cancer Research Technology Program at the Frederick National Laboratory, work in a high-complexity lab at the Advanced Technology Research Facility that operates under rigorous standards of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. The tests developed by the lab (one of five high-complexity labs associated with FNL) generally are not available anywhere else.

For Kelly J. Lockard Toms, an associate in Occupational Health Services, Cervical Cancer Awareness Month is every month. Education and outreach efforts for cervical cancer are usually observed during the month of January. But as a cervical cancer survivor, Lockard Toms never misses an opportunity to educate women about the disease—and what can be a simple way to prevent it.

Do you want to improve the quality, sharing, and re-use of biomedical data produced from your research? Join the Scientific Library in February and March for the Data Science Winter Webinar Series.

Euna Yoo, Ph.D., has found what she calls “the perfect place” to begin her career as an independent researcher—the Chemical Biology Laboratory at NCI at Frederick. The 11-year-old laboratory is an internationally recognized program that performs basic science to develop and apply chemical tools, methods, and materials to understand and alter biological processes involved in cancer and AIDS.

Jason Evans is giving me a tour of the new NCI Program for Natural Products Discovery (NPNPD) facility when he pauses to look at a sample-handling robot under repair, its mechanical insides temporarily disemboweled. I ask if he has an electrical engineering background, and he laughs. Evans is a scientific programmer, but for him and his colleagues, that’s beside the point.