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AMPL opportunity: Consortium releases first product for faster drug discovery
Cancer Data Science InitiativesPosted 8/27/2020The Accelerating Therapeutics for Opportunities in Medicine (ATOM) Consortium, an initiative that aims to expedite research and development for new medicines, is making headway.
The group recently released its first product: the ATOM Modeling PipeLine (AMPL, pronounced “ample”), an open-source software package that uses data and machine learning to predict chemical…
Adding a second step to CAR T-cell therapy may make it effective against HIV
Posted 8/26/2020Chimeric antigen receptor or CAR T-cell therapy is FDA approved to treat patients with blood cancers including non-Hodgkins lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, whose disease persists or returns following first-line treatments. One reason CAR T-cell therapy is effective is because a patient’s blood contains an abundance of the cancer cells that stimulate the activation…
Serendipitous collaboration leads to potential therapy for liver cancer
Posted 8/16/2020
A group of killer T cells (green and red) surrounding a cancer cell (blue, center). When a killer T cell makes contact with a target cell, the killer cell attaches and spreads over the dangerous target and destroys it.
The old adage that says two heads are better than one certainly seems true for Mitchell Ho, Ph.D., a senior investigator in the Center for Cancer…
Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory supports long-term study evaluating toxicity from nanoparticles
Posted 8/2/2020The Frederick National Laboratory’s Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory recently supported a first-of-its-kind study examining whether nanoparticles used for drug delivery, vaccines, and biomedical imaging were toxic over an extended period of time.
The study, led by the Utah Center for Nanomedicine at The University of Utah, looked at the toxicity of certain…
Analysis of “rapid autopsy” tumor tissue may offer guidance to stop or slow cancer’s spread
Posted 7/27/2020Results from genomic testing of a cancer patient’s biopsy tissue can help guide treatment decisions, depending on the types of gene mutations found. But as it spreads or stops responding to treatment, the cancer changes and develops new mutations. Insights gained from the biopsy of the primary tumor may no longer be relevant in determining next steps.
To piece together the…
Compound derived from red algae may protect against Nipah virus
Posted 7/14/2020
A “Swiss army knife” protein that is active against several viruses may also offer some protection against Nipah virus, a lethal pathogen with no cure or vaccine.
The “tool” is griffithsin, a compound extracted from the red algae Griffithsia. A modified version of the protein substantially increased survival rates when administered as a preventative in a live…
Studies show HLA-B gene match with recipient and donor may lead to more successful bone marrow transplant
Posted 7/1/2020For patients with blood cancer such as leukemia, a bone marrow transplant can extend life or even potentially cure the disease. The ideal bone marrow donor is a close relative, such as a brother or sister. If none is available, doctors look for an unrelated donor whose stem cells best match those of the recipient.
Mary Carrington, Ph.D., director of the Basic Sciences…
Argonne-FNL collaboration aims to find a SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor
Posted 7/1/2020A unique library of small-molecule fragments designed and developed by the National Cancer Institute’s RAS Initiative at the Frederick National Laboratory is now furthering the search for a COVID-19 treatment.
Scientist Marcin Dyba holds a tray of compound fragments from the RAS Initiative's tethering library before loading it into the mass spectrometer for testing…
New technical service supports tuberculosis research
Posted 6/30/2020The Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research has initiated a new technical service offering, to support tuberculosis vaccine research efforts in nonhuman primate (NHP) model studies.
Scanning electron micrograph of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which cause TB.
Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health…
Scientists optimize SARS-CoV-2 protein production to meet growing need for serology testing
Protein Expression LaboratoryPosted 6/24/2020Scientists at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNL) successfully increased the yield production of a challenging protein used in antibody tests for SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, publishing their findings earlier this month in Protein Expression and Purification.
With large-scale SARS-CoV-2 serological surveys underway in the United States,…