The National Cancer Institute seeks parties interested in collaborative research to evaluate or commercialize a diagnostic tool that can identify new drugs that increase chromosome instability.  Although chromosomal instability is generally thought of as a driver of tumor growth, a threshold level exists where CIN becomes a barrier to tumor growth and therefore can be exploited therapeutically.

HCC is the most frequent malignant tumor in the liver and the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide.  A progressive sequence of somatic mutations and epigenetic changes of oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes are believed to cause tumor development. However, high genomic instability in tumors causes the accumulation of genomic aberrations that do not contribute to tumor progression. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between ''driver'' mutations that are functionally important and ''passenger'' mutations that do not provide a selective advantage to the tumor cells.

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) uses cancer reactive T-cells to effectively treat patients. However, several obstacles inhibit the successful use of ACT for cancer treatment.  Current approaches for the expansion of T-cells may produce T-cells with a terminally differentiated phenotype that is associated with diminished anti-tumor activity and poor capacity for long-term persistence. Studies have shown that improving metabolic properties and persistence of T-cells during ex vivo expansion could improve anti-tumor efficacy of T-cells.

Exposure to ionizing radiation or agents that induce DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs), which is one of the most damaging types of lesions in DNA, can result in damage to cells and/or tissues.  Thiscan lead to illness (i.e., Acute Radiation Syndrome, Cancer) or death.  Identifying the amount of exposure to a DNA DSB-causing agent can be useful in determining the need for further testing, avoidance or modification of certain medical procedures, and/or types of medical treatments.

One problem with the development of immunotherapy for cancer or other diseases is the inability to stimulate a sufficient immune response in patients to tumor associated antigens. The Linker Adapted for T Cell Signaling molecule (LAT) has been shown to be an important molecule in T cell signaling. The inventions described and claimed in this patent application illustrate a new supportive role for LAT which may be harnessed to improve a patient's immune response to tumor-associated antigens.

Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are hybrid proteins consisting of an antibody binding fragment fused to protein signaling domains that cause T-cells which express the CAR to become cytotoxic.  Once activated, these cytotoxic T-cells can selectively eliminate the cells which they recognize via the antibody binding fragment of the CAR.  Thus, by engineering a T-cell to express a CAR that is specific for a certain cell surface protein, it is possible to selectively target those cells for destruction.  This promising new therapeutic approach is known as adoptive cell therapy.

Research and development leading to the discovery of novel antibiotics has waned in recent years. At the same time, the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance has compounded the global danger to human health from bacterial infections. 

Available for commercial development is software that provides automatic visualization of features inside biological image volumes in 3D. The software provides a simple and interactive visualization for the exploration of biological datasets through dataset-specific transfer functions and direct volume rendering. The method employs a K-Means++ clustering algorithm to classify a two-dimensional histogram created from the input volume. The classification process utilizes spatial and data properties from the volume.

Researchers at the NCI Laboratory for Cell Biology have invented a device to guide a stream of oxygen or carbon dioxide over a dish of cells during fluorescence microscopy. The invention includes the 3D printing software to create the device.  The device facilitates application of a steady source of oxygen or carbon dioxide to cells while operating a fluorescent microscope to oxidize fluorophores for subsequent visualization via electron microscopy. 

Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) is a promising technique that uses a patient's own T cells to treat cancer. The process requires removing and engineering a patient's T cells to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) or T cell receptor (TCR) that targets a specific cancer antigen. When the modified T cells are reintroduced into the patient, the T cells attack and kill cancer cells that express the antigen, thereby treating the patient.