The blood brain barrier (BBB) is a specialized endothelium that prevents the uptake of substances from the systemic circulation into the central nervous system. This barrier, while protecting the sensitive physiological environment of the brain, is also a major impediment in administering therapeutics that need to pass through the BBB. A drug delivery platform that could deliver therapeutic agents directly to the brain is needed, and could have wide ranging significance in a variety of psychiatric, oncology, infectious, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Accurate measurement of low metabolite concentrations produced by medically important enzymes is commonly obscured by noise during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Measuring the turnover rate of low-level metabolites can directly quantify the activity of enzymes of interest, including possible drug targets in cancer and other diseases. Noise can cause the in vivo signal to fall below the limit of detection. A variety of denoising methods have been proposed to enhance spectroscopic peaks, but still fall short for the detection of low-intensity signals.

The development of more targeted means of treating cancer is vital. One option for a targeted treatment is the creation of a vaccine that induces an immune response only against cancer cells. In this sense, vaccination involves the introduction of a peptide into a patient that causes the formation of antibodies or T cells that recognize the peptide. If the peptide is from a protein found selectively on/in cancer cells, those antibodies or T cells can trigger the death of those cancer cells without harming non-cancer cells. This can result in fewer side effects for the patient.

Current treatments for cancer and viral infection are limited remedies that often suppress cell or viral replication rather than eliminate diseased cells entirely from the body. A further limitation is that these therapies often compromise healthy cells as well, leaving problems of recurrence and side effects.

Researchers at developed a novel therapeutic nanoparticle (NP) system harboring therapeutic small siRNA that can significantly enhance effectiveness and specificity of treatments by killing diseased cells.

Immunotherapy is a promising method of treating cancer that leverages the immune system to promote tumor rejection. However, certain somatic mutations in cancer cells confer resistance to T cell-mediated cytolysis. To improve the effectiveness of immunotherapies for cancer, there exists a need to prospectively identify patients who are most likely to respond to such therapies.

The National Cancer Institute's Protein Expression Laboratory seeks parties interested in licensing the novel delivery of RNA to mammalian cells using virus-like particles.

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have developed orthotopic allograft models for pancreatic cancer that utilize low passage primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells or tumor fragments implanted into the cancer-free pancreata of recipient syngeneic immunocompetent mice. Tumor development in these models is more synchronized, latency is substantially shortened, and tumors develop only in one location, as pre-determined by the choice of a site for cells/tumor fragment implantation.

Human cancers contain genetic mutations that are unique to each patient. Some of the mutated peptides are immunogenic, can be recognized by T cells, and therefore, may serve as therapeutic targets.

Prostate cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer among all men in the United States (US). It is also the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US among men, largely due to the progressively treatment resistant nature of the disease. Treatment options for early stage prostate cancer include watchful waiting, radical prostatectomy, radiation therapy, and importantly androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). Prostate cancer is dependent on androgen hormones, such as testosterone, for sustaining and promoting growth.

The National Cancer Institute's Urologic Oncology Branch is seeking statements of capability or interest from parties interested in collaborative research to further develop, evaluate, or commercialize the use of Tempol to target HIF-2a in cancer.