If Memory Serves...

When the United States entered World War II, many laboratory and animal technicians enlisted or were drafted into the Armed Forces. Many of these technicians had originally obtained their jobs through the Works Progress Administration. (Read more)

For more information about the birth of NCI, go to http://www.cancer.gov/
aboutnci/ncia.

Pioneer Awards Symposium to Take Place in September
The NIH Director's Pioneer Awards Symposium will be held on September 19 in the Natcher Conference Center on the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD. The meeting will feature the announcements of the 2007 Pioneer Award recipients and presentations by the 2006 winners.

Part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, the NIH Director's Pioneer Award (NDPA) Program is a high-risk research initiative of the Research Teams of the Future theme. First announced in FY 2004, 9 awards were made in September 2004, and 13 awards each were made in 2005 and 2006. NDPA is designed to support individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research. The term "pioneering" is used to describe highly innovative and potentially transformative approaches with the potential to produce an unusually high impact, and the term "award" refers to a grant for conducting research, rather than a reward for past achievements. Additional information about the Pioneer Awards and the symposium is available at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/pioneer/index.aspx.

NCAB Meeting Slated for September 17 & 18
The National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) will meet on September 17 and 18 in Room 6C10 of Building 31 on the NIH campus in Bethesda. Overflow rooms, available for closed circuit viewing, include 6C7 and 11A10 in Building 31. The meeting will be videocast at http://videocast.nih.gov.

HIV/AIDS Research Symposium Set for November
On November 1 and 2, NCI's Center for Cancer Research is sponsoring a symposium, "HIV/AIDS Research at the National Cancer Institute: A Record of Sustained Excellence," in the Masur Auditorium on the NIH campus. The symposium will celebrate the achievements in HIV/AIDS research by NCI scientists and discuss future developments in the effort to combat HIV/AIDS. Sessions will include AIDS malignancies, HIV virology and molecular pathogenesis, immunology/immunopathology, vaccines/immunotherapy, epidemiology, and drug development/resistance. Registration is free and can be completed online at http://web.ncifcrf.gov/events/hivaidsresearch2007/. For additional information, please contact Karen Kochersberger at kochersbergerks@mail.nih.gov or 301-228-4027.

Biomarkers Meeting in Brussels
On November 15-17, NCI will cosponsor the first annual meeting on "Molecular Markers in Cancer" in Brussels, Belgium. The other cosponsors are the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the American Society for Clinical Oncology.

The purposes of this meeting are to accelerate progress in the fight against cancer and to improve international scientific collaboration between Europe and the United States in the rapidly advancing field of cancer markers.

This meeting will bring together clinicians, pathologists, laboratory scientists, statisticians, and representatives from the pharmaceutical industry as well as regulatory agencies. A tutorial open to selected young oncologists and representatives from the pharmaceutical industry will take place before the meeting, on November 14. Additional information is available at http://www.eortc.be/seminar/enasco2007/default.htm.