CCR Milestones - 2019

Director’s Note The science never stops in the NCI’s Center for Cancer Research (CCR). Our labs and clinics bustle with activity at all hours of the day with the singular goal of better understanding, preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer. As a result, in the past year, CCR scientists have published more than 1,300 scientific publications, filed nearly a hundred invention reports and treated thousands of patients in the NIH Clinical Center. This issue of Milestones captures a few select highlights of this year’s research activities. Featured are achievements in areas where CCR has long been a leader, including immunotherapy, HIV research and cell signaling, but also in important new emerging areas such as big data science and chemical biology, in which CCR is making major investments. Many of the remarkable studies included in this issue represent high-risk projects or long-term endeavors, which CCR is uniquely positioned to undertake in the protected research environment of the intramural program. It is also reassuring to see that many of this year’s top advances come from our tenure track investigators, highlighting our dedication to training the next generation of cancer researchers. All of the advances summarized here, and indeed all progress in CCR, reflect the work of our dedicated and passionate scientists, clinicians, trainees and administrative staff. Cancer research is paradoxical in its nature. On the one hand, we see continuous and rapid advances, yet progress is never fast enough, and there is much more to do. That is precisely why the science in CCR never stops. TomMisteli Director NCI Center for Cancer Research 1