#thenci

[historyatnih]

Douglas Howard took care of these large batteries for the Pathology Division of the National Cancer Institute in November 1939.  Does anyone have an idea about what equipment needed so many batteries?  We’d like to know!

[historyatnih]

These colorful wild type human prostate cells from an organoid (a laboratory-made construct that resembles an organ) will serve as controls for a study at the National Cancer Institute of primary prostate cancer tumor cells. Prostate cancer is the most common nonskin cancer among men in the United States, so you should learn about it during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. The National Cancer Institute has an excellent page. https://www.cancer.gov/types/prostate

[historyatnih]

After dissecting 100,000 rats during an investigation of bubonic plague in San Francisco, California in 1909, and finding all sorts of tumors, Dr. George McCoy had an idea: The Hygienic Laboratory (the precursor of NIH) should really study cancer.  “The results of studies thus far made indicate that the solution of the cancer problem is to be found by intensive biologic studies of cell life. The conviction is growing that the cancer cell differs from the normal healthy cell chiefly in its power to multiply indefinitely, and when the factors bringing about this lawless growth are determined the problem of the etiology and propagation of cancer will have been solved,” he wrote for the 1910 Annual Report of the Surgeon General.  But his request for $25,000 for cancer research wasn’t accepted, and the Laboratory didn’t start cancer research until 12 years later.  Today, @theNCI is carrying on the research tenuously begun by McCoy over 100 years ago.  The image is one of the charts in McCoy’s 1909 publication about the tumors he found https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2099000/

Quote from “Historical Note: Epizootiology of Cancer: The Contribution of George W. McCoy and the Abortive Federal Cancer Program of 1910,” Michael B. Shimkin, J Natl Cancer Inst, 58 (2), Feb. 1977, p. 457.

https://bit.ly/2FisK2z

[historyatnih]

Dr. Leonard Scheele explored Building 6 on the @NIH campus in September 1939. It was the brand new home of his National Cancer Control Program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). After being assigned to the military in World War II, he became director of NCI in 1947. Scheele succeeded Thomas Parran as Surgeon General in 1948, serving until 1956.

[historyatnih]

Engineers boasted that Building 41, which opened 50 years ago at NIH, was a new type of laboratory environment that protected workers from exposure to infectious agents and prevented the agents from escaping into the environment.  Designed especially for the NCI’s Special Virus Cancer Program, the building had three zones of isolation.  In the two zones not devoted to administrative functions, special clothing was required, including culottes for women.  See a 1969 description of @theNCI building’s design

https://nihrecord.nih.gov/PDF_Archive/1969%20pdfs/19690819.pdf

[historyatnih]

For Women’s History month, we’re introducing you to some of the NIH researchers who have received the honor of delivering the Anita B. Roberts Lecture.  Dr. Roberts (1942 – 2006) was both a stellar scientist — she was among the top 50 most-cited researchers for 20 years — and a beloved mentor to dozens of young scientists.  Her pioneering work focused on the protein TGF-β, which is critical in healing wounds and bone fractures and can either block or stimulate cancer development. Roberts joined NCI in 1976, becoming the chief of the Laboratory of Cell Regulation and Carcinogenesis in 1995.

The Anita B. Roberts Lecture Series is organized by the NIH Women Scientist Advisors Committee to highlight outstanding research achievements by female scientists @IRPatNIH. The series is supported by the Office of Research on Women’s Health.  Learn more about Roberts and the lecture series https://bit.ly/2tqabmx  

[historyatnih]

Once upon a time, a fax machine was the latest technology.  The CancerFax service of the National Cancer Institute began in the early 1990s to give physicians and the public the latest information about cancer and its treatments.  The service was available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and was meant for people without computers. The information came from the NCI's Physician Data Query database and was available in English and Spanish.  Today there is https://www.cancer.gov/publications/fact-sheets on cancer treatments, diagnosis, prevention, coping, etc., easily available via your smartphone or computer and in many languages.  

[historyatnih]

Dr. Michael Potter firmly believed that science was driven by curiosity, not competition, and the only goal was to answer our questions about the nature of life.  An artistic beachcomber who took his students for long talks on the water, Potter also helped to arrange exciting international meetings filled with passionate debate, and shared resources like frozen tumor specimens with scientists around the world.  For his work and generosity, which laid the foundation for monoclonal antibodies, Potter was recognized by a Lasker Award in 1984.   Find out more about this extraordinary man in our exhibit in the NIH Clinical Center central corridor or at https://history.nih.gov/exhibits/potter/index.html .