Advancing Medical Applications of Cancer Nanotechnology: Highlighting Two Decades of the NCI'S Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory Service to the Research Community.

The Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL) is a US federally funded resource providing characterization and expertise to the cancer nanomedicine research community. Founded as a formal partnership among the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the NCL has spent two decades developing a one-of-a-kind service with broad multidisciplinary expertise to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving drug development field. To mark the 20th anniversary of the lab's founding, the NCL hosted a symposium to highlight the achievements of the cancer nanomedicine field, showcase novel, next-generation nanotechnology research, and discuss future priorities to enable continued growth in combating cancer and the complexities associated with treating a disease that continues to take millions of lives annually.

Targeted intra-tumoral hyperthermia using uniquely biocompatible gold nanorods induces strong immunogenic cell death in two immunogenically 'cold' tumor models.

Introduction: Hyperthermia is an established adjunct in multimodal cancer treatments, with mechanisms including cell death, immune modulation, and vascular changes. Traditional hyperthermia applications are resource-intensive and often associated with patient morbidity, limiting their clinical accessibility. Gold nanorods (GNRs) offer a precise, minimally invasive alternative by leveraging near-infrared (NIR) light to deliver targeted hyperthermia therapy (THT).

Lactate shuttling as an allostatic means of thermoregulation in the brain.

Lactate, the redox-balanced end product of glycolysis, travels within and between cells to fulfill an array of physiologic functions. While evidence for the centrality of this lactate shuttling in mammalian metabolism continues to mount, its application to physical bioenergetics remains underexplored. Lactate represents a metabolic "cul-de-sac," as it can only re-enter metabolism by first being converted back to pyruvate by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH).