Grant: Foundation Grant

In response to insults, the body launches an immune response to eradicate the threat and instigate tissue repair. Unfortunately, chronic excessive inflammation leads to tissue damage while dampened immune responses may favor the development of tumors. My research programs are centered on inflammation within the brain and spinal cord, termed neuroinflammation. I focus my research activities on multiple sclerosis (MS) and glioblastoma (the most malignant and deadly form of brain tumor), where MS exhibits chronic neuroinflammation that destroys cells within the brain and spinal cord, and glioblastoma has suppressed immunity that allows brain tumor cells to escape detection and being killed. Indeed, brain tumor cells change the nature of immune cells and exploit them for cancer growth. My research programs thus seek to: 1) stop immune cells from going into the brain and spinal cord to inflict injury in MS, and neutralize the injury that immune cells can produce within the brain/spinal cord; 2) understand and harness the beneficial aspects of the immune system to facilitate the repair of myelin, particularly in aging subjects where the newly formed myelin can protect nerve fibers and thus slow the progression of disability in MS; and 3) rejuvenate the compromised immune system in glioblastoma in order that immune cells can perform their evolutionary function of fighting threats and eliminate the brain tumor. Thus, rather than considering MS and glioblastoma as distinct entities that should not be researched together, I have taken the unique approach of removing the silos from these diseases to study them together. By understanding why they lie on opposite ends of a spectrum, the lessons and drugs acquired in MS can be used to inform and treat glioblastoma, and vice versa. Thus, the overall research seeks to acquire new knowledge and enable recovery from devastating MS and glioblastoma.