Grant: Alliance Grants

Manitoba-based industry partner Monteris pioneered targeted laser thermal technology for selective tissue ablation in human brain and remains a market leader in minimally invasive precision NeuroBlate® laser technology. Emerging evidence suggests that laser thermal treatment can elicit novel immunomodulatory functions in the brain. Upon tissue placement of a thin optic fiber, laser thermal energy emitted from the optic fiber tip heat-coagulates tissue. Absorption of thermal load by surrounding tissue causes increasing heat dissipation away from the fiber tip. This laser thermal tissue gradient creates distinct histological regions with different degrees of tissue damage that range from a necrotic zone at the fiber tip to an edema zone farther from the tip. The laser thermal tissue gradient promotes an array of cellular and molecular responses that drive changes in cellular composition and activity in laser-treated brain. We will establish the first laser brain tumor mouse models in Canada and focus on a new role of laser thermal technology as a modulator of cellular immune activity in response to heat stress in brain. To understand the effects of laser-induced cellular immunomodulation on innate and adaptive immune cells in the brain environment, we study mouse brain models with pre-existing low/ moderate/ high cellular immune activation. We test the ability of two optic fiber designs on immunomodulation and generate tissue-based spatiotemporal high-resolution gene expression profiles mapped to laser-induced brain lesions. These tissue maps visualize immune cell composition/ activation along the laser thermal tissue gradient in distinct brain environments. This study inspires new designs and applications of laser technology for immunomodulation and sustains scientific partnership and HQP training for the advancement of future applications of NeuroBlate® laser technology.