Q: How would you summarize your study for a lay audience?
Our study investigated the role of astrocytes, an abundant cell type in the brain, in regulating an immune response against glioblastoma (GBM)-a highly aggressive brain cancer. We found a subset of astrocytes that limits the immune response and can be targeted with therapeutics.
Q: What question were you investigating?
GBM is a brain cancer that has remained untreatable for decades. Immunotherapies that have worked in other cancers are ineffective in GBM, potentially due to the local suppression of immune responses in the tumor microenvironment. Astrocytes are abundant cells of the central immune system that regulate inflammation in multiple diseases. Here, we examined how their role in the immune response could provide insights into…