Discovering how ependymoma interacts with the immune system

The Ramaswamy Lab is finding new ways to investigate how the childhood brain cancer ependymoma interacts with the immune system. Immunotherapy is a promising area of research that involves helping a patient’s own immune system fight a tumour. However, little is currently known about the interaction between an ependymoma tumour and the immune system. In this project Dr. Ramaswamy’s team plans to analyse slices of patients’ tumours to identify the immune cells that are present. They will also model ependymoma in mice with a functional immune system, which could become an invaluable tool for discovering new treatments that work in a true-to-life context where immune cells are present.