# Impact of immune-targeting therapies on the GBM tumor immune interface

> **NIH NIH U54** · MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2024 · $158,504

## Abstract

ABSTRACT – OVERALL
The primary focus of the MIT/DFCI Center for Systems Biology of Glioblastoma is to understand the
intersections between neurons, immune cells, and tumor cells in this deadly tumor. The lack of response to
immunotherapy strategies despite prominent infiltrates of immune cells in many GBM highlights the immuno-
suppressive nature of the GBM microenvironment and the importance of more clearly understanding the
dynamic interactions at the tumor/immune interface. Similarly, interactions between tumor cells and neural
cells in the tumor microenvironment have emerged as driving forces in tumor progression and invasion, with
electrical signals from neurons providing growth and migration stimuli to tumor cells, while tumor cells lead to
aberrant electrical signaling in local neurons. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that developing a
systems-level understanding of the dynamic interactions between tumor cells, neurons and immune cells will
provide unprecedented insights into glioma tumor biology and foster development of novel therapeutic
strategies to abrogate tumor invasion, enhance the efficacy of cytotoxic therapies, and increase clearance of
tumor burden by the innate and adaptive immune system. The planned analyses will enable building an
integrated computational model of tumor-neural-immune interactions for GBM tumors. The model will be based
on a foundation of in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo model systems, and then validated in dozens of human patients.
Image-registered biopsies from different tumor regions within each patient will be analyzed to test predictions
of this model against the ‘ground truth’ of human tumors. The ultimate goal of the MIT/DFCI Center for
Systems Biology of Glioblastoma is to improve patient care by using systems biology and computational
modeling to identify therapeutic strategies to specifically disrupt critical tumor cell – microenvironment
interactions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11073995
- **Project number:** 3U54CA283114-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** Franziska Michor
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $158,504
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2023-09-15 → 2028-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11073995

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11073995, Impact of immune-targeting therapies on the GBM tumor immune interface (3U54CA283114-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11073995. Licensed CC0.

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