About nine years ago, Jennifer Munson jotted down a question in her notes. She wondered how chemotherapy affects the brain. Around that time, scientists were beginning to uncover new information about a network of vessels lining the brain’s outermost layer. These vessels play a critical role: they drain blood, waste product and other fluids from the brain, helping maintain balance in the central nervous system.
Now, about a decade later, Munson’s lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech uncovered how chemotherapy can damage that same drainage system. This may help explain why so many chemotherapy patients experience lasting cognitive problems known as “chemo brain.” Her findings not only shed light on a long-standing medical problem but also position Southwest Virginia as a growing center for biomedical research at the intersection of engineering and neuroscience.
In 2018, a study linked this waste-disposal system to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in Nature. Researchers have implicated these vessels in several other neurological disorders, Munson said…