A team led by Dr. Hongjun Song and Dr. Guo-li Ming (IRM Associate Director) have applied trans-synaptic tracing tools from circuit neuroscience to study integration of glioblastoma (GBM) brain tumors into the neural circuitry of the brain. They find rapid and extensive formation of tumor-neuron connections and identify a novel neuromodulatory synapse between basal forebrain cholinergic neurons and GBM. They also identify a receptor, CHRM3, on tumor cells that mediates cholinergic neuron-tumor signaling and is a novel therapeutic target.

You can read more in their publication in Nature!