Akshaya Krishnamoorthy

Akshaya is working on understanding how to reprogram immunosuppressive myeloid cells in the tumor microenvironment of brain tumors into a more proinflammatory and immunostimulatory state. To do this, she applies the concept of trained immunity—a form of innate immune memory that induces long-term epigenetic and metabolic changes. Her work involves ex vivo training of CD11b⁺ myeloid cells from tumor tissue and PBMCs from the peripheral blood of CNS pediatric brain tumor patients. She has also developed and characterized an iPSC-derived microglial platform for training and functional assays. Akshaya uses techniques such as flow cytometry, imaging, bulk RNA sequencing, and Seahorse metabolic profiling. The aim is to uncover how trained immunity can reshape the tumor immune landscape, with the potential to enhance the efficacy of immunotherapies in pediatric gliomas.