The blood-brain barrier is one of our greatest shields against certain diseases and illnesses that may affect the brain. It helps project our brain when we have fevers or infections and keeps all the bad cells that are in our body out. But what happens when the blood brain barrier fails? What happens when the illness tricks it way into our brain – how can we protect ourselves then?

Akshata Anchan, doctoral candidate and researcher at the Centre for Brain Research at the university of Auckland, has been investigating this phenomenon for the last three years. With the help of a Gillespie Scholarship from the Neurological Foundation, she has been researching how cancer cells specifically get through our blood brain barrier undetected and infect our brains.

In this Discovery Session, audience members will be able to find out what exactly the blood brain barrier does, how it protects our brains and what is so unique about cancer cells that they can trick our barriers to let them through into our brains.