Our guest in this new episode is an academic super star: Prof. Carmit Levy who is the Chair of the Department of Human Molecular Genetics & Biochemistry at the Gray Faculty of Medicine. Levy is a renowned researcher in the area of skin cancer.

Prof. Levy and her team recently made a groundbreaking discovery involving a protein called Ly6a, which acts as a “brake” on the immune system. This protein, expressed both after UV exposure and in tumors, prevents immune cells from attacking cancer effectively. In experimental studies, the team showed that blocking Ly6a with a specific antibody reactivated the immune response, causing tumors to shrink—even in cases resistant to existing immunotherapies.

This research, published in Nature Communications, not only advances our understanding of the ...