Human beings are mostly water, and about a fifth of that water is interstitial fluid, flowing in the spaces between our cells. ⁠Jenny Munson⁠, a world leader in the study of interstitial fluid flow, explains how fluid flow changes in diseases like brain cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, and how that understanding is being used to improve treatments of those conditions and others.

Munson is a professor and director of ⁠Fralin Biomedical Research Institute's⁠ Cancer Research Center in Roanoke, Virginia. Part of her lab’s research focuses on brain cancer, and how fluid flow increases between cells within the tissue at the edge of the tumor where cancer cells mix with neighboring brain cells and evade typical therapies. Munson and her team believe fluid flow can alter how a tumor responds to drug therapies. The lab is also translating many of its methods and hypotheses to understand the role of fluid flow in immunity, aging, and women's health.