The Ross Lab started off the new year (2026) with news that The Cure Starts Now foundation will fund our studies on immune suppressive macrophages in pediatric diffuse midline glioma. Specifically, the project is focused on a protein highly expressed by these cells in mice and human tumors, and aims to determine how this protein drives immune suppression and therapeutic resistance. These studies could lead to the discovery of a novel therapeutic target for DMG and pave the way for combinatorial treatment strategies. The Ross Lab is extremely grateful of the donors, patients, and families that have entrusted us to perform these studies.

In October 2025, the Ross lab, in collaboration with the Kelsey Voss lab at UVA, were awarded a UVA BRAIN Institute Transformative Neuroscience Pilot grant to study tumor associated macrophages and identify druggable targets in the context of pediatric high-grade glioma. Trainees are absolutely able to contribute to this exciting project!

The 2025 society for neuro-oncology annual meeting was held in Honolulu Hawaii where Dr. Ross attended and got caught up on all the latest and greatest science being done for brain tumors.

Are you a graduate student looking for your home lab? We are seeking highly motivated, hard-working, and ambitious students who are interested in brain tumor immunology. Primary projects will be focused on tumor associated macrophages and microglia, determining how their immune suppressive properties contribute to brain tumor progression. Students will be exposed to a variety of experimental methodology including immune competent mouse models, single cell sequencing, flow cytometry, and in vitro cell cultures among others. This is the lab for you if want close mentorship and want to be invested in! Reach out for more information. We look forward to working with you!

The Ross lab opened its doors in June (2025). We made our first hire, Ashlyn Cowan, who has been instrumental in getting everything up and running. All major equipment has arrived and we are gearing up to start experiments soon!