Melissa Gilbert-Ross, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. She joined the faculty in 2012. Dr. Gilbert-Ross is scientific director of the Cancer Animal Models Shared Resource, which assists Winship Cancer Institute members in the development, characterization and analysis of animal models for cancer research. She is also a member of the Cell and Molecular Biology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute.
Education
Dr. Gilbert-Ross earned her bachelor's degree in Genetics from The University of Georgia in Athens, and her PhD in Genetics from Stony Brook University in New York. She then went on to complete a productive postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Cell Biology at the Emory University School of Medicine.
Titles & Roles
Assistant Professor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology
Emory University School of Medicine
Scientific Director, Cancer Animal Models Shared Resource
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University
Research
Dr. Gilbert-Ross is ultimately interested in the molecular and cell biologic mechanisms that drive lung cancer tumor progression and metastasis. Mutations in the tumor suppressor LKB1 are present in up to 30% of patients, and collaborate with mutations in KRAS to produce aggressive lung tumors that are refractory to both standard and targeted therapies. In order to study how KRAS LKB1-mutant cells gain a metastatic advantage in the tumor microenvironment, she is applying her expertise in tissue-specific mosaic analysis to fluorescently mark KrasG12D Lkb1fl/fl mutant cells in vivo in a mouse model of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In addition, Dr. Gilbert-Ross is combining her expertise in Drosophila genetics and her training in mammalian lung cancer biology to test the central hypothesis that LKB1 restricts metastasis via a dual role in restricting both EMT and the plasticity of cell migration: both via its conserved role as a master regulator of cell polarity.
She has collaborated with Drs. Wei Zhou and Adam Marcus to redevelop a mutant Kras, Lkb1 genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM) of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Currently, the Kras, Lkb1 GEMM is being used in pre-clinical studies to test anti-metastatic therapies.
In 2013, Dr. Gilbert-Ross was awarded an Emory University Research Committee (URC) grant to develop an independent research program that uses a combination of Drosophila and mouse genetics to elucidate how LKB1 mutations drive metastasis in vivo.
She has also received the following grants and awards:
NCI Clinical Research LRP: "A Drosophila melanogaster model of mammalian HD-PTP and its role in FAK dephosphorylation", 2010-2012
NIH NRSA 1F32 GM077898 "Drosophila Tsg101: Coordination of growth control and epithelial polarity", 2006-2008
NIH Clinical Research LRP: "Tsg101: novel insights into a proposed mammalian tumor suppressor", 2006-2008
NCI Predoctoral Training Grant Recipient, 2000-2002
Howard Hughes Travel Award for Presentation of Undergraduate Research, 1997
