Research Summary

Dr. Winson Ho is a board certified pediatric neurosurgeon. His clinical work covers the whole spectrum of pediatric neurosurgery with a special interest in the neurosurgical care of children with brain tumors, epilepsy, and trauma. His laboratory research focuses on developing novel immunotherapies for the treatment of brain tumors, with a particular interest in studying the role of Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in modulating anti-tumor immunity. He received his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine and completed his residency in the joint neurosurgery program of the University of Virginia and the National Institutes of Health. Following his residency, he completed a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Intermountain Primary Children’s Medical Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He was an Assistant Professor in Neurosurgery at University of Texas at Austin from 2019-2022 prior to joining UCSF.

Research Funding

  • April 1, 2023 - February 29, 2028 - Regulation of Tumor Immunogenicity in Glioblastoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01NS131545
  • May 1, 2023 - April 30, 2025 - Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) Inhibition to Enhance cGAS-STING Mediated Tumor Immunogenicity in Medulloblastoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Matthew Larson Pedaitric Brain Tumor Foundation, Sponsor Award ID: P0567414
  • October 1, 2023 - September 20, 2024 - Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) Deficiency to Sensitize Senolytic Treatment in High Risk Medulloblastoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Meghan Rose Bradley Foundation, Sponsor Award ID: Pediatric Brain Cancer Pilot Grant
  • July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2023 - Modulation of Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in Natural-Killer Cell Based Immunotherapy for Pediatric High-Grade Glioma and Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH/NINDS, Sponsor Award ID: Sub award of K12NS080223

Education

06/2019 - Fellow in Pediatric Neurosurgery, University of Utah
06/2018 - Clinical Fellow in Neurosurgery, National Institutes of Health
06/2018 - Residency in Neurosurgery, University of Virginia
MD, 05/2011 - Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
BA, 05/2006 - Biology, Yale College

Honors & Awards

  • Corey Raffel, MD, PhD Endowed Professorship in Pediatric Neurosurgery, UCSF, 2024
  • Weill Clinician-Scientist Awards, UCSF, 2024
  • Neurosurgeon Research Career Development Award K12, NIH/NINDS, 2021
  • Pediatric Section Research Award, AANS/CNS Joint Section, 2020
  • Independent Investigator Grant, Rally Foundation, 2020

Selected Publications

  1. Zhang B, Cai T, Reddy E, Wu Y, Mondal I, Tang Y, Gbufor AS, Wang J, Shen Y, Liu Q, Sun R, Ho WS, Lu RO, Wu Z. Mitochondrial Protein Carboxyl-Terminal Alanine-Threonine Tailing Promotes Human Glioblastoma Growth by Regulating Mitochondrial Function. bioRxiv. 2026 Jan 09. View on PubMed
  2. Dubey A, Yamashita E, Stangeland B, Abbas I, Fooksman D, Harris RA, Palmer GM, Koba WR, Zhang J, Himes BT, Lu OR, Ho WS, Kuiper RV, Huffman D, Wu Z, Uchida Y, Ishii M, Welch RL, Fiedler AF, Reynolds D, Hosainey SAM, Dobrenis K, Ye Q, Fisher K, Killian N, Stanley ER, Eskandar E, Behnan J. Author Correction: Brain tumors induce widespread disruption of calvarial bone and alteration of skull marrow immune landscape. Nat Neurosci. 2025 Dec; 28(12):2645. View on PubMed
  3. Dubey A, Yamashita E, Stangeland B, Abbas I, Fooksman D, Harris RA, Palmer GM, Koba WR, Zhang J, Himes BT, Lu OR, Ho WS, Kuiper RV, Huffman D, Wu Z, Uchida Y, Ishii M, Welch RL, Fiedler AF, Reynolds D, Hosainey SAM, Dobrenis K, Ye Q, Fisher K, Killian N, Stanley ER, Eskandar E, Behnan J. Brain tumors induce widespread disruption of calvarial bone and alteration of skull marrow immune landscape. Nat Neurosci. 2025 Nov; 28(11):2231-2246. View on PubMed
  4. Cesano A, Augustin R, Barrea L, Bedognetti D, Bruno TC, Carturan A, Hammer C, Ho WS, Kather JN, Kirchhoff T, Lu RO, McQuade J, Najjar YG, Pietrobon V, Ruella M, Shen R, Soldati L, Spencer C, Betof Warner A, Warren S, Ziv E, Marincola FM. Advances in the understanding and therapeutic manipulation of cancer immune responsiveness: a Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) review. J Immunother Cancer. 2025 Jan 16; 13(1). View on PubMed
  5. Elguindy MM, Young JS, Ho WS, Lu RO. Co-evolution of glioma and immune microenvironment. J Immunother Cancer. 2024 Dec 03; 12(12). View on PubMed
  6. Chen JS, Haddad AF, Chung JE, Tang OY, Ho WS, Hervey-Jumper SL, Aghi MK. A propensity score-matched cost-effectiveness analysis of magnetic resonance-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy versus craniotomy for brain tumor radiation necrosis. Neurosurg Focus. 2024 11 01; 57(5):E2. View on PubMed
  7. Bollo RJ, Ho WS, Strauss I, Ferguson SD, Menacho ST. Introduction. Calibrating the utility of laser interstitial thermal therapy in neurosurgery: a once-novel surgical treatment finds it place in the armamentarium. Neurosurg Focus. 2024 11 01; 57(5):E1. View on PubMed
  8. Chen JS, Caldwell DJ, Falcone JA, Dalle Ore C, Sankaranarayanan V, Liu F, Hetts SW, Ho WS, Gupta N. Timing of diffusion tensor imaging in the management of a ruptured pediatric arteriovenous malformation: illustrative case. J Neurosurg Case Lessons. 2024 Aug 19; 8(8). View on PubMed
  9. Calley CS, Ho W, Babajani-Feremi A, Bodden C, Tyler-Kabara E, Clarke DF. A Proposed Stereoelectroencephalography Electrode Nomenclature and Call for Standardization. J Clin Neurophysiol. 2025 Mar 01; 42(3):201-207. View on PubMed
  10. Clark MC, Lu RO, Ho WS, Dias MH, Bernards R, Forman SJ. A combination of protein phosphatase 2A inhibition and checkpoint immunotherapy: a perfect storm. Mol Oncol. 2024 Oct; 18(10):2333-2337. View on PubMed
  11. Weisbrod LJ, Thiraviyam A, Vengoji R, Shonka N, Jain M, Ho W, Batra SK, Salehi A. Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG): A review of current and emerging treatment strategies. Cancer Lett. 2024 May 28; 590:216876. View on PubMed
  12. Hagemann JR, Lamy F, Arz HW, Lembke-Jene L, Auderset A, Harada N, Ho SL, Iwasaki S, Kaiser J, Lange CB, Murayama M, Nagashima K, Nowaczyk N, Martínez-García A, Tiedemann R. A marine record of Patagonian ice sheet changes over the past 140,000 years. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Mar 19; 121(12):e2302983121. View on PubMed
  13. Elguindy M, Young JS, Mondal I, Lu RO, Ho WS. Glioma-Immune Cell Crosstalk in Tumor Progression. Cancers (Basel). 2024 Jan 11; 16(2). View on PubMed
  14. Chung JE, Iqbal O, Krishnan C, Harrod V, Tyler-Kabara E, Lu RO, Ho WS. Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy with Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy in Central Nervous System Neuroblastoma: Illustrative Case and Literature Review. Brain Sci. 2023 Oct 26; 13(11). View on PubMed
  15. Mondal I, Das O, Sun R, Gao J, Yu B, Diaz A, Behnan J, Dubey A, Meng Z, Eskandar E, Xu B, Lu RO, Ho WS. PP2Ac Deficiency Enhances Tumor Immunogenicity by Activating STING-Type I Interferon Signaling in Glioblastoma. Cancer Res. 2023 08 01; 83(15):2527-2542. View on PubMed
  16. Ho WS, Mondal I, Xu B, Das O, Sun R, Chiou P, Cai X, Tahmasebinia F, McFadden E, Wu CY, Wu Z, Matsui W, Lim M, Meng Z, Lu RO. PP2Ac/STRN4 negatively regulates STING-type I IFN signaling in tumor-associated macrophages. J Clin Invest. 2023 03 15; 133(6). View on PubMed
  17. Fang FY, Rosenblum JS, Ho WS, Heiss JD. New Developments in the Pathogenesis, Therapeutic Targeting, and Treatment of Pediatric Medulloblastoma. Cancers (Basel). 2022 May 03; 14(9). View on PubMed
  18. Wu Z, Ho WS, Lu R. Targeting Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorylation in Glioblastoma Therapy. Neuromolecular Med. 2022 03; 24(1):18-22. View on PubMed
  19. Lee JJ, Clarke D, Hoverson E, Tyler-Kabara EC, Ho WS. MRI-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy using the Visualase system and Navigus frameless stereotaxy in an infant: technical case report. J Neurosurg Pediatr. 2021 07 01; 28(1):50-53. View on PubMed
  20. Lu RO, Ho WS. Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Macrophage, and Microglia in Brain Cancer. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020; 8:620788. View on PubMed

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