At IMMUNOLOGY2026™, a group of fourteen young scientists from Ohio presented their latest immunology research. But this group is even younger than most: they are high school students studying in the cancer immunology laboratory of Robert Aguilar, PhD, on their own campus.
Cancer Immunology at a High School
Since 2016, Dr. Aguilar has taught students in his two-room lab at Western Reserve Academy, a boarding and day college prep high school in Hudson, Ohio. Currently, seventy-seven students are taking advantage of this rare opportunity to learn immunological principles and research techniques that many scientists don’t encounter until their doctoral studies.
Aguilar started teaching AP Biology at Western Reserve while completing his doctorate. He noticed that his students “could actually handle quite a bit of research.” When asked what it was like convincing the school administration that the students were ready for a cancer immunology lab, he admitted, “It was not easy.”
But he slowly built the program and lab through donations from the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve. Aguilar’s program was an instant hit with students, and the school agreed that it should grow. By now, over 300 teenagers have been through Aguilar’s lab, and the earliest are even starting to complete their own PhDs.
The Student Experience
As a high school freshman, an immunology lab can be intimidating at first. One student, Erin Bickford, recalled her first day in the lab, when Aguilar warned the class not to touch the cannister of liquid nitrogen, “or it could explode.” She stuck around and reports that “it was definitely worth it.”
During that first semester, students get comfortable working in a lab. In the second semester of their first year, they begin developing their own research plan with guidance from Aguilar. By their second year, they are ready to present a poster at the AAI Annual Meeting.
Alida Karsten explained that the research she performed with fellow students Gabrielle Boykin and Ben Ross on drug resistance in glioblastoma was chosen because the pseudogene MTRNR2L1 was both under-researched and also could be studied in a high school lab environment. As a second-year student, she has had significant independence in developing her research plan.
At IMMUNOLOGY2026™
Aguilar prepares his students well for their AAI meeting experience. In addition to developing their research skills, they learn how to write, design, and present a poster. They rehearse their elevator pitches so they can explain their experiments in a clear and concise manner.
Western Reserve Academy students presented a total of seven posters in Boston, in addition to a poster by a recent graduate. Their research covered many aspects of cancer immunology, including biomarker identification and pseudogene analysis in triple-negative breast cancer, pseudogene characterization and potential therapeutic agents for glioblastoma, and novel work in prostate cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, and dermal fibroblasts.
Aguilar also requires his students to participate in the Annual Meeting beyond their own presentations.
Nearly all of Aguilar’s students at IMMUNOLOGY2026™ say that they plan on focusing on biological research in college.
AAI’s Behind-the-Scenes Role
Before arriving at Western Reserve, Dr. Aguilar worked on immunotherapy research and a testicular cancer vaccine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute. There, he also managed the summer research internship program for high school students and undergrads.
Aguilar credits AAI for helping him at many stages of his career. When he was working on his doctorate, he received an AAI grant to put together a research unit in immunology. As his defense approached, an advisor told him that the panel felt he was “a little weak on the immunology side.” The solution was to take the AAI Advanced Course in Immunology. “I came back and I just blew it away,” Aguilar said.
The complete list of Western Reserve students who co-authored research presented at IMMUNOLOGY2026™ is: Christine Baek, Erin Bickford, Gabrielle Boykin, Thomas Casey, Shane Deng, Cailyn Hua, Alida Karsten, Naia Kischke, Bridget Lardie, Adelaide Mendelson, Sanam Mody, Riya Patel, Ben Ross, Arya Shirsat, Maya Vaden, and Victor Wang.
