Anne Haney Cross

Early in Cross's career, there was a debate regarding the role of B cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. Cross sought to settle the debate concerning the role of B cells in MS and showed, in 1999, that B cells in fact play a major role of the pathogenesis of the disease. When a large polypeptide is used to induce experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model of MS in animals, B cells are critical to initiating the onset of disease. This process is thought to be similar to the onset of autoimmune disease in humans when a complex protein antigen is the stimulus for the autoimmune response. They further found that B cells are not critical for the induction of an autoimmune response by small peptides which might explain the previous debates and discrepancies in results concerning the role of B cells in EAE and MS. Cross then sought to determine a way to target B cells as a means of treatment for MS. She used rituximab, a monoclonal antibody that targets CD20, to deplete B cells and observed that depletion of B cells abrogated disease and reduced T cell infiltration of the central immune system. Cross elucidated that Rituximab is an effective treatment for MS in humans through modulation of B cells, though the exact mechanisms are still to be determined. To determine what the optimal response to rituximab therapy is, Cross looked at the tissue biomarkers of patients with multiple sclerosis on rituximab therapy. She found that rituximab therapy led to decreased markers of inflammation and higher IgG and CXCL13 in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients when successful.

In 1990, Cross became an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pathology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She held this position for one year and was then recruited to Washington University in St. Louis where she became an Associate Professor of Neurology with tenure. In 2003, Cross was named the Manny and Rosalyn Rosenthal-Dr. John L. Trotter MS Center Chair in Neuroimmunology within the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation. She now is the co-director of the John L. Trotter MS Center at Washington University School of Medicine as well as the Section Head of Neuroimmunology. In addition to her faculty and research roles, Cross sees about 2000 patients annually who suffer from multiple sclerosis.

Cross grew up in Mobile, Alabama. Cross pursued her undergraduate degree at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. She majored in chemistry and graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelors of Science in 1976. After completing her bachelor's degree, Cross pursued a medical degree at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama. Cross completed her medical training in 1980 and then pursued a residency in neurology at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Cross completed her residency in 1984 and pursued further medical specialization through several fellowships. Cross first completed fellowship training in Neuroimmunology at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda Maryland. After completing this training in 1986, Cross completed her next fellowship in the Department of Virology and Molecular Biology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Cross completed her final fellowship in Neuropathology in 1990 with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. Her education and training focused in neuroimmunology and the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis set up Cross to merge her clinical and research careers in a translational and patient-directed way.

Anne Cross (born c. February 27, 1956) is an American neurologist and neuroimmunologist and the Section Head of Neuroimmunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Cross holds the Manny and Rosalyn Rosenthal–Dr. John L. Trotter Endowed Chair in Neuroimmunology at WUSTL School of Medicine and co-directs the John L Trotter Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Cross is a leader in the field of neuroimmunology and was the first to discover the role of B cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis in animals and then in humans. Cross now develops novel imaging techniques to observe inflammation and demyelination in the central nervous systems of MS patients for diagnosis and disease management.