State-of-the-Art Plenary Lecture # 2
Ya-Chieh Hsu, PhD
Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Title: Skin Deep: Stem Cells at the Nexus of the Niche, Physiology, and the External Environment
Ya-Chieh Hsu is the Alvin and Esta Star Associate Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, a Principal Faculty Member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and an associate member of the Broad Institute.
The Hsu laboratory seeks to understand how tissue formation, regeneration, and repair are shaped by diverse stimuli at the level of the niche, physiology, and the environment in the mammalian skin— an accessible organ with diverse cell types and multiple populations of somatic stem cells.
Dr. Hsu completed her Ph.D. at Baylor College of Medicine, where she studied pathways controlling organ size using Drosophila as a model. For her postdoctoral research, she delineated the lineage hierarchy of hair follicle cells and investigated how signals from stem cell progeny regulate hair follicle stem cells in Elaine Fuchs’ laboratory at the Rockefeller University.
Dr. Hsu is a recipient of several honors and awards, including the Pew Biomedical Scholars Award, the Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research, Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Award, Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award, American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award, NYSCF – Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Award, and the LEO foundation Award. She is also an awardee of Harvard’s Roslyn Abramson Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
