ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2024
The Young Physician-Scientist Awards (YPSA) recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
About the awardee
Andrew L. Ji, MD is an Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Oncological Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He graduated from MIT with an SB in Biological Engineering, obtained his MD from Weill Cornell Medical College, and completed dermatology residency and postdoctoral research training at Stanford University in the Lab of Dr. Paul Khavari. He previously completed an HHMI Research Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the Lab of Dr. Joan Massagué.
Dr. Ji’s research focuses on understanding how intercellular communication drives pathogenesis of skin cancer and inflammatory skin diseases. His lab has pioneered the use of single-cell and spatial genomics and CRISPR functional genetics to map crosstalk among diverse cell types within tissues. Specifically, his work discovered a mechanism of targeted therapy resistance in melanoma that contributes to relapse and metastasis (Nature, 2015), a novel tumor subpopulation in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) that drives invasion and tumor progression (Cell, 2020), and a subpopulation of keratinocytes that is inappropriately expanded in inflammatory skin diseases (Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2023). Current efforts include understanding how tumor-immune crosstalk is altered by immunosuppression, which is required for organ transplant recipients that develop cSCC at 100-fold increased risk over the general population, and how skin fibroblasts contribute to inflammation. Ultimately, the lab’s goal is to translate new knowledge about pathogenic subpopulations in diseased tissues into therapeutics for improved patient treatments.
In addition to his research interests, Dr. Ji is a board-certified dermatologist and cares for general medical dermatology patients in a weekly clinic. He has received several honors, including a Physician-Scientist Training Award and Clinical Investigator Award from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Young Investigator Award from the American Academy of Dermatology, Milstein Research Scholar Award from the American Skin Association, and an NCI K08.