ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2026
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
Siyan Cao, MD, PhD is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine and a physician scientist in gastroenterology. He was born in Chengdu in Southwestern China. He attended college at Zhejiang University and earned a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Michigan. He then moved to New York where he obtained an MD at Columbia University. Afterwards, he completed internal medicine residency at UC San Francisco and gastroenterology fellowship at Washington University.
Dr. Cao’s current research interests include innate and mucosal immunity, multi-omics of complex human digestive diseases, and biomarker discovery in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). During PhD training, he defined the role of endoplasmic reticulum stress in intestinal epithelial cells and IBD, and identified compounds that improve intestinal inflammation in mouse models of IBD (2013 Gastroenterology). One compound has demonstrated efficacy in a phase I clinical trial for ulcerative colitis. As a postdoc researcher, Dr. Cao pioneered projects on cellular stress response in innate lymphoid cells (ILC) in IBD by developing novel mouse models and identifying ILC-related biomarkers in IBD patients (2022 PNAS; 2024 JCI). Since starting his independent research program, Dr. Cao has published studies on the single-cell signatures of Crohn-like disease of the pouch (2024 Gastroenterology) and perianal fistulizing Crohn’s disease (PFCD) (2025 JCI). Based on the findings, his lab has recently established novel mouse and organoid models for PFCD and identified new biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Meanwhile, Dr. Cao's team has been studying fibrostenotic CD, very-early-onset IBD, IBD-associated colorectal cancer, and eosinophilic esophagitis.
Dr. Cao's research is supported by the NIH, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation (CCF), American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), Doris Duke Foundation, Pakula IBD Fund, WU Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, etc.
Dr. Cao is on the CCF National Scientific Advisory Committee, the AGA Research Awards Panel, and the International Congress of Mucosal Immunology Scientific Advisory Committee. He chaired the Digestive Disease Week (DDW) Abstract Review Group. He also serves as an Associate Editor for Inflammation and is on the Editorial Board of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.
Outside of work, he enjoys outdoors including hiking and camping with family; he is an ultramarathon runner who loves mountains and trails.