
Ya-Chieh Hsu
Alvin and Esta Star Associate Professor,
Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
Principal Faculty, Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Associate member, Broad Institute
Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
Sherman Fairchild 258C
7 Divinity Ave Cambridge, MA 02138
Ya-Chieh Hsu joined Harvard University in the summer of 2014 and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. She is also a principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Ya-Chieh first became interested in scientific research during high school, after a fun and eye-opening summer research experience in Henry Sun’s lab at the Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She obtained her B.Sc in Life Science from National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan, and spent her junior year at the University of Toronto as an exchange student. In college, she explored a variety of research topics, including chaperone biochemistry with Walid Houry at University of Toronto and the EGFR pathway with Jui-Chou Hsu at National Tsing-Hua University. She completed her PhD in Developmental Biology at Baylor College of Medicine with Kwang-Wook Choi, where she studied organ size control using Drosophila as a model. During her postdoctoral studies with Elaine Fuchs at The Rockefeller University, she defined the stem cell-progeny relationship for the regenerating hair follicles and discovered that the stem cell progeny send feedback signals to regulate their parental stem cells.
Honors & Awards
- NYSCF – Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Awards (2020-2024)
- American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grants (2019-2022)
- HSCI Junior Faculty Grant (2018-2021)
- Smith Family Foundation: Odyssey Award (2018-2020)
- Harvard FAS Dean’s Award (2018)
- Clark Award (2018)
- Harvard HMS Dean’s Award (2018)
- The Pew Scholar (2017-2021)
- Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Award (2016-2018)
- Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research (2015-2018)
- The Milton Fund Award (2015)
- K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, NIH (2013-2017)
- Druckenmiller Fellow, New York Stem Cell Foundation (2011-2012)
- Starr Stem Cell Scholars Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008-2010)
- Keystone Symposia Scholarship (2007)
- John R. Kelsey Student Speaker Award, Graduate Student Symposium, Baylor College of Medicine (2007)
- The DeLill Nasser Award for Professional Development in Genetics, Genetics Society of America (2007)
- 2nd Place Poster Presentation Award, Graduate Student Symposium, Baylor College of Medicine (2005)
- Academic Achievement Award, National Tsing-Hua University (2002)
- Canada-Taiwan Student Exchange Fellowship, Ministry of Education, Taiwan (2000-2001)



