Yvon Woappi, PhD

Dr. Yvon Woappi (Pronounced: E-Von wah-PEE) is an Assistant Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, and the Endowed Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Dermatology in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He equally holds an affiliate faculty appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University.

Yvon’s passion for life science and engineering ignited during his childhood in Douala, Cameroon and was magnified after his family immigrated to the U.S. during his middle school years. He went on to earn his B.S. in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences as a Grace Jordan McFadden Fellow under Lucia Pirisi-Creek, M.D. at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. His doctoral work established the skinoid culture platform for the extraction and expansion of epidermal stem cells, which helped characterize the relationship between epithelial regeneration and virus-induced neoplasia (J Virol 92:e00331-18). This research laid the groundwork for synthetic regeneration, the research concept he would later pursue in his independent lab.

Yvon went on to complete his postdoctoral training in the Harvard Dermatology Research Training Program at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. There, he studied epidermal stem cell renewal in inflammation and cancer, developing novel tissue-specific gene editing platforms to investigate skin stem cell biology in vivo. His postdoctoral work was awarded the NIH K99/R00 pathway-to-independence MOSAIC award to advance his research on skin stem cell biology and regeneration.

He joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 2021 as an Instructor of Dermatology, then transitioned into his Assistant Professorship in the Fall of 2022 at Columbia University. He is currently the director of the Synthetic Regeneration and Systems Physiology Laboratory at Columbia.

Yvon’s research accomplishments have earned numerous distinctions, prizes, and awards, including the MIT Rising Star Award and designation among the “1000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America” by Cell Press News and the Community of Scholars. Yvon is also an inaugural recipient of the NIH MOSAIC fellowship from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and is an ardent proponent of inclusive excellence. Outside of the lab, he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, and going on nature walks. He is equally an avid chess player.