Yejing Ge, Ph.D.
Department of Cancer Biology, Division of Discovery Science
About Yejing Ge
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Associate Professor, Cancer Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Deputy Department Chair, Cancer Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2012 | University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, US, Molecular, Cell and Development Biology, Ph.D |
| 2006 | Tsinghua University, Beijing, CN, Biological sciences, BS |
Experience & Service
Faculty Academic Appointments
Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 2019 - 2025
Post-doctoral Fellow, Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, 2013 - 2018
Honors & Awards
| 2025 | Invited Guest. Evening of Discovery, MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School, Houston |
| 2025 | Invited Speaker. SQE Lectureship, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Northwestern University, Chicago |
| 2025 | Invited Speaker. Endogenous Retrotransposable Elements and Human Diseases Conference, Fusion Conferences, Mexico |
| 2024 - Present | Invited Speaker. Leveraging retrotransposon reactivation in tumorigenesis. Department of Pathology, Dana Farber Cancer Center, Boston, MA |
| 2024 | Keystone meeting session chair, Stem Cells and Regeneration, Santa Fe, NM |
| 2024 | R35 Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA), NIGMS NIH |
| 2023 | Invited Speaker. MDACC / Centro i Riferimento Oncologico symposium, Aviano, Italy |
| 2023 | Invited Guest. STAT Summit, Boston. STAT News |
| 2022 | Invited Speaker. Cancer Stem Cell Symposium, Cleveland, Ohio, Case Western Reserve University |
| 2022 | Invited Speaker. Inaugural MDACC/Weizmann Institute Symposium, Rehovot, Israel, Weizmann Institute |
| 2022 | Invited Speaker, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium |
| 2022 | Pre-Cancer Atlas (PCA), Cutaneous Study |
| 2021 | Andrew Sabin fellow, Class of 2021 |
| 2020 | Career Enhancement Program, Cancer Epigenetic SPORE |
| 2020 | New Faculty Grant, Cancer Center Support Grant |
| 2018 - 2023 | K01 Career Development Award, NIAMS, NIH |
| 2018 - 2023 | Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas, First-time Recruitment Award, Cancer Prevention Research of Texas |
| 2018 | Invited Speaker. 30th Annual Usha Mahajani Symposium, Salk Institute for Biological Studies |
| 2018 | American Association for Cancer Research NextGen Star Award, AACR |
| 2017 - 2019 | Irene Diamond Fund/AFAR Postdoctoral Transition Award in Aging |
| 2017 | Patent. No. 62/481,257 “Methods and Compositions for Detection and Treatment of Cancer” |
| 2016 | Invited speaker. Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 14th Annual Discovery on Target, Boston |
| 2015 - 2017 | Robertson Therapeutic Development Fund, Proof-of-Concept Award, Rockefeller University |
| 2015 | Keystone Symposia Scholarship, oral presentation, ncRNAs and cancer, Keystone, Colorado |
| 2015 | Invited speaker. Stem cells of the skin: targets and cure for disease, Santander, Spain |
| 2014 - 2017 | Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, DoD |
| 2013 - 2014 | Women & Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, Rockefeller University |
| 2012 | Proctor & Gamble Graduate Research Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| 2010 | Cold Spring Harbor Asia-RNA biology. Student Travel Award, Suzhou, China |
Grant & Contract Support
| Date: | 2024 - 2026 |
| Title: | Elucidating the molecular and cellular pathogenesis of endogenous retroviruses in skin cancer |
| Funding Source: | Concern Foundation |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | FP00021143 |
| Date: | 2024 - 2029 |
| Title: | Dissecting the role of DNA methylation in controlling retrotransposons and governing adult stem cell fates |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NIGMS R35 MIRA |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | 1R35GM155107-01 |
| Date: | 2022 - 2024 |
| Title: | Cutaneous Study |
| Funding Source: | Pre-Cancer Atlas (PCA) |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2021 - 2012 |
| Title: | New Faculty Grant |
| Funding Source: | Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2021 - 2023 |
| Title: | Andrew Sabin Fellow Class of 2021 |
| Funding Source: | UT MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2021 - 2022 |
| Title: | New Faculty Grant CCSG |
| Funding Source: | UT MD Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2019 - 2021 |
| Title: | UT System Rising STARs Award |
| Funding Source: | UT System |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2018 - 2024 |
| Title: | Functional Interrogation of Stem Cell Lineage Infidelity in Cancer |
| Funding Source: | Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | RR180060 |
| Date: | 2018 - 2024 |
| Title: | NIH K01 Career Development Award (NIAMS) |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NIAMS |
| Role: | PI |
| ID: | 1K01AR072132-01A1 |
| Date: | 2017 - 2019 |
| Title: | Irene Diamond Fund/AFAR Postdoctoral Transition Award in Aging |
| Funding Source: | Irene Diamond Fund/American Federation of Aging Research |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2015 - 2017 |
| Title: | Robertson Therapeutic Development Fund, Proof-of-Concept Award |
| Funding Source: | Robertson Therapeutic |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2014 - 2017 |
| Title: | Department of Defense Breast Cancer Postdoctoral Fellowship Award |
| Funding Source: | Department of Defense (DOD) |
| Role: | PI |
| Date: | 2013 - 2014 |
| Title: | Women & Science Postdoctoral Fellowship |
| Funding Source: | Women & Science |
| Role: | PI |
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Hong D, Lyu Y, Nayak R, Becker JS, Booker MA, Masuzawa K, Devos Z, Wang T, Saito S, Liu Q, Li Y, Li Z, Knelson EH, Thai T, Duplaquet L, Laimon YN, Roberti De Oliveira G, Signoretti S, Doench JG, Barbie DA, Tolystorukov MY, Qi J, Bernstein BE, Ge Y, Oser MG. Loss of NOTCH2 creates a TRIM28-dependent vulnerability in small cell lung cancer. Dev Cell, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40865518.
- Nayak R, Ge Y. Strength and Tenderness: Fibronectin Joins Hair Follicle Stem Cell Niche. J Invest Dermatol, 2025. e-Pub 2025. PMID: 40848031.
- Lyu Y, Kim SJ, Humphrey ES, Nayak R, Guan Y, Liang Q, Kim KH, Tan Y, Dou J, Sun H, Song X, Nagarajan P, Gerner-Mauro KN, Jin K, Liu V, Hassan RH, Johnson ML, Deliu LP, You Y, Sharma A, Pasolli HA, Lu Y, Zhang J, Mohanty V, Chen K, Yang YJ, Chen T, Ge Y. Stem cell activity-coupled suppression of endogenous retrovirus governs adult tissue regeneration. Cell 187(26):7414-7432.e26, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 39476839.
- Lyu Y, Guan Y, Deliu L, Humphrey E, Frontera JK, Yang YJ, Zamler D, Kim KH, Mohanty V, Jin K, Mohanty V, Liu V, Dou J, Veillon LJ, Kumar SV, Lorenzi PL, Chen Y, McAndrews KM, Grivennikov S, Song X, Zhang J, Xi Y, Wang J, Chen K, Nagarajan P, Ge Y. KLF5 governs sphingolipid metabolism and barrier function of the skin. Genes Dev 36(13-14):822-42. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 36008138.
- McAndrews KM, Miyake T, Ehsanipour EA, Kelly PJ, Becker LM, McGrail DJ, Sugimoto H, LeBleu VS, Ge Y, Kalluri R. Dermal αSMA+ myofibroblasts orchestrate skin wound repair via β1 integrin and independent of type I collagen production. EMBO J 41(7):e109470, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35212000.
- Baksh SC, Todorova PK, Gur-Cohen S, Hurwitz B, Ge Y, Novak JSS, Tierney MT, Dela Cruz-Racelis J, Fuchs E, Finley LWS. Extracellular serine controls epidermal stem cell fate and tumour initiation. Nat Cell Biol 22(7):779-790, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32451440.
- Adam RC, Yang H, Ge Y, Infarinato NR, Gur-Cohen S, Miao Y, Wang P, Zhao Y, Lu CP, Kim JE, Ko JY, Paik SS, Gronostajski RM, Kim J, Krueger JG, Zheng D, Fuchs E. NFI transcription factors provide chromatin access to maintain stem cell identity while preventing unintended lineage fate choices. Nat Cell Biol 22(6):640-650, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32393888.
- Ge Y, Miao Y, Gur-Cohen S, Gomez N, Yang H, Nikolova M, Polak L, Hu Y, Verma A, Elemento O, Krueger JG, Fuchs E. The aging skin microenvironment dictates stem cell behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117(10):5339-5350, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32094197.
- Ellis SJ, Gomez NC, Levorse J, Mertz AF, Ge Y, Fuchs E. Distinct modes of cell competition shape mammalian tissue morphogenesis. Nature 569(7757):497-502, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31092920.
- Adam RC, Yang H, Ge Y, Lien WH, Wang P, Zhao Y, Polak L, Levorse J, Baksh SC, Zheng D, Fuchs E. Temporal Layering of Signaling Effectors Drives Chromatin Remodeling during Hair Follicle Stem Cell Lineage Progression. Cell Stem Cell 22(3):398-413.e7, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29337183.
- Ge Y, Gomez NC, Adam RC, Nikolova M, Yang H, Verma A, Lu CP, Polak L, Yuan S, Elemento O, Fuchs E. Stem Cell Lineage Infidelity Drives Wound Repair and Cancer. Cell 169(4):636-650.e14, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28434617.
- Yang H, Adam RC, Ge Y, Hua ZL, Fuchs E. Epithelial-Mesenchymal Micro-niches Govern Stem Cell Lineage Choices. Cell 169(3):483-496.e13, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28413068.
- Ge Y, Zhang L, Nikolova M, Reva B, Fuchs E. Strand-specific in vivo screen of cancer-associated miRNAs unveils a role for miR-21(*) in SCC progression. Nat Cell Biol 18(1):111-21, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26619149.
- Zhang L, Ge Y, Fuchs E. miR-125b can enhance skin tumor initiation and promote malignant progression by repressing differentiation and prolonging cell survival. Genes Dev 28(22):2532-46, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25403182.
- Khanna N, Ge Y, Chen J. MicroRNA-146b promotes myogenic differentiation and modulates multiple gene targets in muscle cells. PLoS One 9(6):e100657, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24956113.
- Ge Y, Waldemer RJ, Nalluri R, Nuzzi PD, Chen J. Flt3L is a novel regulator of skeletal myogenesis. J Cell Sci 126(Pt 15):3370-9, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23704355.
- Ge Y, Waldemer RJ, Nalluri R, Nuzzi PD, Chen J. RNAi screen reveals potentially novel roles of cytokines in myoblast differentiation. PLoS One 8(7):e68068, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23844157.
- Ge Y, Yoon MS, Chen J. Raptor and Rheb negatively regulate skeletal myogenesis through suppression of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS1). J Biol Chem 286(41):35675-82, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21852229.
- Ge Y, Sun Y, Chen J. IGF-II is regulated by microRNA-125b in skeletal myogenesis. J Cell Biol 192(1):69-81, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21200031.
- Goodman CA, Miu MH, Frey JW, Mabrey DM, Lincoln HC, Ge Y, Chen J, Hornberger TA. A phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B-independent activation of mammalian target of rapamycin signaling is sufficient to induce skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Mol Biol Cell 21(18):3258-68, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20668162.
- Sun Y, Ge Y, Drnevich J, Zhao Y, Band M, Chen J. Mammalian target of rapamycin regulates miRNA-1 and follistatin in skeletal myogenesis. J Cell Biol 189(7):1157-69, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20566686.
- Ge Y, Wu AL, Warnes C, Liu J, Zhang C, Kawasome H, Terada N, Boppart MD, Schoenherr CJ, Chen J. mTOR regulates skeletal muscle regeneration in vivo through kinase-dependent and kinase-independent mechanisms. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 297(6):C1434-44, 2009. e-Pub 2009. PMID: 19794149.
Invited Articles
- Lyu Y, Ge Y. Toward Elucidating Epigenetic and Metabolic Regulation of Stem Cell Lineage Plasticity in Skin Aging. Front Cell Dev Biol 10:903904, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35663405.
- Guan Y, Yang YJ, Nagarajan P, Ge Y. Transcriptional and signalling regulation of skin epithelial stem cells in homeostasis, wounds and cancer. Exp Dermatol 30(4):529-545, 2021. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33249665.
- Guan Y, Wang G, Fails D, Nagarajan P, Ge Y. Unraveling cancer lineage drivers in squamous cell carcinomas. Pharmacol Ther 206:107448, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 31836455.
Review Articles
- Ge Y, Fuchs E. Stretching the limits: from homeostasis to stem cell plasticity in wound healing and cancer. Nat Rev Genet 19(5):311-325, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29479084.
- Ge Y, Chen J. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling network in skeletal myogenesis. J Biol Chem 287(52):43928-35, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 23115234.
- Ge Y, Chen J. MicroRNAs in skeletal myogenesis. Cell Cycle 10(3):441-8, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21270519.
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified August 12, 2026