Professor of Dermatology Harvard Medical School

Clinicn Investigator, Full Prf Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Mass General Research Institute

Dermatologist Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital

PhD Columbia University in the City of New York 1991

MD Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons 1993

cancer genetics; cutaneous melanoma; cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16; dysplastic nevus syndrome; genes p16; germ-line mutation; melanocytes; melanoma; neoplastic syndromes hereditary; nevus pigmented; proto-oncogene proteins b-raf; skin cancer; skin diseases; skin neoplasms; ubiquitin thiolesterase

Dr. Hensin Tsao is Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and serves as the Director of both the MGH Melanoma and Pigmented Lesion Center and the MGH Melanoma Genetics Program. He is also the Head of the Skin Cancer Genetics Laboratory at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH, where he oversees a research program in melanoma genetics and therapeutics. 

Dr. Tsao graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University with a degree in Biochemistry and English. In 1993, he graduated Alpha Omega Alpha from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons with an MD degree and from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts of Sciences with a PhD degree in Biophysics/Biochemistry. Dr. Tsao completed one year of clinical training in internal medicine and three years of dermatology residency, including a one-year Melanoma Fellowship, in the Harvard-affiliated hospitals. He concluded his training with a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Oncology at Mass General Hospital.

In 2001, Dr. Tsao joined the Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Department of Dermatology at MGH, where he established the Skin Cancer Genetics Laboratory and the MGH Melanoma Genetics Program to explore the molecular basis of melanoma predisposition, progression, and therapeutic response. He has been continuously funded for his research by various organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the American Skin Association, the Dermatology Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Department of Defense, and the Melanoma Research Alliance. In addition to his scientific program, in 2005, he became the Director of the MGH Melanoma and Pigmented Lesion Center, the oldest multidisciplinary melanoma unit in the country. 

Dr. Tsao is the author of over 270 peer-reviewed research articles, reviews, abstracts, textbook chapters and online media texts. He has also delivered over 300 presentations on melanoma, genetics and skin disease worldwide including many Keynote, Plenary, and named lectureships. Dr. Tsao has received numerous awards including the Alfred Steiner Dean’s Award and Titus Munson Coan Prize from Columbia University, the Deborah Shalita Marmour Clinical Career Development Award from the Dermatology Foundation, the Young Investigator Award, the Marion Sulzberger Award and a Presidential Citation Award from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), the D.M. Carter Award and the Howard Milstein Innovation Award from the American Skin Association, the William Montagna Award and Lectureship from the Society for Investigative Dermatology and the MGH Partners-in-Excellence Award for Leadership and Innovation and the MGH Cancer Center’s “100” Award. Internationally, he received the coveted Kung Sung Oh Memorial Lecture and Award from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. For his clinical and scientific contributions, Dr. Tsao has been selected as one of Boston’s Top Doctors (2010-2024) and inducted into the American Dermatological Association, the Noah Worcester Society, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2008, 2022, and 2009, respectively.

Dr. Tsao serves or has served on numerous committees in the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). He has been the Chair of the AAD Melanoma/Skin Cancer Committee, Co-Chair of the AAD Melanoma Guidelines Committee, Chair of the AAD Education Committee, Chair of the AAD Task Force on the ABCDE’s of Melanoma, and a Member of the AAD Scientific Assembly Committee, Melanoma Guidelines Committee, AAD Council on Science and Research and Council on Communication and Scientific Advisory Council. He was Chair of the Education Committee for the Society for Investigative Dermatology and a Member of the Melanoma/Skin Cancer Committee of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. Dr. Tsao was also a Board member of the American Board of Dermatology (ABD) for 9 years and the President of the ABD in 2021. In addition, he was a Board member of the American Dermatological Association (2019-2024) and the President elect for 2026.

Dr. Tsao is or has been on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Dermatology, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, and the International Journal of Oncology and was the Editor-in-Chief for Journal Watch/Dermatology. He has served or continues to serve on study sections for the National Institutes of Health, the Dermatology Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Melanoma Research Alliance and Cancer UK. On a grassroots level, he is on the Medical Advisory Board of IMPACT Melanoma.