Yang Shi

Yang Shi is a molecular biologist known for work on epigenetic regulation, particularly histone and RNA methylation. He is a Member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and a professor at the University of Oxford. Shi is best known for his discovery of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1/KDM1A) in 2004, which demonstrated that histone methylation is reversible. His work has identified multiple histone demethylases and clarified their roles in gene regulation, cancer, and human disease, and has contributed to the ongoing development of epigenetic cancer therapies. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Royal Society, and a recipient of the Leopold Griffuel Prize.

Early life and education Yang Shi received his PhD from New York University in 1987, where his doctoral advisor was Eva Derman. In 2020, he joined the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Oxford. and contributed to the characterization of multiple demethylases and their roles in gene regulation, cancer, and human disease. His studies have also shown that LSD1 regulates tumor immunogenicity and that its inhibition can enhance responses to immune checkpoint therapies in various models and induce therapeutic differentiation, informing the ongoing development of epigenetic cancer treatments.

Awards and honors Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016) Fellow of the AACR Academy (2022) Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (2022) Member of the National Academy of Medicine (2022) Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2023) Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2024) Fellow of the Royal Society (2024) Leopold Griffuel Prize (2025)