Mentor Spotlight: Daniel Roh, MD/PhD
Dr. Daniel Roh, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Surgery
Daniel Roh, MD, PhD, specializes in plastic and reconstructive surgery. His interest in research began in high school and solidified at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine through a formative summer mentorship, which led him to pursue MSTP training to integrate science with clinical care. He received his MD and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program and went on to complete the Harvard Combined Plastic Surgery Training Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After completing plastic surgery residency while remaining engaged in research, I launched my independent research program at BU/BMC in November 2019, supported by pilot studies that seeded my initial grant funding. Dr. Roh’s clinical practice spans both re constructive surgery for trauma or cancer patients and cosmetic
Dr. Roh’s research focuses on cellular responses to tissue injury and the mechanisms that govern effective tissue repair, with particular emphasis on how cellular senescence influences skin wound healing with aging. A major goal of his laboratory is to translate these insights into clinically actionable strategies, including senolytic and senescence-modulating therapies that may improve repair while limiting pathologic scarring. This work is highly collaborative and includes partnerships with engineers to study extracellular matrix dynamics, tissue mechanics, and biomaterial-informed approaches. By integrating single-cell and spatial analyses with preclinical and human models, his research aims to inform the design of senescence-targeted interventions and guide future clinical trials in wound healing and surgical recovery.
Medical students in my laboratory have contributed to projects spanning senescence biology, epigenetic regulation, and age-related wound repair, including Jack Crouch, Grace Shin, Jannat Dhillon, Joy Ha, Minsung Cho, Sydni Britton, and Kylie Tang. Their work has led to multiple peer-reviewed publications and national-level scholarly dissemination in journals focused on aging and cell biology. Dr. Roh’s lab has also recently welcomed Rayna Magesh, who is leading spatial transcriptomic analyses to study how aging and cellular senescence influence wound healing, and he works closely with Katie Hohl, an MD-PhD student, on a translational project examining relaxin-based approaches to reduce pathologic scarring.
Dr. Roh on mentorship:
To me, mentorship is about cultivating curiosity, independence, and purpose. I strive to help trainees find their own entry point into a scientific question, transforming inquiry into ownership and sustained motivation. I view mentorship as collaborative in which I provide structure, opportunity, and guidance, allowing students to build confidence and develop their identities as future clinician-scientists. One of the most rewarding aspects of mentorship is seeing a student become genuinely excited by a new result and recognize its potential for discovery; when that spark appears, it signals a deep connection to the work and meaningful scientific growth.
I emphasize that consistent effort, curiosity, and persistence are what ultimately drive success. The most effective mentees approach their work with discipline and resilience, remaining engaged even when progress is slow or results are uncertain. When sustained hard work is paired with genuine interest in the questions being asked, meaningful and lasting impact in medicine and science naturally follows.
There are numerous medical student–led work from my laboratory has resulted in multiple peer-reviewed publications, including:
- Samdavid Thanapaul RJR, Shvedova M, Shin GH, Roh DS. Viewpoint: An insight into aging, senescence, and their impacts on wound healing. Advances in Geriatric Medicine and Research 2021;3(3):e210017. PMID: 34414398 PMCID: PMC8373038
- Crouch J, Shvedova M, Thanapaul RJRS, Botchkarev V, Roh D. Epigenetic Regulation of Cellular Senescence. Cells. 2022 Feb 15;11(4):672. doi: 10.3390/cells11040672. PMID: 35203320; PMCID: PMC8870565.
- Thanapaul RJRS, Shvedova M, Shin GH, Crouch J, Roh DS. “Elevated skin senescence in young mice causes delayed wound healing”. GeroScience. 2022 Jun;44(3):1871-1878. PMID: 35399134; PMCID: PMC9213596.
- Shvedova M, Thanapaul RJRS, Ha J, Dhillon J, Shin GH, Crouch J, Gower AC, Gritli S, Roh DS. Topical ABT-263 treatment reduces aged skin senescence and improves subsequent wound healing. Aging (Albany NY). 2024 Dec 3;16. doi: 10.18632/aging.206165. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39630941. PMCID: PMC11810067.
In addition, students have presented their work through oral and poster presentations at multiple local, national, and international scientific meetings.