Michael M. Shen PhD

Michael M. Shen, Ph.D. is a Professor of Medicine and Genetics and Development at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Shen is also a member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Prostate Cancer Program.

Dr. Shen received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1984 and pursued his doctoral studies at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, receiving his Ph.D. degree from Cambridge University in 1988. Dr. Shen completed his post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Philip Leder in the Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School. He was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UMDNJ – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1994, and rose to the rank of Professor before moving to Columbia University Medical Center in 2007.

Dr. Shen’s laboratory pursues basic and translational research in the areas of mammalian embryogenesis and stem cell differentiation, as well as development of the prostate gland and molecular mechanisms of prostate carcinogenesis. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the journals Mechanisms of Development and Developmental Dynamics, and has served on scientific review panels for the National Institutes of Health. Particular areas of research interest include studies of stem cell lines from the early mammalian embryo, molecular analyses of prostate stem cells and cancer stem cells, and generation of mouse models of prostate cancer and metastasis.