Leonid (Leo) Shmuylovich, MD, PhD

Leo Shmuylovich, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor of dermatology, medicine, radiology, and pediatrics, and a principal investigator in the Biophotonics Research Center for Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Shmuylovich is a physician scientist with a weekly pediatric dermatology clinic, and he leads a monthly multidisciplinary vascular anomalies clinic. His research is focused on developing novel imaging technologies to help address unmet needs facing patients skin disease including skin cancer and inflammatory conditions. A core goal is to build optical imaging devices that are accurate for any skin pigmentation type. A central theme of the research is leveraging the infrared spectral range (near infrared and beyond) to extract new insights into the pathophysiology of disease. After studying chemical engineering at Cornell University, Leo completed his MD/PhD at Washington University, earning his doctorate in physics in the laboratory of Sándor Kovács, MD, PhD. He then completed a fellowship in pediatric dermatology at Washington University and a residency in dermatology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital before joining the laboratory of Samuel I. Achilefu, PhD, as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2021, Shmuylovich was awarded the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (DP5) to build short-wave infrared imaging devices for skin disease assessment.