Research Summary

Dr. Jacob Young is a neurosurgeon who cares for patients with brain tumors, including low- and high-grade gliomas, meningiomas and brain metastases (cancer that has spread to the brain). He specializes in brain mapping techniques that identify areas important for motor, language and sensory functions, enabling surgeons to minimize the impact on these areas during surgery to remove a tumor. His clinical research explores how to optimize functional outcomes and minimize complications after surgery for intrinsic brain tumors.

Dr. Young's translational research interests include first-in-human early-phase clinical trials of new immunotherapies and innovative ways to deliver drugs to treat cancerous brain tumors. In his lab, he focuses on understanding the microenvironment of glioma and how it contributes to intratumoral heterogeneity (differences between cancer cells within the same tumor), treatment resistance and cancer evolution at the time of progression. Working with numerous collaborators, his ultimate goal is to design treatment strategies that improve outcomes for patients with brain tumors. His glioblastoma research has been recognized at the institutional, regional, and national levels. During his postdoctoral training, he was awarded the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Physician-Scientist fellowship, the Andrew J. Lockhart Focused Ultrasound and Immuno-Oncology fellowship, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Young earned his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed a residency in neurosurgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in tumor immunology at UCSF, where he received an Exceptional Physician Award during his training. He was recognized with the Krevan's Award for excellence in patient care at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the Howard Naffziger Award for Outstanding Clinical Service from the department of neurological surgery.

Research Funding

  • August 3, 2025 - August 3, 2025 - Development of a AI-guided Neuro-Oncology Patient Navigator (BrainGPT) , PI . Sponsor: Department of Energy, Sponsor Award ID: NAIRR240060

Education

Residency, 06/2024 - Neurosurgery, University of California, San Francisco
MD, 06/2017 - Medicine, University of Chicago
BS, 05/2012 - Neuroscience, Duke University

Honors & Awards

  • Harold Rosegay Resident Teaching Award, UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery, 2024
  • Edwin Boldrey Award, San Francisco Neurosurgical Society, 2023
  • Harold Rosegay Resident Teaching Award, UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery, 2023
  • Young Investigator Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), 2022-2023
  • Donald O. Quest Award, American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), 2022
  • National Brain Tumor Society Award, American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), 2022
  • Best Senior Resident Translational Paper Award, UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery, 2022
  • Best Basic Science Abstract, Western Neurosurgical Society, 2022
  • Chan-Zuckerberg Physician Scientist Fellow, Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub, UCSF, 2021-2022
  • Donald O. Quest Award, American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), 2021
  • Neil Peart Neurosurgery Research Award, Glioblastoma Foundation, 2021
  • Harold Rosegay Award, San Francisco Neurosurgical Society, 2021
  • Harold Rosegay Award, San Francisco Neurosurgical Society, 2020
  • UCSF Exceptional Physician Award, UCSF, 2020
  • Best Junior Research Paper Award, UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery, 2019
  • Howard Naffziger Award, UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery, 2019
  • Krevans Award for Excellence in Patient Care, San Francisco General Hospital, UCSF, 2018
  • Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, 2017
  • Departmental Award for Outstanding Performance in Surgery, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, 2017
  • Graduation with Honors, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, 2017
  • Outstanding Achievement Award in Medicine, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, 2017
  • Peter Huttenlocher & Douglas Buchanan Prize, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, 2017
  • Medical Student Summer Research Fellowship, Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF)/American Association of Neurological Surgeons, 2015
  • The Brain Research Foundation Award for Neuroscience, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, 2014
  • Phi Beta Kappa, Duke University, 2013
  • Graduation with Distinction, Duke University, 2012

Selected Publications

  1. Philipp Karschnia, Jacob S. Young, Maarten Wijnenga, Arthur Wagner, Oliver Schnell, Levin Häni, Yoshua Esquenazi, Einar Vik-Mo, Roberta Rudà, Michael A. Vogelbaum, Shawn L. Hervey-Jumper, Juergen Beck, Jorg Dietrich, Stefan J. Grau, Yae Won Park, Gilbert Youssef, Asgeir S. Jakola, Lorenzo Bello, Mitchel S. Berger, Joerg Tonn. A prognostic classification system for extent of resection in IDH-mutant grade 2 glioma: A report by the RANO resect group. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2025 Jun 1; 43(16_suppl):2001-2001.  View on PubMed
  2. Christina K. Arvaniti, Alexandros G. Brotis, Jacob S. Young, Sivani Sivanrupan, Gracia Menna, Masahiro Nishide, Philippe Schucht, Mitchel Berger, Kostas N. Fountas. The Role of Lobectomy in Glioblastoma Management: A Retrospective series. Brain and Spine. 2025 Jun 1; 104305.  View on PubMed
  3. Nejo T, Krishna S, Yamamichi A, Lakshmanachetty S, Jimenez C, Lee KY, Baker DL, Young JS, Chen T, Phyu SSS, Phung L, Gallus M, Maldonado GC, Okada K, Ogino H, Watchmaker PB, Diebold D, Choudhury A, Daniel AGS, Cadwell CR, Raleigh DR, Hervey-Jumper SL, Okada H. Glioma-neuronal circuit remodeling induces regional immunosuppression. Nat Commun. 2025 May 22; 16(1):4770.  View on PubMed
  4. Chen JS, Young JS, Berger MS. Current and Future Applications of 5-Aminolevulinic Acid in Neurosurgical Oncology. Cancers (Basel). 2025 Apr 15; 17(8).  View on PubMed
  5. Tony Catalan, Austin Lui, Jacob Young, Philip V. Theodosopoulos, Shawn L. Hervey-Jumper, Manish Kumar Aghi, Ramin Morshed. 1330 The Impact of Systemic Disease Status on Postoperative Outcomes After Resection of Brain Metastases: A Single Center Study. Neurosurgery. 2025 Apr 1; 71(Supplement_1):221-222.  View on PubMed
  6. Austin Lui, Tony Catalan, Jacob Young, Philip V. Theodosopoulos, Shawn L. Hervey-Jumper, Manish Kumar Aghi, Ramin Morshed. 1337 The Impact of Brain Metastasis Multiplicity on Postoperative Survival and CNS Progression: A Single Center Study. Neurosurgery. 2025 Apr 1; 71(Supplement_1):224-224.  View on PubMed
  7. Young JS, Cho NW, Lucas CG, Najem H, Mirchia K, Chen WC, Seo K, Zakimi N, Daggubati V, Casey-Clyde T, Nguyen MP, Chen A, Phillips JJ, Ozawa T, Aghi MK, Taylor JW, DeRisi JL, Bhaduri A, Berger MS, Heimberger AB, Butowski N, Spitzer MH, Raleigh DR. IL-6 underlies microenvironment immunosuppression and resistance to therapy in glioblastoma. bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 14.  View on PubMed
  8. Rodriguez Almaraz E, Guerra GA, Al-Adli NN, Young JS, Dada A, Quintana D, Taylor JW, Oberheim Bush NA, Clarke JL, Butowski NA, de Groot J, Pekmezci M, Perry A, Bollen AW, Scheffler AW, Glidden DV, Phillips JJ, Costello JF, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper S, Berger MS, Francis SS, Chang SM, Solomon DA. Longitudinal profiling of IDH-mutant astrocytomas reveals acquired RAS-MAPK pathway mutations associated with inferior survival. Neurooncol Adv. 2025 Jan-Dec; 7(1):vdaf024.  View on PubMed
  9. Lucas CG, Al-Adli NN, Young JS, Gupta R, Morshed RA, Wu J, Ravindranathan A, Shai A, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, de Groot J, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Pekmezci M, Perry A, Bollen AW, Theodosopoulos PV, Aghi MK, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper SL, Raleigh DR, Molinaro AM, Costello JF, Diaz AA, Clarke JL, Butowski NA, Phillips JJ, Chang SM, Berger MS, Solomon DA. Longitudinal multimodal profiling of IDH-wildtype glioblastoma reveals the molecular evolution and cellular phenotypes underlying prognostically different treatment responses. Neuro Oncol. 2025 Jan 12; 27(1):89-105.  View on PubMed
  10. Elguindy MM, Young JS, Ho WS, Lu RO. Co-evolution of glioma and immune microenvironment. J Immunother Cancer. 2024 Dec 03; 12(12).  View on PubMed
  11. Kanish Mirchia, Jacob Young, Minh Nguyen, Harish Vasudevan, John de Groot, David Raleigh. CNSC-52. OLIGODENDROGLIOMA SPATIAL TRANSCRIPTOMIC SEQUENCING REVEALS THERAPY-DEPENDENT EVOLUTION OVER TIME. Neuro-Oncology. 2024 Nov 11; 26(Supplement_8):viii52-viii53.  View on PubMed
  12. Ramin Morshed, Harmon Khela, Minh Nguyen, Jacob Young, Ezequiel Goldschmidt, Michael McDermott, Noor Malik, Ian Parney, Edward Chang, Mitchel Berger, Philip Theodosopoulos, Shawn Hervey-Jumper, Laura Huppert, Manish Aghi, Harish Vasudevan. PATH-08. MOLECULAR DIVERGENCE RATES DIFFER BETWEEN BRAIN METASTASES AND EXTRACRANIAL DISEASE SITES ACROSS PRIMARY TUMOR HISTOLOGIES. Neuro-Oncology. 2024 Nov 11; 26(Supplement_8):viii179-viii179.  View on PubMed
  13. Kanish Mirchia, Sixuan Pan, Emily Payne, John Liu, Zain Peeran, Poojan Shukla, Jacob Young, Rohit Gupta, Jasper Wu, Joanna Pak, Kyounghee Seo, Tomoko Ozawa, Brian Na, Alyssa Reddy, Steve Braunstein, Joanna Phillips, Susan Chang, David Solomon, Arie Perry, David Raleigh, Mitchel Berger, Adam Abate, Harish Vasudevan. PATH-53. DNA MUTATION SEQUENCING AND METHYLATION ANALYSIS OF SOMATICNF1 MUTANT IDH-WILDTYPE GLIOBLASTOMA IDENTIFIES THREE EPIGENETIC GROUPS ANDCDKN2A/B LOSS AS A NEGATIVE PROGNOSTIC BIOMARKER. Neuro-Oncology. 2024 Nov 11; 26(Supplement_8):viii191-viii191.  View on PubMed
  14. Nadeem N Al-Adli, Jacob S Young, Jing Li, Daniel Quintana, Abraham Dada, Grazia Menna, Jasper K W Gerritsen, Ramin A Morshed, Shawn L Hervey-Jumper, Mitchel S Berger. SURG-24. MAXIMAL SAFE RESECTION OF INSULAR GLIOMAS: AN EVALUATION OF SURGICAL AND PROGNOSTIC OUTCOMES IN 461 CASES. Neuro-Oncology. 2024 Nov 11; 26(Supplement_8):viii279-viii279.  View on PubMed
  15. P Karschnia, J S Young, G C Youssef, A Dono, L Häni, T Sciortino, F Bruno, S T Juenger, N Teske, J Dietrich, M Weller, M A Vogelbaum, M van den Bent, J Beck, N Thon, J K Gerritsen, S Hervey-Jumper, D P Cahill, S M Chang, R Rudà, L Bello, O Schnell, Y Esquenazi, M I Ruge, S J Grau, R Y Huang, P Y Wen, M S Berger, A M Molinaro, J Tonn. P18.54.B DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A CLINICAL RISK SCORE FOR POSTOPERATIVE OUTCOME IN NEWLY DIAGNOSED GLIOBLASTOMA: A REPORT OF THE RANO RESECT GROUP. Neuro-Oncology. 2024 Oct 17; 26(Supplement_5):v110-v110.  View on PubMed
  16. Florien W Boele, Caroline Hertler, Paula Sherwood, David Cachia, Linda Dirven, Jacob S Young, Tobias Walbert, Macy Stockdill, Eduardo Rodriguez Almaraz, Karin Piil. Reporting standards in randomized controlled trials involving neuro-oncology caregivers: A systematic review report from the RANO-Cares working group. Neuro-Oncology Practice. 2024 Sep 20; npae086.  View on PubMed
  17. Gerritsen JKW, Young JS, Krieg SM, Jungk C, Ille S, Schucht P, Nahed BV, Broekman MLD, Berger M, De Vleeschouwer S, Vincent AJPE. Resection versus biopsy in patients with glioblastoma (RESBIOP study): study protocol for an international multicentre prospective cohort study (ENCRAM 2202). BMJ Open. 2024 09 10; 14(9):e081689.  View on PubMed
  18. Lad M, Beniwal AS, Jain S, Shukla P, Kalistratova V, Jung J, Shah SS, Yagnik G, Saha A, Sati A, Babikir H, Nguyen AT, Gill S, Rios J, Young JS, Lui A, Salha D, Diaz A, Aghi MK. Glioblastoma induces the recruitment and differentiation of dendritic-like "hybrid" neutrophils from skull bone marrow. Cancer Cell. 2024 Sep 09; 42(9):1549-1569.e16.  View on PubMed
  19. Eaton CD, Avalos L, Liu SJ, Chen Z, Zakimi N, Casey-Clyde T, Bisignano P, Lucas CG, Stevenson E, Choudhury A, Vasudevan HN, Magill ST, Young JS, Krogan NJ, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Swaney DL, Raleigh DR. MerlinS13 phosphorylation regulates meningioma Wnt signaling and magnetic resonance imaging features. Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 09; 15(1):7873.  View on PubMed
  20. Ekert JO, Goyal A, Young JS, Hervey-Jumper SL, Berger MS. Interventional neurorehabilitation for glioma patients: A systematic review. Neurooncol Pract. 2024 Dec; 11(6):679-690.  View on PubMed

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