David Polsky

Dr. Polsky is the Alfred W. Kopf MD Professor of Dermatologic Oncology, and Professor of Dermatology and Pathology at the New York University School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health. He is also a member of the NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center. He is a full-time physician-scientist providing patient care, conducting research, and teaching trainees. He is also the director of the NYU MoleSafe teledermoscopy program.

Dr. Polsky graduated cum laude from Bucknell University, and received his MD and PhD degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he was selected the Samuel and May Rudin Foundation Scholar. His earned his PhD in the Department of Molecular Genetics. He completed his medical internship at Montefiore Medical Center, and his Dermatology training at NYU.  He subsequently completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Division of Molecular Pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center where he was awarded the Charles A. Dana Scholarship.  He returned to NYU in 2000 to establish a melanoma translational research laboratory.  Dr. Polsky’s primary clinical interests are melanoma, atypical nevi and skin cancer.

As a physician-scientist, Dr. Polsky’s laboratory is focused primarily on biomarker research.  In particular, the lab is interested in the development of tissue- and blood-based markers to monitor melanoma disease activity; the identification of patients with loco-regional melanoma who are at high risk for developing metastases; and the development of genetic approaches to identify patients at increased risk of developing melanoma. He is the recipient of numerous federal grants, foundation awards and research contracts from pharmaceutical companies to conduct his research.

Dr. Polsky serves as a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology and was elected to the American Dermatological Association.  He was a founding member of the Society for Melanoma Research and is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.  He chairs the Research Grants Committee of The Skin Cancer Foundation, and has served on multiple review panels for the National Cancer Institute. He also serves on the Medical Advisory Board, and Dermatology Council of the Melanoma Research Alliance, and has served as an advisor to pharmaceutical companies and molecular diagnostic companies.  He has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international medical and scientific meetings, and published widely with over 100 publications over the past 20+ years in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Journal of the National Cancer Institute.