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ASLMS 45th Annual Conference (2026) Main banner

    Ga Ram Ahn, MD, PhD

    Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
    Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

    Ga Ram Ahn, M.D., Ph.D., is Instructor in Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, working at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center with Dr. Dieter Manstein. Trained as a dermatologist in South Korea, he moved to Boston in 2023 to continue his work on energy-based dermatologic devices.

    Dr. Ahn has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications (h-index 10; 400+ citations), with much of his work focused on dermatologic energy-based devices for aesthetic purposes. In radiofrequency, he led the first randomized controlled trial of selective sebaceous gland electrothermolysis by insulated-microneedle RF, extended the same platform to periorbital syringomas and Fordyce spots (cited in Rook's Textbook of Dermatology), and studied a dual-length microneedle RF device for full-thickness rejuvenation (LSM Top Viewed Article, 2025). In parallel, he has studied low-intensity cold atmospheric plasma along three directions: hormetic ECM protein induction in photoaged skin, attenuation of UV-induced hyperpigmentation, and sub-cytotoxic enhancement of transepidermal drug delivery.

    A central thread of his recent research is the development of the Ahn-van Gieson (AVG) stain, an optimized histological protocol for direct, high-contrast visualization of thermally denatured dermal collagen. The method was featured as the March 2026 Editor's Choice in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine and is intended as a practical tool for energy-based device and burn research.

    His interests sit at the intersection of clinical dermatology, energy-based device invention, and histological methods that translate thermal physics into interpretable tissue readouts.

    Presentation(s):