Sungjin Ko, DVM, PhD

Sungjin Ko, DVM, PhD*

S427 Biomedical Science Tower
200 Lothrop Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15261


Liver-Related Work

For decades, the incidence of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) has steadily risen in the US; approximately 10,000 patients are newly diagnosed annually, and the five years survival rate is less than 10%. Currently, surgical resection for this deadly cancer is only an option for a small number of patients due to the difficulty of detecting ICC when it is in a resectable stage. Except for a few palliative loco-regional therapies, gemcitabine-cisplatin combination is the only regimen available for advanced ICC. However, few patients respond to this approach, and in those who respond, survival is prolonged for less than a year. Our preliminary data indicate that genetic Sox9 or YAP inhibition intensively suppress ICC development. Based on this observation, this proposal will elucidate the therapeutic potential for co-repression of Sox9 and YAP in advanced human ICC as a personalized medicine approach, which is conceived to be the most reliable tactic to conquer this deadly cancer. 

Research Assistant Professor
Pathology Department, Division of Experimental Pathology