sungjinko-phd

Sungjin Ko, DVM, PhD*

S424 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. 

NIH Report

View Dr. Ko’s funding on NIH reporter.

Selected publications

View Dr. Ko’s publications on Pubmed.

Assistant Professor of Pathology

Division of Experimental & Translational Pathology