Research Summary

Dr. Cho is a physician and geneticist who investigates the molecular basis of skin disease. With colleague Dr. Jeffrey Cheng, he co-leads the RashX initiative at UCSF, which develops high resolution molecular fingerprints to understand and treat unusual skin diseases.

Dr. Cho's laboratory first reported NOTCH1 as the most commonly mutated gene in squamous cell cancers of the skin, SUFU loss-of-function as a basis for hereditary infundibulocystic basal cell cancer syndrome, and recurrent mutation of the ZNF750 tumor suppressor in sebaceous carcinoma. His group also jointly identified APOBEC mutagenesis as the driver for cancer formation in recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, an inherited blistering disease.

Receiving his MD and his PhD in Genetics from the Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Cho led the earliest demonstrations of transcriptional profiling, genetic screens, and SNV-based mapping on a whole-genome scale. He subsequently co-founded Ingenuity Systems, a privately funded genetic content and software concern wholly acquired by Qiagen N.V.

Dr. Cho has been recognized with the American Academy of Dermatology Young Investigator Award, a LEO Foundation grant, and the Samsung Global Research Outreach Award. He was the Abby S. & Howard P. Milstein Research Scholar in Melanoma and received a Career Development Award from the Dermatology Foundation. He lectures at UCSF and at the Structure and Function of the Skin series in the American Academy of Dermatology's Annual Meeting. In his leisure time, Dr. Cho is refining the first sazerac that hails its own rideshare.

Education

Brown University, Sc.B., Honors, 06/92, Biology
Stanford University Medical School, M.D., 06/05
Stanford University Department of Genetics, Ph.D., 06/03, Genetics

Honors & Awards

  • 1992
    Stanford Medical Scholar, Stanford University School of Medicine
  • 1993
    American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Research Award, Stanford University School of Medicine
  • 1994
    Howard Hughes Medical Student Fellowship, Stanford University School of Medicine
  • 1997
    1st place finish, Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students (BASES) Entrepreneurial Competition; founding business plan for Ingenuity Systems, Inc.
  • 2008
    Samsung Biotechnology Scholar-in-Residence
  • 2008
    Molecular Medicine Fellowship, Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco
  • 2009
    Physician-Scientist Career Development Award, Dermatology Foundation
  • 2009
    Molecular Medicine Fellowship, Department of Dermatology, University of California, San Francisco
  • 2009
    Samsung Biotechnology Scholar-in-Residence
  • 2010
    Samsung Biotechnology Scholar-in-Residence
  • 2010
    Physician-Scientist Career Development Award, Dermatology Foundation
  • 2011
    Physician-Scientist Career Development Award, Dermatology Foundation
  • 2012
    Physician-Scientist Career Development Award, Dermatology Foundation
  • 2012
    American Skin Association Scholar Award, American Skin Association
  • 2012
    Young Investigator Award, American Academy of Dermatology
  • 2012
    K08 Training Award, NIH/NCI
  • 2013
    Samsung Global Research Outreach Award, Samsung Electronics, Inc.
  • 2014
    Samsung Global Research Outreach Award, Samsung Electronics, Inc.
  • 2015
    Sohana Research Scholar, Sohana Research Fund
  • 2016
    Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Partnership Award, Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Partnership
  • 2016
    Department of Translational Molecular Pathology Distinguished Speaker, M.D. Anderson
  • 2018
    American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting Structure and Function Speaker Series
  • 2019
    Society of Investigative Dermatology Annual Meeting Plenary Lecture
  • 2019
    World Congress of Dermatology Co-Chair Inherited Tumor Section

Selected Publications

  1. Yu DM, Zhao J, Lee EE, Kim D, Mahapatra R, Rose EK, Zhou Z, Hosler CR, El-Kurdi A, Choe JY, Abel ED, Hoxhaj G, Westover KD, Cho RJ, Cheng JB, Wang RC. GLUT3 promotes macrophage signaling and function via Ras-mediated endocytosis in atopic dermatitis and wound healing. J Clin Invest. 2023 Sep 14.  View on PubMed
  2. Hailer AA, Wu D, El Kurdi A, Yuan M, Cho RJ, Cheng JB. Isolation of human cutaneous immune cells for single-cell RNA sequencing. STAR Protoc. 2023 Apr 28; 4(2):102239.  View on PubMed
  3. Hakimi M, North JP, Taylor MA, Hailer A, Liu Y, Kim E, Morehead K, Shinkai K, Bhutani T, Cheng JB, Cho RJ. Transcriptomics aids differentiation of IL-23 overactivity in a patient with atypical skin and joint disease. Lancet. 2023 04 22; 401(10385):1381.  View on PubMed
  4. Cook CP, Taylor M, Liu Y, Schmidt R, Sedgewick A, Kim E, Hailer A, North JP, Harirchian P, Wang H, Kashem SW, Shou Y, McCalmont TC, Benz SC, Choi J, Purdom E, Marson A, Ramos SBV, Cheng JB, Cho RJ. A single-cell transcriptional gradient in human cutaneous memory T cells restricts Th17/Tc17 identity. Cell Rep Med. 2022 08 16; 3(8):100715.  View on PubMed
  5. Liu Y, Wang H, Cook C, Taylor MA, North JP, Hailer A, Shou Y, Sadik A, Kim E, Purdom E, Cheng JB, Cho RJ. Defining Patient-Level Molecular Heterogeneity in Psoriasis Vulgaris Based on Single-Cell Transcriptomics. Front Immunol. 2022; 13:842651.  View on PubMed
  6. Zhang S, Leistico JR, Cho RJ, Cheng JB, Song JS. Spectral clustering of single-cell multi-omics data on multilayer graphs. Bioinformatics. 2022 07 11; 38(14):3600-3608.  View on PubMed
  7. Liu Y, Wang H, Taylor M, Cook C, Martínez-Berdeja A, North JP, Harirchian P, Hailer AA, Zhao Z, Ghadially R, Ricardo-Gonzalez RR, Grekin RC, Mauro TM, Kim E, Choi J, Purdom E, Cho RJ, Cheng JB. Classification of human chronic inflammatory skin disease based on single-cell immune profiling. Sci Immunol. 2022 04 15; 7(70):eabl9165.  View on PubMed
  8. Patel J, den Breems NY, Tuluc M, Johnson J, Curry JM, South AP, Cho RJ. Elevated APOBEC mutational signatures implicate chronic injury in etiology of an aggressive head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma: a case report. J Med Case Rep. 2021 Apr 30; 15(1):252.  View on PubMed
  9. Vergara IA, Mintoff CP, Sandhu S, McIntosh L, Young RJ, Wong SQ, Colebatch A, Cameron DL, Kwon JL, Wolfe R, Peng A, Ellul J, Dou X, Fedele C, Boyle S, Arnau GM, Raleigh J, Hatzimihalis A, Szeto P, Mooi J, Widmer DS, Cheng PF, Amann V, Dummer R, Hayward N, Wilmott J, Scolyer RA, Cho RJ, Bowtell D, Thorne H, Alsop K, Cordner S, Woodford N, Leditschke J, O'Brien P, Dawson SJ, McArthur GA, Mann GJ, Levesque MP, Papenfuss AT, Shackleton M. Evolution of late-stage metastatic melanoma is dominated by aneuploidy and whole genome doubling. Nat Commun. 2021 03 04; 12(1):1434.  View on PubMed
  10. Meyer JM, Lee E, Celli A, Park K, Cho R, Lambert W, Pitchford M, Gordon M, Tsai K, Cleaver J, Arron ST, Mauro TM. CERKL is upregulated in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and maintains cellular sphingolipids and resistance to oxidative stress. Br J Dermatol. 2021 07; 185(1):147-152.  View on PubMed
  11. Liu Y, Cook C, Sedgewick AJ, Zhang S, Fassett MS, Ricardo-Gonzalez RR, Harirchian P, Kashem SW, Hanakawa S, Leistico JR, North JP, Taylor MA, Zhang W, Man MQ, Charruyer A, Beliakova-Bethell N, Benz SC, Ghadially R, Mauro TM, Kaplan DH, Kabashima K, Choi J, Song JS, Cho RJ, Cheng JB. Single-Cell Profiling Reveals Divergent, Globally Patterned Immune Responses in Murine Skin Inflammation. iScience. 2020 Oct 23; 23(10):101582.  View on PubMed
  12. Fuentes I, Guttmann-Gruber C, Tockner B, Diem A, Klausegger A, Cofré-Araneda G, Figuera O, Hidalgo Y, Morandé P, Palisson F, Rebolledo-Jaramillo B, Yubero MJ, Cho RJ, Rishel HI, Marinkovich MP, Teng JMC, Webster TG, Prisco M, Eraso LH, Piñon Hofbauer J, South AP. Cells from discarded dressings differentiate chronic from acute wounds in patients with Epidermolysis Bullosa. Sci Rep. 2020 09 15; 10(1):15064.  View on PubMed
  13. Watkins TBK, Lim EL, Petkovic M, Elizalde S, Birkbak NJ, Wilson GA, Moore DA, Grönroos E, Rowan A, Dewhurst SM, Demeulemeester J, Dentro SC, Horswell S, Au L, Haase K, Escudero M, Rosenthal R, Bakir MA, Xu H, Litchfield K, Lu WT, Mourikis TP, Dietzen M, Spain L, Cresswell GD, Biswas D, Lamy P, Nordentoft I, Harbst K, Castro-Giner F, Yates LR, Caramia F, Jaulin F, Vicier C, Tomlinson IPM, Brastianos PK, Cho RJ, Bastian BC, Dyrskjøt L, Jönsson GB, Savas P, Loi S, Campbell PJ, Andre F, Luscombe NM, Steeghs N, Tjan-Heijnen VCG, Szallasi Z, Turajlic S, Jamal-Hanjani M, Van Loo P, Bakhoum SF, Schwarz RF, McGranahan N, Swanton C. Pervasive chromosomal instability and karyotype order in tumour evolution. Nature. 2020 11; 587(7832):126-132.  View on PubMed
  14. Zhang S, Leistico JR, Cook C, Liu Y, Cho RJ, Cheng JB, Song JS. Riemannian geometry and statistical modeling correct for batch effects and control false discoveries in single-cell surface protein count data. Phys Rev E. 2020 Jul; 102(1-1):012409.  View on PubMed
  15. Heskett MB, Sanborn JZ, Boniface C, Goode B, Chapman J, Garg K, Rabban JT, Zaloudek C, Benz SC, Spellman PT, Solomon DA, Cho RJ. Multiregion exome sequencing of ovarian immature teratomas reveals 2N near-diploid genomes, paucity of somatic mutations, and extensive allelic imbalances shared across mature, immature, and disseminated components. Mod Pathol. 2020 06; 33(6):1193-1206.  View on PubMed
  16. Finnegan A, Cho RJ, Luu A, Harirchian P, Lee J, Cheng JB, Song JS. Single-Cell Transcriptomics Reveals Spatial and Temporal Turnover of Keratinocyte Differentiation Regulators. Front Genet. 2019; 10:775.  View on PubMed
  17. North JP, Solomon DA, Golovato J, Bloomer M, Benz SC, Cho RJ. Loss of ZNF750 in ocular and cutaneous sebaceous carcinoma. J Cutan Pathol. 2019 Oct; 46(10):736-741.  View on PubMed
  18. Chiang A, Tan CZ, Kuonen F, Hodgkinson LM, Chiang F, Cho RJ, South AP, Tang JY, Chang ALS, Rieger KE, Oro AE, Sarin KY. Genetic Mutations Underlying Phenotypic Plasticity in Basosquamous Carcinoma. J Invest Dermatol. 2019 11; 139(11):2263-2271.e5.  View on PubMed
  19. Harirchian P, Lee J, Hilz S, Sedgewick AJ, Perez White BE, Kesling MJ, Mully T, Golovato J, Gray M, Mauro TM, Purdom E, Kim EA, Sbitany H, Bhutani T, Vaske CJ, Benz SC, Cho RJ, Cheng JB. A20 and ABIN1 Suppression of a Keratinocyte Inflammatory Program with a Shared Single-Cell Expression Signature in Diverse Human Rashes. J Invest Dermatol. 2019 06; 139(6):1264-1273.  View on PubMed
  20. Cheng JB, Sedgewick AJ, Finnegan AI, Harirchian P, Lee J, Kwon S, Fassett MS, Golovato J, Gray M, Ghadially R, Liao W, Perez White BE, Mauro TM, Mully T, Kim EA, Sbitany H, Neuhaus IM, Grekin RC, Yu SS, Gray JW, Purdom E, Paus R, Vaske CJ, Benz SC, Song JS, Cho RJ. Transcriptional Programming of Normal and Inflamed Human Epidermis at Single-Cell Resolution. Cell Rep. 2018 10 23; 25(4):871-883.  View on PubMed

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