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