Sungjin Ko, DVM, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pathology, Division of Experimental Pathology

Dr. Ko is an Assistant Professor of Pathology, and a member of Division of Experimental Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Research Interests

Dr. Ko is particularly interested in beneficial modulation of cell fate by using chemicals which regulate cellular programming of liver epithelial cells at the intersections of stem cell biology, regenerative medicine, and cancer therapy. Dr. Ko's long-term research goals: (1) understanding the molecular mechanisms of liver regeneration and cell plasticity in animal models of human liver disease in order to identify therapeutic targets for patients as an alternative for liver transplantation; (2) delineating the role of cellular reprogramming in the molecular pathogenesis of liver cancers to identify drug candidates to prolong the lifespan for liver cancer patients, one of the major unmet needs in the clinic.

Representative Publications

Dr Ko's Publications on PubMed.

  • Hu S#, Russell JO#, Liu S, Cao C, McGaughey J, Rai R, Kosar K, Tao J, Hurley E, Poddar M, Singh S, Bell A, Shin D, Raeman R, Singhi AD, Nejak-Bowen K, Sungjin Ko* and Monga SP*. b-Catenin-NFkB-CFTR interactions in cholangiocytes regulate inflammation and fibrosis during ductular reaction. 2021. Elife.
  • Molina LM, Zhu J, Li Q, Pradhan-Sundd T, Krutsenko Y, Sayed K, Jenkins N, Vats R, Bhushan B, Sungjin Ko, Hu S, Poddar M, Singh S, Tao J, Sundd P, Singhi A, Watkins S, Ma X, Benos PV, Feranchak A, Michalopoulos G, Nejak-Bowen K, Watson A, Bell A, Monga SP. Compensatory hepatic adaptation accompanies permanent absent of intra-hepatic biliary network due to YAP1 loss in liver progenitors. 2021. Cell Report.
  • Kyounghwa Jung, Minwook Kim, Juhoon So, Seung-Hoon Lee, Sungjin Ko* and Donghun Shin*. Farnesoid X receptor activation impairs liver progenitor cell-mediated liver regeneration via the PTEN-PI3K-AKT-mTOR axis in zebrafish. 2020. Hepatology.
  • Chad Walesky, Kellie Kolb, Carolyn Winston, Jake Henderson, Benjamin Kruft, Ira Fleming, Sungjin Ko, Satdarshan Monga, Florian Mueller, Udayan Apte, Alex Shalek, and Wolfram Goessling. Functional Compensation Precedes Recovery of Tissue Mass Following Acute Liver Injury. 2020. Nature Communication.
  • Sungjin Ko#, Jacquelyn O. Russell#, Laura Molina, Satdarshan P. Monga. Liver progenitor cells and cell plasticity in liver injury and repair: knowns and unknowns. 2020. Annual Review of Pathology.
  • Adeola Michael#, Sungjin Ko#, Junyan Tao, Akshata Moghe, Hong Yang, Meng Xu, Jacquelyn O Russell, Tirthadipa Pradhan-Sundd, Silvia Liu, Sucha Singh, Minakshi Poddar, Jayvir S Monga, Pin Liu, Michael Oertel, Sarangarajan Ranganathan, Aatur Singhi, Sandra Rebouissou, Jessica Zucman-Rossi, Silvia Ribback, Diego Calvisi, Natalia Qvartskhava, Boris Görg, Dieter Häussinger, Xin Chen, Satdarshan P Monga. Inhibiting Glutamine-Dependent mTORC1 Activation Ameliorates Liver Cancers Driven by ?-Catenin Mutations. 2019. Cell Metabolism.
  • Jacquelyn O. Russell#, Sungjin Ko#,*, Satdarshan P. Monga, and Donghun Shin*. Notch inhibition promotes differentiation of liver progenitor cells into hepatocytes via sox9b repression in zebrafish. 2019. Stem Cells International.
  • Sungjin Ko*, Russell JO, Tian J, Gao C, Kobayashi M, Feng R, Yuan X, Shao C, Ding H, Poddar M, Singh S, Locker J, Weng HL, Monga SP, Shin D*. Hdac1 Regulates Differentiation of Bipotent Liver Progenitor Cells During Regeneration via Sox9b and Cdk8. 2018. Gastroenterology.
  • Russell JO#, Sungjin Ko#, Saggi HS, Singh S, Poddar M, Shin D, Monga SP. Bromodomain and Extraterminal (BET) Protein Regulate Hepatocyte Proliferation in Hepatocyte-Driven Liver Regeneration. 2018. Am J Pathology.
  • Sungjin Ko#, Tae-Young Choi#, Jacqelyn O. Russell, Juhoon So, Satdarshan P.S. Monga, Donghun Shin. Bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) proteins regulate biliary-driven liver regeneration. Journal of Hepatology. 2016 #, First author