Email

charles.cho@bcm.edu

Positions

Instructor

Medicine-Gastroenterology
Baylor College of Medicine

Addresses

549E Anderson-Jones Bldg. (Lab)

Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX 77030
United States

Education

MD from Hanyang University, College of Medicine

02/2006 - Seoul, Korea

Internship at Asan Medical Center

02/2007 - Seoul, Korea

Residency at Asan Medical Center

02/2011 - Seoul, Korea

MSc from University of Ulsan, College of Medicine

02/2014 - Seoul, Korea

Clinical Fellowship at Asan Medical Center

02/2016 - Seoul, Korea

PhD from University of Ulsan, College of Medicine

02/2018 - Seoul, Korea

Postdoctoral Training at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

05/2021 - St. Louis

Certifications

Korean National Board Examination

Korean Board of Internal Medicine

Korean Board of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Korean Board of Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Professional Statement

I am a gastroenterologist and translational/ basic scientist investigating how differentiated cells in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract respond to injury. These cells can undergo a programmed remodeling and reorganization of their organelles, both structurally and functionally, in order to adapt to the altered environment that results from injury. Paligenosis is an evolutionarily conserved sequential process in which fully differentiated zymogenic cells, such as gastric chief cells or pancreas acinar cells, can remodel their existing organelles and re-enter cell cycle. Paligenosis serves as a perfect window to study how other differentiated cells, which make up the vast majority of cell types in multicellular organisms, react and adjust to various stresses. Currently, I am interested in specific aspects of paligenosis related to questions of how generation, destruction, salvaging, and functional alteration of ribosomes can affect survival and proliferation of differentiated cells during injury, and how that differs during homeostasis. In the future, I aim to extend my research focus to ribosome dynamics in the cytosol and rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER) during stress, including the unfolded protein response, ER destruction-causing injuries, and physiologic stresses such as fasting in the GI tract.

Selected Publications

• Miao ZF*, Lewis MA*, Cho CJ*, Adkins-Threats M, Park D, Brown JW, Sun JX, Burclaff JR, Kennedy S, Lu J, Mahar M, Vietor I, Huber LA, Davidson NO, Cavalli V, Rubin DC, Wang ZN, Mills JC "A Dedicated Evolutionarily Conserved Molecular Network Licenses Differentiated Cells to Return to the Cell Cycle.." Dev Cell.. 2020 Oct 26; Pubmed PMID: 32768422
• Radyk MD, Spatz LB, Peña BL, Brown JW, Burclaff J, Cho CJ, Kefalov Y, Shih C-C, Fitzpatrick JA, and Mills JC "ATF3 induces RAB7 to govern autodegradation in paligenosis, a conserved cell plasticity program.." EMBO Rep. 2021 Jul 26; Pubmed PMID: 34309175
• Miao ZF*, Cho CJ*, Wang ZN, Mills JC "Autophagy repurposes cells during paligenosis.." Autophagy.. 2020 Dec 7; Pubmed PMID: 33280496
• Cho CJ*, Park D*, Mills JC "ELAPOR1 is a secretory granule maturation-promoting factor that is lost during paligenosis.." Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol.. 2021 Nov 24; Pubmed PMID: 34816763

Funding

The Role of Key Paligenosis Gene IFRD1 in Gastric Carcinogenesis - ##W81XWH2210327

$639,998.00 (05/15/2022 - 06/30/2024)

Department of Defense

Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program Career Development Award