About

Sangkyun Cho is a professor leading the Cho Laboratory, a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers focused on understanding how cells interact with each other and their physical microenvironment, particularly in the context of fibrosis, or tissue scarring, which contributes to a wide range of human diseases. The laboratory adopts a systems approach to investigate the mechanisms driving fibrotic remodeling and tissue regeneration by integrating cell and molecular biology, organoid and biomaterials engineering, and data science. Their long-term goal is to develop new precision therapies for treating fibrosis-associated diseases and conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and aging.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Anesthesia
• Immunology
• Cardiology
• Pathology
• Psychiatry
• Pediatrics

Selected publications

• Pathogenesis Underlying Neurological Manifestations of Long COVID Syndrome and Potential Therapeutics

  Cells · 2023 · 175 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Immunology
  • Pathology

  The development of long-term symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) more than four weeks after primary infection, termed "long COVID" or post-acute sequela of COVID-19 (PASC), can implicate persistent neurological complications in up to one third of patients and present as fatigue, "brain fog", headaches, cognitive impairment, dysautonomia, neuropsychiatric symptoms, anosmia, hypogeusia, and peripheral neuropathy. Pathogenic mechanisms of these symptoms of long COVID remain largely unclear; however, several hypotheses implicate both nervous system and systemic pathogenic mechanisms such as SARS-CoV2 viral persistence and neuroinvasion, abnormal immunological response, autoimmunity, coagulopathies, and endotheliopathy. Outside of the CNS, SARS-CoV-2 can invade the support and stem cells of the olfactory epithelium leading to persistent alterations to olfactory function. SARS-CoV-2 infection may induce abnormalities in innate and adaptive immunity including monocyte expansion, T-cell exhaustion, and prolonged cytokine release, which may cause neuroinflammatory responses and microglia activation, white matter abnormalities, and microvascular changes. Additionally, microvascular clot formation can occlude capillaries and endotheliopathy, due to SARS-CoV-2 protease activity and complement activation, can contribute to hypoxic neuronal injury and blood-brain barrier dysfunction, respectively. Current therapeutics target pathological mechanisms by employing antivirals, decreasing inflammation, and promoting olfactory epithelium regeneration. Thus, from laboratory evidence and clinical trials in the literature, we sought to synthesize the pathophysiological pathways underlying neurological symptoms of long COVID and potential therapeutics.

  DOI

• Mid and long-term neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations of post-COVID-19 syndrome: A meta-analysis

  Journal of the Neurological Sciences · 2022 · 757 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Pediatrics
  • Psychiatry
  DOI

• Understanding Characteristics of Acute Brain Injury in Adult Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: An Autopsy Study*

  Critical Care Medicine · 2020 · 47 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Anesthesia
  • Cardiology

  OBJECTIVES: Current studies lack information on characteristics of acute brain injury in patients with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. We sought to characterize the types, timing, and risk factors of acute brain injury in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. SETTING: We reviewed the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation patients who had undergone brain autopsy with gross and microscopic examinations from January 2009 to December 2018 from a single tertiary center. PATIENTS: Twenty-five patients (median age 53 yr) had postmortem brain autopsy. INTERVENTIONS: Description and analysis of neuropathologic findings. MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS: Of 25, 22 had venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (88%) (nine cardiac arrest; 13 cardiogenic shock) and three had venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation cannulation (12%). The median extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support time was 96 hours (interquartile range, 26-181 hr). The most common acute brain injury was hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (44%), followed by intracranial hemorrhage (24%), and ischemic infarct (16%). Subarachnoid hemorrhage (20%) was the most common type of intracranial hemorrhage, followed by intracerebral hemorrhage (8%), and subdural hemorrhage (4%). Only eight patients (32%) were without acute brain injury after extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The most common involved location for hypoxic-ischemic brain injury was cerebral cortices (82%) and cerebellum (55%). The pattern of ischemic infarct was territorial in cerebral cortices. The risk factors for acute brain injury included hypertension history (11 vs 1; p = 0.01), preextracorporeal membrane oxygenation antiplatelet use (7 vs 0; p = 0.03), and a higher day 1 lactate level (10.0 vs 5.1; p = 0.02). Patients with hypoxic-ischemic brain injury had more hypertension (8 vs 4; p = 0.047), a higher day 1 lactate level (12.6 vs 5.8; p = 0.02), and a lower pH level (7.09 vs 7.24; p = 0.027). Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation duration, cannulation methods, hemoglobin level, coma, renal impairment, and hepatic impairment were not associated with acute brain injury. CONCLUSIONS: In the population who underwent postmortem neuropathologic evaluation, 68% of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation nonsurvivors developed acute brain injury. Hypoxic-ischemic brain injury was the most common type of injury suggesting that patients sustained acute brain injury as a consequence of cardiogenic shock and cardiac arrest. Further research with a systematic neurologic monitoring is necessary to define the timing of acute brain injury in patients with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CLots and Oxygen in Va-ExtracorpoReal membrane oxygenation (CLOVER) study

  NIH · $797k · 2022–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Glenn Whitman

  Johns Hopkins University

  393 shared

• Wendy Ziai

  Johns Hopkins University

  347 shared

• Santosh B. Murthy

  Cornell University

  315 shared

• Radhika Avadhani

  307 shared

• Daniel F. Hanley

  305 shared

• Hooman Kamel

  Cornell University

  305 shared

• Ajay Gupta

  Cornell University

  303 shared

• Costantino Iadecola

  MIND Research Institute

  301 shared

Labs

• Cho LaboratoryPI

Education

• M.H.S.

  Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

  2020

Awards & honors

• NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020)
• Paper of the Year Award from the Journal of Molecular and Ce…
• American Heart Association Career Development Award (2023)
• NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (2023)

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