About PI

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Professor, Developmental & Cell Biology
School of Biological Sciences 

Email: kwcho@uci.edu

Grinnell College
​University of Pennsylvania

Affiliations:
Center for Complex Biological Systems
UCI Cancer Center
 

Research Interest
Cell Fate Specification of Early Embryos
Preimplantion Mammalian Development
Systems Biology of Development
Gene Regulatory Networks
Functional Genomics
Epigenomics

Awards:
President, Society for Developmental Biology (2023)
AAAS fellow (elected, 2012)
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Fellow (1998, 2013)
Golden Key Honorary Society, Honorary Member (1999) 
NIH Research Career Development Award (1996- 2001)
Pew Scholars in Biomedical Sciences (1994-1998)
American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Awards (1993-1995)
Basil O’Connor, March of Dimes Research Scholar (1992-1994)

​US Editor, Growth, Development and Differentiation, 2023
Deputy Editor, Growth, Development and Differentiation, 2021-2022
Editorial Board, Developmental Biology, 2011-present
Editorial Board, JoVE, 2014-2020
Advisory Board Member, Growth, Development and Differentiation, 2002 - 2010
Editorial Board, Cell Research, 2005 - 2010
Major Past Research Accomplishments
Uncovered the molecular action of Spemann's organizer genes
  • Watabe, T., Inoue, K., Kim, S., Candia, A., Rothbacher, U., and Cho, K.W.Y. (1995). Establishment of Spemann’s organizer formation: conserved growth factor synergy between Xenopus and mouse. Genes Dev.9:3038-3050.
  • Cho, K.W.Y., Morita, E.A., Wright, C.V.E., and De Robertis, E.M. (1991). Overexpression of a homeodomain protein confers axis-forming activity to uncommitted Xenopus embryonic cells. Cell, 65; 55-64.
  • Blumberg, B., Wright, C.V.E., De Robertis, E.M., and Cho, K.W.Y. (1991). Organizer‑ specific homeobox genes from Xenopus laevis embryos.  Science 253; 194-196.
  • Cho, K.W.Y., Blumberg, B., Steinbeisser, H., and De Robertis, E. (1991). Molecular nature of Spemann’s organizer: the role of the Xenopus homeobox gene goosecoid. Cell 67; 1111-1120. PMID: 1684739, 

Played major roles in uncovering BMP signaling mechanisms
  • Scott, I.C., Blitz, I.L., Pappano, W.N., Cho,K.W.Y*., Greenspan, D.S.* (2001). Vertebrate twisted gastrulation is a cofactor involved in BMP antagonism. Nature, 411:720-723. (*contributed equally) PMID: 11260715. 
  • Nishita, M., Hashimoto, M, Laurent, M.N., Ueno, N., Shibuya, H, and Cho, K.W.Y. (2000). Direct Physical Interaction of Lef1/Tcf, b-catenin and Smad4 Transcription Factors in Formation of Spemann’ s Organizer. Nature 403: 781-785. PMID: 10693808. 
  • Marques, G., Mussachio, M., Wunnenberg-Stapleton, K., Shimell, M.J., Cho, K.W.Y., and O’Connor, M.B. (1997). Production of a Dpp activity gradient in the early Drosophila embryo through the opposing actions of the Sog and Tld proteins. Cell, 91:417-426

Uncovered mesendoderm gene regulatory mechanism conferred by pioneer transcription factors: 
  • Jansen C, Paraiso KD, Zhou JJ, Blitz IL, Fish MB, Charney RM, Cho JS, Yasuoka Y, Sudou N, Bright AR, Wlizla M, Veenstra GJC, Taira M, Zorn AM, Mortazavi A, Cho KWY. (2022) Uncovering the mesendoderm gene regulatory network through multi-omic data integration. Cell Reports. 38(7):110364.
  • Paraiso, K,, I L Blitz, Coley M, Cheung, Sudoh N., Taira, M., and Cho K.W.Y. (2019).Endodermal maternal transcription factors establish super enhancers during zygotic genome activation. Cell Reports, 27:2962-2977 PMID:  31167141
  • Charney RM, Forouzmand E, Cho J, Cheung J, Paraiso PD, Yasuoka Y, Takahashi S, Taira M, Blitz IL, Xie X, Cho KW. (2017). Foxh1 occupies cis-regulatory modules prior to dynamic transcription factor interactions controlling the mesendoderm gene program, Dev Cell 40:1-13. 

Developed useful Xenopus genomic tools: 
  • Paraiso, K,, Blitz, IL., Zhou, J., and Cho K.W.Y. (2019).Morpholinos do not elicit an innate immune response during early Xenopusembryogenesis. Developmental Cell, 4 9:643-650. 
  • Blitz, I.L., Fish, M.B., and Cho, K.W.Y. (2016). Leapfrogging: Primordial Germ Cell Transplantation Permits Recovery of CRISPR/Cas9-Induced Mutations in Essential Genes. Development, 143:2868- 75. 
  • Owens, N.D.L., Blitz, I.L., Lane, M.A., Overton, J.D., Gilchrist*, M.J, Cho*, K.W.Y., Khokha*, M.K. Embryogenesis kinetics measured by high-resolution absolute quantitation of transcripts. Cell Reports 14: 632-647 * Equal contribution
  • Blitz, I.L., Paraiso, K.D., Patrushev, I., Chiu, W.T.Y., Cho, K.W.Y*., Gilchrist,M.J.* (2016). . *contributed equally, co-senior authors. A catalog of Xenopus tropicalis transcription factors and their regional expression in the early gastrula stage embryo. Dev Biol, 2016 S0012-1606(16) 30118-X.* Equal contribution
  • Blitz,IL., Biesinger, J., Xie, X., and Cho, KWY. (2013). Biallelic Genome Modification in F0 Xenopus tropicalis Embryos Using the CRISPR/Cas System. Genesis, 51:827-34.