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Jarko Gu

Seoul National University · Medicine

About the Lab

Professor Jarko Gu's research lab specializes in translational cancer biology, with a focus on colorectal cancer (CRC) pathogenesis, drug resistance, and tumor heterogeneity. The lab investigates molecular mechanisms underlying cancer progression, including DNA methylation, cancer stem cells, and exosomal microRNAs as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Utilizing patient-derived models such as organoids and cell lines, the lab explores therapeutic responses and synergistic drug combinations, particularly involving metformin and conventional chemotherapeutics. The research integrates genomics, epigenetics, and functional assays to identify novel targets and improve personalized cancer treatment strategies.

colorectal cancertumor heterogeneityexosomal miRNAdrug resistancepatient-derived models

Research Overview

Papers
195
Total Citations
4,442
Papers (5y)
73
Primary Field
Medicine

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
73total
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Citations per year (5y)
550total
20222023202420252026

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|104 citations·2004
Promoter hypermethylation downregulates RUNX3 gene expression in colorectal cancer cell lines
Ja‐Lok Ku, Sung-Bum Kang, Young‐Kyoung Shin, Hio Chung Kang, Sung‐Hye Hong, Il-Jin Kim, Joo‐Ho Shin, Inn‐Oc Han, Jae-Gahb Park
SJR Q1Oncogene
Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
2
Article|100 citations·2005
Biology of SNU Cell Lines
Ja‐Lok Ku, Jae‐Gahb Park
SJR Q1Cancer Research and TreatmentOA

SNU (Seoul National University) cell lines have been established from Korean cancer patients since 1982. Of these 109 cell lines have been characterized and reported, i.e., 17 colorectal carcinoma, 12 hepatocellular carcinoma, 11 gastric carcinoma, 12 uterine cervical carcinoma, 17 B-lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from cancer patients, 5 ovarian carcinoma, 3 malignant mixed Mllerian tumor, 6 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, 7 renal cell carcinoma, 9 brain tumor, 6 biliary tract, and 4 pancr

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
3
Article|64 citations·2011
Methylation-Specific PCR
Ja‐Lok Ku, You-Kyung Jeon, Jae‐Gahb Park
SJR Q4Methods in molecular biology

DNA methylation patterns in CpG-rich regions of promoter, CpG islands, are concerned in regulation of gene expression in mammalian cells. Excessive methylation of CpG dinucleotides in promoter represses the gene expression. In cancer, especially, gene silencing is occurred through aberrant methylation in promoter of tumor suppressor genes. Methylation-specific PCR (MSP) is a method for analysis of DNA methylation patterns in CpG islands. For performing MSP, DNA is modified by and PCR performed w

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
4
Article|62 citations·2011
Resistance of colorectal cancer cells to radiation and 5-FU is associated with MELK expression
Sang Ho Choi, Ja‐Lok Ku
SJR Q2Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
5
Article|58 citations·2017
Metformin increases chemo-sensitivity via gene downregulation encoding DNA replication proteins in 5-Fu resistant colorectal cancer cells
Sung-Hee Kim, Soon‐Chan Kim, Ja‐Lok Ku
SJR Q2OncotargetOA

// Sung-Hee Kim 1 , Soon-Chan Kim 2 and Ja-Lok Ku 1, 2 1 Laboratory of Cell Biology, Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea 2 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea Correspondence to: Ja-Lok Ku, email: kujalok@snu.ac.kr Keywords: colorectal cancer, 5-Fu resistant-cell line, metformin, cancer stem cell (CSC), DNA replication Received: January 17, 2017 &n

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
6
Article|52 citations·2010
Establishment and characterization of 13 human colorectal carcinoma cell lines: mutations of genes and expressions of drug-sensitivity genes and cancer stem cell markers
Ja‐Lok Ku, Young‐Kyoung Shin, Duck‐Woo Kim, Kyung‐Hee Kim, Jin-Sung Choi, Sung‐Hye Hong, You-Kyung Jeon, Sung-Hee Kim, Hong-Sun Kim, Jae-Hyun Park, Il-Jin Kim, Jae-Gahb Park
SJR Q1CarcinogenesisOA

Thirteen human colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines were established from 10 primary tumors and 3 metastatic tumors obtained from 13 Korean patients. Characteristics of the cell lines including morphology in vivo and in vitro; mutations of the K-ras, p53, APC and MMR genes and microsatellite instability (MSI) status in vitro were determined. Expression of drug-sensitivity genes including MDR1, MXR, MRP1 and COX2 was also analyzed. The cell lines were unique as judged by DNA fingerprinting using 16

Pathology and Forensic MedicineMedicine
7
Article|47 citations·2021
Multifocal Organoid Capturing of Colon Cancer Reveals Pervasive Intratumoral Heterogenous Drug Responses
Soon‐Chan Kim, Ji Won Park, Ha‐Young Seo, Min Jung Kim, Jae‐Hyeon Park, Ga‐Hye Kim, Ja Oh Lee, Young‐Kyoung Shin, Jeong Mo Bae, Bon‐Kyoung Koo, Seung‐Yong Jeong, Ja‐Lok Ku
SJR Q1Advanced ScienceOA

Intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) stands as one of the main difficulties in the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) as it causes the development of resistant clones and leads to heterogeneous drug responses. Here, 12 sets of patient-derived organoids (PDOs) and cell lines (PDCs) isolated from multiple regions of single tumors from 12 patients, capturing ITH by multiregion sampling of individual tumors, are presented. Whole-exome sequencing and RNA sequencing of the 12 sets are performed. The PDOs

Cancer ResearchBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
8
Article|43 citations·2006
Genetic alterations of the TGF-β signaling pathway in colorectal cancer cell lines: A novel mutation in Smad3 associated with the inactivation of TGF-β-induced transcriptional activation
Ja‐Lok Ku, Seok Hee Park, Kyong‐Ah Yoon, Young‐Kyoung Shin, Kyung‐Hee Kim, Jin-Sung Choi, Hio-Chung Kang, Il-Jin Kim, Inn‐Oc Han, Jae‐Gahb Park
SJR Q1Cancer Letters
Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
9
Article|35 citations·2020
Exosomal miR-193a and let-7g accelerate cancer progression on primary colorectal cancer and paired peritoneal metastatic cancer
Woo-Cheol Cho, Min Jung Kim, Ji Won Park, Seung‐Yong Jeong, Ja‐Lok Ku
SJR Q1Translational OncologyOA

A metastasis of colorectal cancer is difficult to diagnose, and has a poor prognosis. Therefore, we tried to elucidate the possibility of a diagnostic and prognostic marker. Exosomal miR-193a and let-7g were sorted by miRNA microarray. The expression of miR-193a in the PTM group was lower than that of the primary CRC group, and the expression of let-7g was higher than that of the primary CRC. MMP16 and CDKN1A expression was confirmed respectively for target genes of two miRNAs. When the mimics o

SurgeryMedicine
10
Article|34 citations·2008
Promoter hypermethylation of the ADAM23 gene in colorectal cancer cell lines and cancer tissues
Jin-Sung Choi, Kyung‐Hee Kim, You‐Kyung Jeon, Sung‐Hee Kim, Sang‐Geun Jang, Ja‐Lok Ku, Jae‐Gahb Park
SJR Q1International Journal of CancerOA

Promoter hypermethylation of the ADAM23 gene, which is normally involved in cell-to-cell and cell-to matrix adhesion, has been reported in pancreatic, breast and brain cancer, and recently the role of this gene was examined in gastric cancer. In this study, we analyzed ADAM23 expression in colorectal cancer cell lines and examined its methylation by methylation-specific PCR (MSP) and bisulfate-modified DNA sequencing analysis. Methylated cells were treated with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine to restore

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
11
Article|32 citations·2012
Establishment and characterization of six human gastric carcinoma cell lines, including one naturally infected with Epstein-Barr virus
Ja‐Lok Ku, Kyung‐Hee Kim, Jin-Sung Choi, Sung-Hee Kim, Young‐Kyoung Shin, Hee Jin Chang, Jae-Moon Bae, Young‐Woo Kim, Jun Ho Lee, Han‐Kwang Yang, Woo Ho Kim, Seung‐Yong Jeong
SJR Q1Cellular OncologyOA
OncologyMedicine
12
Article|31 citations·1997
Establishment and characterization of 12 uterine cervical-carcinoma cell lines: Common sequence variation in theE7 gene of HPV-16-positive cell lines
Ja‐Lok Ku, Woo Ho Kim, Hyun-Sook Park, Soon‐Beom Kang, Jae‐Gahb Park
SJR Q1International Journal of CancerOA

A total of 12 carcinoma cell lines of the human uterine cervix were established from 5 keratinizing and 5 nonkeratinizing squamous-cell carcinomas, and 2 small-cell carcinomas. Of these, 10 lines grew as adherent cells and 2 as floating aggregates. All lines showed (i) similarity in morphology to the primary tumor from which they were derived; (ii) high viability with relatively long doubling times (48-96 hr); (iii) absence of Mycoplasma and other bacteria, apart from one Mycoplasma-contaminated

EpidemiologyMedicine
13
Article|27 citations·1999
Mutations in hMSH6 alone are not sufficient to cause the microsatellite instability in colorectal cancer cell lines
Ja‐Lok Ku, K.-A. Yoon, D.-Y Kim, J.-G Park
SJR Q1European Journal of Cancer
Pathology and Forensic MedicineMedicine
14
Article|20 citations·1999
Establishment and characterization of human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines
Ja‐Lok Ku, Wooho Kim, Jae‐Ho Lee, Hyun‐Sook Park, Kwang Hyun Kim, Myung‐Whun Sung, Jae‐Gahb Park
SJR Q1The Laryngoscope

OBJECTIVES: Six human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines (SNU-46, -585, -899, -1066, -1076, -1214) established from Korean patients are reported. STUDY DESIGN: In vitro culture of six squamous cell carcinoma cell lines derived from primary tumors of the larynx. Description of the cell line phenotypes and determination of molecular characteristics. METHODS: Six laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines were cultured. The cell phenotypes, including the histopathology of the primary tu

OtorhinolaryngologyMedicine
15
Article|20 citations·2002
Establishment and characterization of four human pancreatic carcinoma cell lines
Ja‐Lok Ku, Kyong‐Ah Yoon, Woo Ho Kim, Jin Jang, Kyung‐Suk Suh, Sun‐Whe Kim, Yong-Hyun Park, Jae-Gahb Park
SJR Q1Cell and Tissue Research
OncologyMedicine

Research Areas

OncologyMolecular BiologyPathology and Forensic MedicinePulmonary and Respiratory MedicineCancer ResearchSurgery

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