Min Yong Kang

Our novel protocol for hPSCs differentiation into NPCs can be useful for producing alternative sources of cell replacement therapy and disease modeling for human kidney diseases.

The use of patient-derived tumor tissues and cells has led to significant advances in personalized cancer therapy and precision medicine. The advent of genomic sequencing technologies has enabled the comprehensive analysis of tumor characteristics. The three-dimensional tumor organoids derived from self-organizing cancer stem cells are valuable ex vivo models that faithfully replicate the structure, unique features, and genetic characteristics of tumors. These tumor organoids have emerged as inn

// Minyong Kang 1 , Chang Wook Jeong 1 , Cheol Kwak 1 , Hyeon Hoe Kim 1 , Ja Hyeon Ku 1 1 Department of Urology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea Correspondence to: Ja Hyeon Ku, email: kuuro70@snu.ac.kr Keywords: urothelial carcinoma, urinary bladder, systemic inflammatory response, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, predictors Received: July 25, 2016     Accepted: November 24, 2016     Published: December 26, 2016 ABSTRACT The progno

Statins are cholesterol reduction agents that exhibit anti-cancer activity in several human cancers. Because autophagy is a crucial survival mechanism for cancer cells under stress conditions, cooperative inhibition of autophagy acts synergistically with other anti-cancer drugs. Thus, this study investigates whether combined treatment of atorvastatin and autophagy inhibitors results in enhancing the cytotoxic effects of atorvastatin, upon human bladder cancer cells, T24 and J82, in vitro. To mea

Human stem cells are promising sources for bladder regeneration. Among several possible sources, pluripotent stem cells are the most fascinating because they can differentiate into any cell type, and proliferate limitlessly in vitro. Here, we developed a protocol for differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into bladder urothelial cells (BUCs) under a chemically defined culture system. We first differentiated hPSCs into definitive endoderm (DE), and further specified DE cells into

We examined the anti-cancer effects and molecular mechanism of simvastatin in human castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) cells, particularly focused on LIN28B and its target molecule, let-7 microRNA (miRNA) among the various target genes of NF-κB. A human CRPC cell line (PC3) was used in the current study. Gene expression patterns were evaluated using real time-PCR and western blot analysis. CCK-8 assay was used for assessing cell viability and proliferation, and a clonogenic assay was ad

// Minyong Kang 1 , Chang Wook Jeong 1 , Cheol Kwak 1 , Hyeon Hoe Kim 1 , Ja Hyeon Ku 1 1 Department of Urology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea Correspondence to: Ja Hyeon Ku, email: kuuro70@snu.ac.kr Keywords: urinary bladder neoplasm, chemotherapy, drug therapy, single instillation, systematic review Received: March 18, 2016      Accepted: May 29, 2016      Published: June 14, 2016 ABSTRACT We performed a network m

We evaluated the predictive role of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection by targeted deep sequencing in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) treated with immune checkpoint blockades (ICB). To determine the feasibility of ctDNA detection in our panel encompassing 40 genes, we collected 10 ml of blood from 20 patients at the time of radical nephrectomy. We analyzed somatic mutations in primary tumors and ctDNA samples from these patients. We finally collected 10 ml of blood befo

Despite the potential therapeutic efficacy of epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors in the treatment of advanced stage bladder cancer, there currently is no clear evidence to support this hypothesis. In this study, we investigate whether the concurrent treatment of autophagy-blocking agents with EGFR inhibitors exerts synergistic anti-cancer effects in T24 and J82 human bladder cancer cells. Lapatinib and gefitinib were used as EGFR inhibitors, and bafilomycin A1 (BFA1), chloroquin

In summary, our data highlighted that tumor size and nephrometry score, which are tumor-related factors, as well as the surgeon's experience, a surgeon-related factor, appear to be the critical predictive factors for Pentafecta achievement following RAPN.