Kathleen R. Cho, M.D., is the Peter A. Ward Professor of Pathology and Vice-Chair for Academic Affairs at the University of Michigan Medical School. She recently completed a fourteen month term as Interim Chair of the Department of Pathology (07/2013 – 09/2014). Dr. Cho received her B.A. from Yale University in 1980 and her medical degree from Vanderbilt University in 1984. She subsequently performed an internship and residency in anatomic pathology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. From 1988-1991, she was a clinical fellow in pathology and a research fellow in cancer genetics, both at Johns Hopkins. She joined the JHU faculty in 1991 as an assistant professor of pathology, oncology, and gynecology and obstetrics, and achieved the rank of associate professor in 1995. She joined the UMMS faculty in 1998 as an Associate Professor of Pathology and Internal Medicine, with tenure, and was promoted to her current rank of Professor in 2002.  Dr. Cho is the section head and fellowship director for gynecological pathology at the University of Michigan Hospitals. Dr. Cho is widely recognized as a leading authority in both the basic and clinical study of gynecologic malignancies, and has authored nearly 130 peer-reviewed publications. Her research has earned her over two decades of grant support from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Ovarian Cancer Research Program (OCRP) of the Department of Defense (DoD) and several private foundations. She has served on a number of NIH and DoD study sections, on the Integration Panel for the DoD’s OCRP, and in 2015, on a committee on the State of the Science in Ovarian Cancer Research for the Institute of Medicine.  Dr. Cho currently serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals and has been elected to leadership/ advisory positions in top national/international pathology societies (US & Canadian Academy of Pathology, American Society of Investigative Pathology, International Society of Gynecological Pathologists). She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars.

 Dr. Cho’s research has focused primarily on ovarian cancer for the better part of two decades. In early work, the Cho laboratory generated comprehensive molecular profiles of ovarian carcinomas, demonstrating distinct molecular profiles in ovarian cancer subtypes. Her group discovered that mutations dysregulating the canonical Wnt and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways often co-occur in endometrioid ovarian carcinomas. She and her co-workers subsequently engineered novel mouse models of ovarian endometrioid carcinoma based on conditional inactivation of the Pten and Apc tumor suppressor genes and developed the system for testing new targeted therapeutics and studying effects of additional genetic alterations on tumor behavior. More recently, her group has generated innovative mouse models of oviductal high-grade serous carcinoma, the most common and lethal type of “ovarian” cancer, that we now know usually arise in the fallopian tube. These unique murine models are being used to study ovarian tumor biology and to explore novel prevention, early detection and therapies for ovarian cancer.