Stephen Chung, M.D.
Assistant Professor

Stephen Chung, M.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and its Division of Hematology and Oncology, and the Children’s Research Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in the care of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Dr. Chung holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Cornell University. He earned his medical degree at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital followed by a medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), where he remained as a faculty member of the Leukemia Service for six years before joining the UT Southwestern faculty in 2018.

As a postdoctoral fellow in the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at MSKCC, Dr. Chung’s work led to the identification of the hematopoietic stem cell as the cell of origin for hairy cell leukemia, as well as the identification of CD99 as a disease stem cell marker and therapeutic target in MDS and AML.

Dr. Chung’s laboratory research focuses on studying the molecular alterations in the hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells that underlie the development of AML and MDS. By studying these immature blood cells he aims to better understand what causes these diseases, as well as the mechanisms by which they sometimes become resistant to standard therapies. He is also interested in identifying novel alterations in cell surface protein expression in these diseases to identify new therapeutic targets and to develop new diagnostic tests.

His investigations have led to many publications in peer-reviewed journals, as well as reviews and editorials. He is a frequent speaker regionally and internationally.

Dr. Chung's honors include a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a Scholar Award from the American Society of Hematology, an Early Career Award in Myelodysplastic Syndrome Research from the Dresner Foundation, a K08 Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award, a Disease Oriented Clinical Scholars Award from UT Southwestern, and a First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Award from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.

He is a member of the American College of Physicians, the Dallas County Medical Society,the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Hematology, and the International Society for Experimental Hematology.

Medical School

Washington University School of Medicine (2006)

Residency

Massachusetts General Hospital (2009), Internal Medicine

Fellowship

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (2012), Medical Oncology

• Acute Myeloid Leukemia
• Clonal Hematopoiesis
• Hematopoiesis
• Leukemia Stem Cells
• The Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Featured Publications

CD99 is a therapeutic target on disease stem cells in myeloid malignancies.

Chung SS, Eng WS, Hu W, Khalaj M, Garrett-Bakelman FE, Tavakkoli M, Levine RL, Carroll M, Klimek VM, Melnick AM, Park CY Sci Transl Med 2017 01 9 374

Hematopoietic stem cell origin of BRAFV600E mutations in hairy cell leukemia.

Chung SS, Kim E, Park JH, Chung YR, Lito P, Teruya-Feldstein J, Hu W, Beguelin W, Monette S, Duy C, Rampal R, Telis L, Patel M, Kim MK, Huberman K, Bouvier N, Berger MF, Melnick AM, Rosen N, Tallman MS, Park CY, Abdel-Wahab O Sci Transl Med 2014 May 6 238 238ra71

Convergence of oncogenic cooperation at single-cell and single-gene levels drives leukemic transformation.

Liu Y, Gu Z, Cao H, Kaphle P, Lyu J, Zhang Y, Hu W, Chung SS, Dickerson KE, Xu J, Nat Commun 2021 11 12 1 6323

The association of leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor subfamily B-4 expression in acute myeloid leukemia and central nervous system involvement.

Bergstrom CP, Dahiya S, Chen W, Zhang CC, Zhu H, Yan J, Madanat Y, Patel P, Vusirkala M, Ramakrishnan P, Rizvi S, Chung S, Awan F, Anderson LD, Collins R, Kansagra A, Leuk Res 2020 Nov 100 106480

Banking on a cooperative effort.

Chung SS, Leuk Lymphoma 2019 12 60 13 3102-3103

CD97 is a critical regulator of acute myeloid leukemia stem cell function.

Martin GH, Roy N, Chakraborty S, Desrichard A, Chung SS, Woolthuis CM, Hu W, Berezniuk I, Garrett-Bakelman FE, Hamann J, Devlin SM, Chan TA, Park CY, J Exp Med 2019 10 216 10 2362-2377

Oncogenic TRK fusions are amenable to inhibition in hematologic malignancies.

Taylor J, Pavlick D, Yoshimi A, Marcelus C, Chung SS, Hechtman JF, Benayed R, Cocco E, Durham BH, Bitner L, Inoue D, Chung YR, Mullaney K, Watts JM, Diamond EL, Albacker LA, Mughal TI, Ebata K, Tuch BB, Ku N, Scaltriti M, Roshal M, Arcila M, Ali S, Hyman DM, Park JH, Abdel-Wahab O J. Clin. Invest. 2018 Aug 128 9 3819-3825

Aging, hematopoiesis, and the myelodysplastic syndromes.

Chung SS, Park CY Blood Adv 2017 Dec 1 26 2572-2578

Distinct evolution and dynamics of epigenetic and genetic heterogeneity in acute myeloid leukemia.

Li S, Garrett-Bakelman FE, Chung SS, Sanders MA, Hricik T, Rapaport F, Patel J, Dillon R, Vijay P, Brown AL, Perl AE, Cannon J, Bullinger L, Luger S, Becker M, Lewis ID, To LB, Delwel R, Löwenberg B, Döhner H, Döhner K, Guzman ML, Hassane DC, Roboz GJ, Grimwade D, Valk PJ, D'Andrea RJ, Carroll M, Park CY, Neuberg D, Levine R, Melnick AM, Mason CE Nat. Med. 2016 07 22 7 792-9

CD34-Selected Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants Conditioned with Myeloablative Regimens and Antithymocyte Globulin for Advanced Myelodysplastic Syndrome: Limited Graft-versus-Host Disease without Increased Relapse.

Tamari R, Chung SS, Papadopoulos EB, Jakubowski AA, Hilden P, Devlin SM, Goldberg JD, Perales MA, Ponce DM, Sauter CS, Maloy MA, Herman DY, Klimek V, Young JW, O'Reilly RJ, Giralt SA, Castro-Malaspina H Biol. Blood Marrow Transplant. 2015 Dec 21 12 2106-2114

 Featured Books

Acute Myeloid Leukemia Stem Cells. In Cancer Stem Cells

Chung SS, Park CY (2014). Wiley

• Junior Faculty Scholar Award in Basic/Translational Research
  American Society of Hematology (2020)
• Disease-Oriented Clinical Scholar
  UT Southwestern (2018)
• First-time Tenure-track Scholar
  CPRIT (2018)
• Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award (K08)
  NCI (2017)
• Early Career Award in Myelodysplastic Syndrome Research
  Dresner Foundation (2017)
• Paul Sherlock Housestaff Teaching Award
  MSKCC Department of Medicine (2017)
• Fellow Scholar Award in Basic/Translational Research
  American Society of Hematology (2015)
• Postdoctoral Research Award
  Bone Marrow Failure Research Program, Department of Defense (2013)
• Young Investigator Award
  American Socity of Clinical Oncology (2012)

• International Society for Experimental Hematology (2013)
• American Society of Hematology (2009)