Stephen Chung, MD

Stephen Chung, M.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Children’s Research Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in the care of patients with the myelodysplastic syndromes myelodysplastic syndromes: (my-eh-lo-diss-PLASS-tik SIN-dromez) A group of disorders where the bone marrow does not work well, and the bone marrow cells fail to make enough healthy blood cells. Myelo refers to the bone marrow. Dysplastic means abnormal growth or development. People with MDS have low blood cell count for at… (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Dr. Chung 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 stem cells: Cells in the body that develop into other cells. There are two main sources of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells come from human embryos and are used in medical research. Adult stem cells in the body repair and maintain the organ or tissue in which they are found. Blood-forming (hemapoietic) stem… 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.

Dr. Chung has received a number of honors including 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.