Biography
Andrew Y. Koh, M.D., is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Microbiology, Chief, Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, and the Grant A. Dove Distinguished Chair for Research in Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. A member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, he specializes in pediatric hematology-oncology; cellular therapy, including stem cell transplantation, CAR T-cell therapy and gene therapy; and cancer immunotherapy.
Dr. Koh earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in pediatric medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he served as Chief Resident. He then completed a dual fellowship in hematology-oncology and infectious diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in pediatric hematology and oncology.
After serving as an attending physician on both the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation service and immunocompromised infectious diseases service for five years, Dr. Koh left Harvard to become Director of Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation at UT Southwestern in 2009.
He is currently the Director of the Pediatric Cellular and ImmunoTherapeutics Program at Children’s Health and Associate Division Chief of Basic Science and Innovation for the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at UTSW.
The Koh Lab focuses on understanding how the gut microbiome influences host immune responses in cancer and stem cell transplant patients, with a focus on bacterial and fungal infections originating from the gut, autoimmune complications, and anti-tumor immune responses in the context of cancer immunotherapy. These research efforts are funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), industry, and foundations.
The lab’s recent work has focused on developing novel gut microbiome-derived therapeutics for enhancing cancer immunotherapy efficacy. These efforts have resulted in the filing of two patents, the acquisition of NIH and American Cancer Society funding, and the co-founding of a startup company, Aumenta Biosciences.
Dr. Koh serves on the NIH Interspecies Microbial Interactions and Infections study section and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Advisory Committee on Childhood Cancers.
Personal Note
When he’s not at work, Dr. Koh enjoys writing and recording music. His main instruments are vocals and guitar, but he also plays keyboards and bass guitar.
